You can’t put a container around the work that creative vocalists are doing under the loose banner of jazz today. Though a soft barrier has always existed between improvising instrumentalists and vocalists, Winter Jazzfest has served for years as a reminder that some of the boldest new work has to do with singing, storytelling and manipulations of the human voice.
(…) Next door, at the Zurcher Gallery, the Portuguese singer Sara Serpa sang her signature — wordless vocals, perfectly pitched — over a gossamer synth played by Dov Manski; it all blended almost too well with the pastel abstraction of a huge painting that hung behind her. (The gallery was a new addition to the festival this year, and a good one; its mix of coziness and visual life was a welcome change from the bustle of most other spots.)
Sara Serpa trio featuring Ingrid Laubrock and Demian Cabaud is back to Europe for a couple of concerts before the end of the year, with the generous support of Arte Institute.
December 12th – Masterclass for vocalists at MU74 – 10h -16h
MU74 is located at:
Via Enrico Noe, 2 • 20133 – Milano Mobile – +39 344 0570285 Office – +39 02 47707947
( to sign up for masterclass, please email hello@mu74label.com)
December 12th – Concert with trio at MU74 – 20h30
December 14th – Concert with trio at AMR – Genève – 21h30
December 15th – Masterclass with trio at AMR – Genève – 11h- 17h
Sara Serpa was featured in Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios, in a long interview with journalist Lúcia Crespo for the Weekend magazine. To read more click here.
This month I am presenting the piece I created in collaboration with writer Emmanuel Iduma, at Princeton University and at my studio, Company I, Park Avenue Armory, New York. Both are free – so why not stop by? Click here to watch our invitation. Scroll down to know more about the DETAILS.
Intimate Strangers, which premiered in 2018 as a John Zorn Commission at National Sawdust, is an interdisciplinary musical performance that portrays writer Emmanuel Iduma’s travels in several African countries.
Taking Nigeria as a point of departure, it describes several encounters the writer has along his journey from Lagos to Sarajevo along the coast. The journey takes unexpected turns, resulting in reflections on the sea, the desert as well as natural and artificial borders he is faced with. There is beauty in these encounters, even when they describe love and loss, grief and longing, displacement and war, privilege or apathy.
While Emmanuel represents himself, Sara Serpa along with the voices of Sofía Rei and Aubrey Johnson are simultaneously narrators, storytellers and spirits that travel along, opening several emotional doors through the piece. With music composed by Serpa, it features also Qasim Naqvi on modular synth and pianist Matt Mitchell.
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.
___________________ DETAILS: Friday, November 8thJazz at Princeton University in collaboration with the Program in African Studies 12pm – Workshop with writer Emmanuel IdumaCreating with/around Music & Literature Lee Rehearsal Room, Lewis Arts Complex
7.30pm – Intimate Strangers with Sofía Rei, Aubrey Johnson, Matt Mitchell, Qasim Naqvi and Emmanuel Iduma Tapin Auditorium, Fine Hall , Princeton University
Sunday, November 24th, 6pm Intimate Strangers with Tomas Cruz, Aubrey Johnson, Matt Mitchell, Judith Berkson and Emmanuel Iduma Company I – Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory RSVP to jwasilewski@armoryonpark.org
Sara Serpa is touring with her trio, with the amazing Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones) and Erik Friedlander (cello) in Portugal. This tour is possible thanks to the generous support of Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
October 16th – Festival BragançaJazz October 17th – Masterclass at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa October 18th – Villa Roma (Sintra) October 19th – Centro Cultural de Belém
Chamber Music America (CMA), the national network for ensemble music professionals, announced the distribution of $855,570 through its four grant programs: New Jazz Works and Presenter Consortium for Jazz, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the Classical Commissioning Program, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the Residency Partnership Program, funded by Chamber Music America’s Residency Endowment Fund.
Sara Serpa Trio, with Ingrid Laubrock, Erik Friedlander and Angelica Sanchez is among the 2019 grantees.
This funding will provide key support for the creation, performance, and presentation of small ensemble works, and for community engagement and audience-building initiatives.
Sara Serpa was awarded with a New Music USA Grant to record her project Recognition, an interdisciplinary project, in which music and image highlighted with texts by revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, invite the viewer/ listener to reflect on history in a non-literal way.
Serpa produced Recognition using Super 8 footage filmed by my grandfather, in Angola and Portugal in the 60’s, by then a fascist and colonizer regime. She also composed the music for the film and invited the amazing Zeena Parkins (harp), Mark Turner (tenor sax) and David Virelles(piano) to perform it.
Sara Serpa has been voted as Rising Star Female Vocalist by the prestigious jazz magazine, Downbeat’s International Critics Poll.
Every year Downbeat Magazine publishes its Critics Poll and Readers Poll. This is the 67th Critics Poll and among other winners are singer-songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Sullivan Fortner. The printed edition of this Poll will be published in August with a featured article by Suzanne Lorge.
