JENNY SCHEINMAN

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Photo: by Alan Nahigian INTERVIEW Claudia Acuña moved to New York City from Santiago, Chile in 1995. She’d been working as a singer with some success in her home country, but American jazz is what captured her imagination. She worked her way up through the New York club scene during the late ‘90s, impressing many influential personalities in the jazz world with her compelling voice and rhythmic acuity. Her first record deal came from Verve in 1999 and other companies and producers soon followed - MAXJAZZ, ZoHo Music and Marsalis Music. Acuña spoke with The New York City Jazz Record about how she turned her career visions into reality. The New York City Jazz Record: What were your early days as an unknown jazz singer in New York like, newly arrived from a foreign country? Claudia Acuña: My first years here, I didn’t know at the time much English. I couldn’t afford to go to school and I didn’t know how to apply for scholarships. So I started going a lot to places like Smalls, where I met [pianist] Harry Whitaker, an amazing musician and composer. We used to get together almost every day at Smalls and we’d just do repertoire or arrangements. He was the first one to encourage me to arrange and write. TNYCJR: Who were your other teachers and mentors? CA: I participated in the workshops of Barry Harris and one of the first drummers I worked with, Jeff Ballard, used to teach me. Then I worked with people like Jason Lindner, who became a very strong collaborator. We co-wrote songs and worked consistently for almost 12 to 13 years. I also had the fortune [to meet] people with so much history, like Frank Hewitt, Jimmy Lovelace and Stanley Turrentine. And also to work with [bassist] Avishai Cohen and Avi Leibowitz and Pablo Ziegler - it just doesn’t stop. It’s a beautiful journey of having the honor and blessings and working with people who have been very patient and generous. TNYCJR: And the singers? CA: I had the amazing blessing to meet one of my idols, which was Abbey Lincoln. She really opened her world to me. She had a lot of stories and experiences and just thoughts. Just to be in her presence was a master class. A few of [these singers] I have been very blessed to get to know and call them even friends, like Dianne Reeves, someone who is an amazing singer and also a mentor. We became friends and [she is] someone where I can pick up the phone and ask a question. TNYCJR: Your music contains many different elements. Do you draw more on your Chilean musical sensibilities or on your American influences? CA: I feel both. To be honest, if I’d never moved to this 6 March 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD Claudia Acuña by Suzanne Lorge country, I would never have had the opportunity to meet the people who were my teachers, who inspired me and motivated me to work harder to become the artist or singer or songwriter that I’m dreaming to become. I would not ever have been influenced or learn about so many [different types of] music. I consider myself a New Yorker and I do also consider myself an ambassador from my country. Because ever since I moved from Chile I promised to myself and I think that’s why I’ve always made an effort, from my first album, to have even one song in Spanish. [With these songs] I’ve paid tribute to people like Violetta Parra, who was a great inspiration and one of the greatest singer-songwriters from Chile, along with Víctor Jara and others. Even though I’ve been here for 17 years, my roots are from Chile. TNYCJR: Parra and Jara were part of the politicallyinfluential La Nueva Canción Chilena [New Chilean Song] movement. Do you identify with them personally as an artist or is your interest more broadly cultural? CA: Violetta Parra was the first musician, female singer, that I heard in my life, in my consciousness. I was very intrigued and she had a very strong impact on my life as a child. At the time I was too little to understand what exactly the words and what the movement was, in a country that was taken by a dictator. I was a little baby and had no knowledge or understanding about what was going on in my country. For some reason I was very attracted to people like her and like Víctor Jara. Along the way, when I left my country and came here to do what I was doing, I decided that I was going to tribute the first couple of singers who influenced my life. As I grew up, I could sympathize with a lot of the words that they express and a lot of them touch a deep part of how I think or feel about life and about my country. TNYCJR: How did you start working with Verve? CA: It was kind of an accident. I was so driven - I’d go to the Vanguard and from one jam session to another. …I started singing and doing things with different bands, doing my little gigs and getting little reviews here and there and the word started to spread