Tuesday, February 15, 2005
To Luciana Souza and Edward Simon at the Albright Knox Microsoft Art of Jazz series Sunday, an excellent performance by two serious artists. Souza has a sweet voice which negotiated the complexities of Brazilian rhythm smoothly, without a hint of how difficult what she was doing really was; Simon was deft and witty. I don't have the grasp of Brazilian or Latin jazz that I should, but it is always a pleasure to spend some time with it, particularly live.
Souza draws comparisons to Claudia Acuna, who was poised to be the next big thing, but seems to have cooled off a bit; if I were more knowlegible about these things I could draw comparisons between Brazil and Acuna's Chile, and the stylistic differences that the Brazilian and Latin tradition bring to the interpretation of jazz standards. Or maybe not-- maybe it is not accurate to attribute these differences to culture; I think instead that they are stylistic choices made by each artist from the pallet that is available to each. Comparison between the two is worthwhile for the purposes of illustration, however: Acuna came to town with a big band, which suited her bold approach. Souza was more cerebral. Her latest project is a set of poems by Pablo Neruda set to music she composed-- Neruda was a sensualist, of course, but the undertaking is a demonstration of the intellectualism which she brings to her music. This sort of intellectualism seems characteristic of her approach-- she has put poems by Elizabeth Bishop to music also, and performed a composition that consisted of the first couple of lines of famous poems strung together. Not exactly the sort of thing I think of when I think of jazz-- but it was certainly jazz. Her performance was warm, and utterly charming. I would love to see her working with a guitarist-- something she does regularly; and I would be very interested in seeing Simon work in a trio setting. Interestingly, both Acuna and Souza took on "My Romance", a song I love, but not one that I hear all that often. I'm sure it is fun to sing, and perhaps there is something in it that draws musicians of a certain type, the way "Autumn Leaves" does. Souza's was more introspective, I'd say, or maybe flirtatious, while Acuna belted it out with exuberance.
Souza played two sets, about evenly divided between Brazilian numbers, the Neruda songs and more conventional jazz standards. It was a good mix, and they obviously were enjoying themselves
Souza draws comparisons to Claudia Acuna, who was poised to be the next big thing, but seems to have cooled off a bit; if I were more knowlegible about these things I could draw comparisons between Brazil and Acuna's Chile, and the stylistic differences that the Brazilian and Latin tradition bring to the interpretation of jazz standards. Or maybe not-- maybe it is not accurate to attribute these differences to culture; I think instead that they are stylistic choices made by each artist from the pallet that is available to each. Comparison between the two is worthwhile for the purposes of illustration, however: Acuna came to town with a big band, which suited her bold approach. Souza was more cerebral. Her latest project is a set of poems by Pablo Neruda set to music she composed-- Neruda was a sensualist, of course, but the undertaking is a demonstration of the intellectualism which she brings to her music. This sort of intellectualism seems characteristic of her approach-- she has put poems by Elizabeth Bishop to music also, and performed a composition that consisted of the first couple of lines of famous poems strung together. Not exactly the sort of thing I think of when I think of jazz-- but it was certainly jazz. Her performance was warm, and utterly charming. I would love to see her working with a guitarist-- something she does regularly; and I would be very interested in seeing Simon work in a trio setting. Interestingly, both Acuna and Souza took on "My Romance", a song I love, but not one that I hear all that often. I'm sure it is fun to sing, and perhaps there is something in it that draws musicians of a certain type, the way "Autumn Leaves" does. Souza's was more introspective, I'd say, or maybe flirtatious, while Acuna belted it out with exuberance.
Souza played two sets, about evenly divided between Brazilian numbers, the Neruda songs and more conventional jazz standards. It was a good mix, and they obviously were enjoying themselves
// posted by Bill @ 2:18 PM 
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