Dear friends,

After so many months of preparation, Night Birds, my new album with André Matos will be released this coming Friday, September 29, by the Lisbon-based label Robalo Music. To celebrate this release we have several concerts in the East Coast and would love to see you there!

We kick off this mini-tour tomorrow, Thursday September 28 in New York at Joe’s Pub and on Saturday, September 30 at Regatta Bar in Boston. Get your tickets!

André Matos and I have spent the last months working tirelessly to make this tour happen (it is our first tour in the US, believe it or not!) and this could not have been possible without the support Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts (which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.)

::::::Get your tickets, bring your friends!

Sept. 28 Joe’s Pub, NYC- click to reserve your seat

Sept. 30 Regatta Bar, Boston – click to reserve your seat

Oct. 10 Fire Museum Philadelphia, PA*- click to reserve your seat

Oct. 11 Georgetown Day School Washington, DC* – click to reserve your seat

Oct. 12 An Die Musik Baltimore, MD* – click to reserve your seat

Oct. 13 Firehouse 12 New Haven, CT* – click to reserve your seat

Oct. 14Rough Draft Bar & Books, Kingston, NY* 

I am happy to announce the release of the second single, “Degrowth” in all platforms (listen here), and the Bandcamp pre-order of our new album, Sara Serpa & André Matos Night Birds! (pre-order here)

Much of this music reveals reflections on what family means for us, as immigrants and as New Yorkers, how parenting has changed our lives and how horrified we are about the overconsumption of resources and the destruction of the natural world. How do we nurture this precious and fragile microcosmos of watching a child grow while we witness our planet’s destruction? What will be left for him?

Available September 29, 2023 on Robalo Music, Night Birds establishes Serpa and Matos’ gifts as a creative and an expansive duo in a program of contrasting beauty and darkness, with mesmerizing and textural pieces featuring Dov Manski, Sofia Jernberg, Okkyung Lee and João Pereira.

A collection of original compositions, improvisations and a Bartok bagatelle, the dozen tracks on Night Birds reflect on the fast-paced societies of the modern world, questioning the consumption and exploitation of natural ecosystems.

:::
Sara Serpa-  voice
Sofia Jernberg – voice
André Matos – electric guitar
Okkyung Lee – cello
Dov Manski – piano/ synth
 

Recorded by Nolan Thies at The Bunker Studio
Mixed by Pete Rende
Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering
Produced by Sara Serpa & André Matos with the generous support of Fundação GDA, Portugal
::: LISTEN HERE
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

I am happy to announce the release of the first single, “Carlos” in all platforms, and the Bandcamp pre-order of our new album, Sara Serpa & André Matos Night Birds!

Available September 29, 2023 on Robalo Music, Night Birds establishes Serpa and Matos’ gifts as a creative and an expansive duo in a program of contrasting beauty and darkness, with mesmerizing and textural pieces featuring Dov Manski, Sofia Jernberg, Okkyung Lee and João Pereira.

A collection of original compositions, improvisations and a Bartok bagatelle, the dozen tracks on Night Birds reflect on the fast-paced societies of the modern world, questioning the consumption and exploitation of natural ecosystems.

:::
Sara Serpa-  voice
André Matos – electric guitar
Dov Manski – piano/ synth
João Pereira – drums

Recorded by Nolan Thies at The Bunker Studio
Mixed by Pete Rende
Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering
Produced by Sara Serpa & André Matos with the generous support of Fundação GDA, Portugal
::: 

LISTEN HERE
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Sara Serpa will sing with bassist/composer Linda May Han Oh, performing the music of her new album The Glass Hours in Europe in July:

July 7th- North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam

July 8th – Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, Poland

July 10th – Albinea Jazz Festival, Italy

Sara Serpa will sing with Erik Friedlander’s new project Floating City and the Chicago Jazz String Summit, curated by Tomeka Reird, on May 12, at Constellation at 8pm. Tickets here.

Serpa will also perform with her trio with Ingrid Laubrock and Erik Friedlander at The Jewish Museum in New York on Thursday, May 18th, 7.30pm.

Purchase your tickets here.

Next week, 2 special concerts in NYC!