out. Someone said you should try to get a record deal, but it didn’t even occur to me that there was even a possibility, because I was very discouraged at the beginning. At the time Sweet Basil was open...and the [A&R] person who signed me came to see me at the club. It was an amazing experience to go into the studio with that kind of support, with the history of that label and being a Spanish-speaking, South American person, making the dream come true and going a little further than maybe I could have imagined. TNYCJR: On your first two recordings, for Verve, you perform mostly standards, but when you moved to MAXJAZZ in 2003 you recorded almost all Latin jazz in Spanish. What was behind the shift? CA: I’ve always tried to be respectful of where I am musically. I felt because that’s the beauty of the recording, the possibility of documenting a moment in your life as much as you can. At the time on the first two records I was singing a lot of standards and I loved them. I felt that the idea of what I wanted to accomplish later was to get back to my roots, to the emotion of that repertoire and with the concept that, yes, I am a Chilean singer. So by the time I signed with MAXJAZZ I was stronger and ready to present [myself like this]. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 46) JERRY GRANELLI TRIO Briggan Krauss (sax) / J. Granelli (bass) SPECIAL GUEST: JAY CLAYTON SUNDAY, MARCH 10TH 8PM (ONE SET ONLY) SHAPESHIFTER LAB 18 Whitwell Place Brooklyn (bet. 1st and Carroll)
© Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos ARTIST FEATURE Last month, pipa player Min Xiao-Fen was at Flushing Town Hall in Queens, playing a matinee concert with the Momenta Quartet in a program that included her own compositions as well as a piece by the celebrated Chinese composer Tan Dun, one of the first contemporary composers she worked with after moving to San Francisco 13 years ago. Playing Tan’s concerto for pipa and string quartet she fell in with the staccato of the string quartet and played so fast sometimes that her plectra against the pipa strings sounded like the scratching of a bow pulled lightly over violin strings. On her solo piece “ABC (American Born Chinese)”, she played with a slide, coaxing ‘blue’ notes and half- and quarter-tone wavers from her instrument. She further explored those bent tones in her “Tan Tan, Chang Chang”, a piece that borrowed from Southeast Chinese traditions as well as American blues and bluegrass, played on the banjo-like sanxian. A week later - on Chinese New Year - she played solo for the Jazz Vespers Sunday evening service at Saint Peter’s Church. Opening the service with a sort of improvised meditation, she steadily ramped up to a level that may have surprised some for a house of worship. The corners of her mouth betrayed a smile as she ululated in an improvised lingo inspired by her native tongue. After the service she played again, this time with her Blue Pipa Trio, a jazzier setting with acoustic guitar and upright bass. While the sources Xiao-Fen drew from in those two appearances ranged from Chinese folk and classical music to jazz, blues and bluegrass and the lessons she’s learned collaborating with free improvisers around the world, what’s notable about her artistry isn’t the diversity but the fluidity with which she moves between different streams. It’s the music of a virtuosic performer certainly, but it also may be the product of a restless spirit. Even as a child in a family of musicians – a pipa master father, a sister who is a celebrated erhu player and an orchestra conductor brother – her interests were often diverted. “I played erhu, then finger-painted,” she said. “Somehow I’m not the kind of person - like my father, like my sister - that can focus on one thing. But society, family, only want you to do one thing. I’m not the kind of person who wants to stay on one thing.” As a child, she interspersed music lessons with her father - who was forbidden from teaching under Chairman Mao’s rule - with art lessons (she still paints and designs her album covers), but as a teenager dedicated herself to the instrument her father played. “My father was my teacher,” she said. “I remember I was kind of a little bit afraid of him. And I had a very famous sister so my father had very high expectations. I studied six years with him, strict traditional music. I was pretty lucky because just as I graduated from high school the Cultural Revolution was about to end but the colleges were not ready; they were closed and my father focused on me. ” Under her father’s tutelage she found a talent for Min Xiao-Fen by Kurt Gottschalk the Chinese lute and when musical ensembles finally awoke from their state-imposed dormancy, Xiao-Fen was quickly able to find work with the Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra. She stayed with the orchestra for a decade before again growing restless