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Sara Serpa performs this coming weekend in Boston with bassist Linda May Han Oh. Tickets here.

Malaysian Australian bassist and composer Linda May Han Oh shares her remarkable musicianship and distinctive voice with audiences. Celebrated for her pivotal role as both the inspiration for a character and a featured bassist in the Pixar movie Soul, Linda also earned a Grammy Award for her contributions to Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standards, Vol. 1 in 2023. The Financial Times lauded “her vibrant tone, close control, and confident attack,” underscoring her status as a highly sought-after talent in the music world.

Linda May Han Oh, acoustic bass, electric bass, vocals               
Fabian Almazan, piano                            
Sara Serpa, vocals
Greg Ward, saxophone
Eric Doob, drums

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Sammy Stein’s book, Fabulous Female Musicians, celebrates the talent and stories of 21 exceptional women across genres, from jazz to classical and beyond. I’m honored to be featured in this collection, highlighting artists who have overcome challenges and made a lasting impact. My interview is now published on Medium—you can read it here.

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Vocalist and composer Sara Serpa – celebrated for her groundbreaking project Encounters and Collisions, which is garnering widespread critical acclaim – performs at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem on Saturday, March 8, at 7:00 p.m., coinciding with International Women’s Day.

Supported by the prestigious Next Jazz Legacy program, this performance features Serpa’s inspiring mentorship with rising pianist Yvonne Rogers. They will be joined by acclaimed bassist Linda May Han Oh and dynamic drummer Ches Smith, promising an evening of innovative and powerful music.

Get Tickets here!

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Wishing you a Happy New Year! I took a much needed break during the last two weeks of 2024. I am now back in NYC and here are some brief but exciting news:

  • My comic book that accompanies my last album Encounters and Collisions is available for sale. Limited edition. Get it here.

  • I am singing with a co-lead project with pianist Yvonne Rogers, at the NYC Winter Jazz Festival on January 13th, 7:30pm, at Nublu. After my set, Marta Sanchez plays with her band. Tickets here.

  • I am singing with Linda May Han Oh’s The Glass Hours, in a double bill show with Michael Mayo, January 11th at The Jazz Gallery, 2 sets. Tickets here.
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Encounters and Collisions is a new work by Sara Serpa portraying episodes from her life since moving from Portugal to the US. It explores themes such as traveling, assimilation, identity, motherhood, loneliness and language and features Serpa’s long-time collaborators Ingrid Laubrock, Erik Friedlander and Angelica Sanchez.

“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.” – Sara Serpa 

Sara Serpa voice/composition
Ingrid Laubrock saxophones
Angelica Sanchez piano
Erik Friedlander cello
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LISTEN HERE

The voice of Sara Serpa possesses an innate intimacy, so subtle and graceful as to feel like a whispered
confession no matter the lyric, or whether there’s a lyric at all. Writing about Night Birds, Serpa’s 2023 duo album with her husband, guitarist André Matos, Nate Chinen said that the music, “feels like a peek inside a private conversation; the depth of their musical interplay, an extension of their personal bond, has the sense of something irreplaceable and precious.”

Despite that, Serpa has long avoided writing her own lyrics because, she says, “they’re so personal and
show so much about you.” With her breathtaking new album, Encounters and Collisions, she changes
course, embracing the art of intimate revelation with the most autobiographical music of her career. The
album, due out November 15, 2024 via Biophilia features Serpa’s longtime collaborators Ingrid
Laubrock on saxophone and Erik Friedlander on cello, joined by pianist Angelica Sanchez.


The themes that Serpa explores as the story of Encounters and Collisions unfolds will undoubtedly
resonate with many of her listeners – compelling tales of migration, home, family, motherhood, loss and
art. Not only does the singer reveal her experiences and emotions through her poetic, impressionistic
lyrics, but she relates her personal history explicitly through an accompanying set of short narrations, as well as a book of hand drawn comic strip-style illustrations that will be available for purchase in person or via the Biophilia website.

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Today you will be able to listen to the first single of my upcoming album Encounters and Collisions (Biophilia Records). Entitled Labor, it’s about (my) child birth and all the intensity, chaos, fear and magic it entangles.

Listen to new single here

First review here:

“I remain fascinated as I listen to this work, especially knowing that writing about one’s own story is incredibly delicate and difficult. I appreciate every nuance of this work and its particularly courageous approach. For all these reasons, this album has earned a place among our “Essential Albums.” And I will let Sara conclude: “The most humbling thing is to discover that, suddenly, it’s no longer about me,” she says. “It’s about all of us, and how we humans share so many experiences.”

Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News