Encounters and Collisions

Thursday, April 6th, 8pm at Seeds, Brooklyn

Friday, April 7th, 7pm, National Jazz Museum in Harlem

Sara Serpa presents her new work “Encounters and Collisions”, a commission by Chamber Music America, drawing inspiration from her own migration experience in the US, exploring themes such as traveling, assimilation, identity, motherhood, loneliness and language. This new work features Serpa’s long-time collaborators Ingrid Laubrock, Erik Friedlander and Angelica Sanchez.

Encounters and Collisions portrays episodes from my life since moving from Portugal to the US. I think so many times about how we deal with change and loss. From moving to another country, to giving birth or grieving a loved one, my different reactions have often surprised me. And yet, life is change in itself. Sometimes drastic, most of the times subtle, we all go and move through constant change. We lose ourselves, countries, landscapes and cities, loved ones, thoughts and emotions. I wrote this music for someone else’s story only to realize I was writing my own story.

There are many great musical events happening in NYC next week and I am really happy for the opportunity of performing with 3 different groups, all shows at The City Winery, as part of the Winter Jazz Festival 2023.

It will be the first in-person Winter Jazz Festival since the pandemic and it can be quite intense (the marathons have concerts from 6pm-3am!) but it is a great opportunity to start the year and hear amazing music from all over the US and world.  

 Come and say “hi”- I would love if you could make it!

Thursday, Jan. 12, 8.30pm
The New Standards
(curated by Terri Lyne Carrington)
feat. Devon Gates, Michael Mayo, Julius Rodriguez,
Rashaan Carter, Tcheser Holmes

Curated by NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington and featuring an exciting assemblage of musicians, this debut performance will celebrate the recent publication of New Standards, a songbook featuring lead sheets by 101 women composers, the first of its kind.

TICKETS HERE

Friday, Jan 13, 8.30pm
Intimate Strangers
w/ Erin Pettigrew, Aubrey Johnson, Yoon Sun Choi,
Matt Mitchell, Qasim Naqvi
(Biophilia Records Showcase)

A collaboration with Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, drawing inspiration from Iduma’s book, A Stranger’s Pose, exploring explores such themes as of movement, home, grief, absence and desire in what Iduma calls “an atlas of a borderless world”. Like echoes from a distant reality, Intimate Strangers aims to reflect on how we see the other and how we describe hospitality and humanity for future generations. 

GET YOUR TICKETS
(w/ 15% discount by using the code “ JAZZ15 ”)

Friday, Jan 13, 11.30pm
Linda May Han Oh – The Glass Hours
w/ Linda May Han Oh, Sara Serpa, Greg Ward,
Matt Mitchell and Obed Calvaire 
(Biophilia Records Showcase)

The Glass Hours is a Chamber Music America commission Linda May Han Oh wrote reflecting on what we choose to do in the limited time that we have on this earth. We recorded last year in June and the album is coming out this Spring!

GET YOUR TICKETS
(w/ 15% discount by using the code “ JAZZ15 ”)

In May 2019 I was really fortunate to enter the Park Avenue Armory as an Artist-In-Residence. I am forever grateful to Jason Moran, who opened this door for me, which was crucial for my artistic development. I was still mourning the loss of my father at that time and suddenly I received this gift: a studio, just for me, to work and practice, for one year. I didn’t fully grasp the importance of this until I entered that space. A beautiful and big room, with windows to Park Avenue, with a big table and a piano. Everyone was so nice and welcoming at Park Ave Armory – it was a huge contrast with what I had been used to until then.

Photo here.

I spent countless hours there, my refuge in Manhattan, enjoying the silence that the epic space at the Armory provides. I created and developed many works there. I realized how much musicians need a space of their own, beyond their houses, that can be left untidy and disorganized, so that you can return to the next day and continue the work left undone.

Well, my time at the Armory is coming to an end, and of course, I am sad. But it is time for other artists to move in, enjoy and take advantage of that space, as I did. To celebrate and express my gratitude towards the Park Ave Armory and everyone who works there, I am presenting a farewell concert on November 20th in my studio. Space is limited to 30 people. You can sign up for it here. It’s free! I have invited some amazing musicians with whom I am preparing collaborative work:

Sunday November 20th, 6pm

Park Avenue Armory- Company I

1st set:
Sara Serpa-voice
Matt Mitchell-piano

2nd set:
Sara Serpa- voice
André Matos- guitar
Dov Manski- piano and synth

Sign up here