and relocating to San Francisco, where she was soon working with some of the great innovators of contemporary Chinese composition, including Tan Dun, Zhou Long and Chen Yi. She began touring the country playing their music and found herself playing solo in Chicago on a program with a composition by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. After the concert he approached her and said he wanted to write a piece for her. That piece, “Lake Biwa”, was featured on the first recording she made after moving to America. She also began playing with him, learning improvisation and cementing one of her closest musical relationships. “His music is like ‘take time, follow your feelings,’” she said. “I had to tell him I don’t improvise, I don’t know how to improvise. And his score was graphic, it was hard for me. I was already scared and then he looked at me and said ‘improvise’ and I was, like, sinking into a hole. I was so sweaty, my hand just stopped. I never had that experience before. We were trained that you can’t make mistakes.” “I didn’t like improvisation,” she added. “It took me like 10 years before I started to like it, started to feel comfortable.” A similar meeting after moving to New York City in 1996 led to two other formative relationships. After a concert at the old Knitting Factory she was approached by John Zorn, who had an idea for a record. “He said, ‘Do you know Derek Bailey?’” she remembered, “And I said ‘I don’t do it, I don’t improvise.’ He gave me CDs and said, ‘I’ll give you one week.’ I told myself, ‘I have to take a chance, otherwise I’ll never change.’” She went to the studio without ever having met the guitarist and while the resulting Viper isn’t the record she’s proudest of (her second session with Bailey, Flying Dragons, is stronger), she said she has a fondness for it. “I can feel it, my innocence. I was a little bit careful and just followed him. It was a very innocent experience.” Last year she released her boldest album yet. Dim Sum, on her own Blue Pipa imprint, employs such devices as string preparations and a distortion box for her most experimental effort to date (made possible by a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation). “I went to China this year and showed my father my new CD. He listened to the whole thing and he said, “This is very interesting.” He was so happy. I dedicated it to him and he said it’s a little strange for him but at least he listened to the whole thing. I told him, ‘This is myself, I came to America, I found myself. I was always so nervous in China. You have to be perfect. “Little by little I feel more comfortable and more competent and little by little I feel so happy to be onstage,” she added. “A door totally opened for me. This is what’s so great about being in New York and being in America. You can always do what you want.” v For more information, visit bluepipa.org. Xiao-Fen is at Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch Mar. 3rd, Avery Fisher Hall Mar. 16th and Museum of Chinese in America Mar. 22nd. See Calendar. Recommended Listening: • John Zorn - Filmworks VIII (Tzadik, 1997) • Derek Bailey/Min Xiao-Fen - Flying Dragons (Incus, 1999) • Ned Rothenberg - Ghost Stories (Tzadik, 1999-2000) • Leroy Jenkins - The Art Of Improvisation (Mutable, 2004) • Wadada Leo Smith Mbira - Dark Lady of the Sonnets (TUM, 2007) • Min Xiao-Fen - Dim Sum (Blue Pipa, 2012) JSnycjr0313 2/14/13 3:18 PM Page 1 “Best Jazz Venue of the Year” NYC JAZZ RECORD★“Best Jazz Club” NY MAGAZINE+CITYSEARCH FRI-SUN MAR 1-3 3 RAVI COLTRANE: QUARTETS FRI MAR 1 WITH JASON PALMER - CHRISTIAN McBRIDE - BILL STEWART SAT-SUN MAR 2-3 WITH DAVID VIRELLES - DEZRON DOUGLAS - JOHNATHAN BLAKE TUE-WED MAR 5-6 KILLER RAY APPLETON’S BRIAN LYNCH - IAN HENDRICKSON-SMITH - TODD HERBERT - PETER BERNSTEIN RICK GERMANSON - ROBERT SABIN - LITTLE JOHNNY RIVERO THU-SUN MAR 7-10 & ANTONIO SANCHEZ DAVID BINNEY - DONNY McCASLIN - JOHN ESCREET - ORLANDO LE FLEMING - THANA ALEX TUE MAR 12 AFROHORN: ROMAN DIAZ - FRANCISCO MORA–CATLETT WED MAR 13 CLARENCE PENN QUARTET SAM NEWSOME - ABRAHAM BURTON - ARUAN ORTIZ - RUFUS REID CHRIS POTTER - ADAM ROGERS - BEN STREET THU-SUN MAR 14-17 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE AVISHAI COHEN - MIGUEL ZENÓN - DAVID SANCHEZ - ROBIN EUBANKS STEFON HARRIS - EDWARD SIMON - MATT PENMAN - OBED CALVAIRE TUE MAR 19 JOHNATHAN BLAKE JALEEL SHAW - MARK TURNER - BEN STREET WED MAR 20 THE 3RD INCARNATION CAMILA MEZA QUARTET FEATURING AARON GOLDBERG THU-SUN MAR 21-24 SOLO ROOTS & 3/21-22 TRIO HENRY BUTLER: BEYOND 3/23-24 TUE-WED MAR 26-27 MINGUS BIG BAND MIGRATION ELEVENTH HOUR BAND KENDRICK SCOTT: ORACLE JOHN ELLIS - MIKE MORENO - TAYLOR EIGSTI - JOE SANDERS THU-SUN MAR 28-31 DAVE DOUGLAS QUINTET JON IRABAGON - MATT MITCHELL - LINDA OH - RUDY ROYSTON MON MAR 4, 11 & 25 MON MAR 18 NAPTOWN LEGACY ALL-STARS 50TH B’DAY WEEK THE MUSIC OF CHICK COREA MINGUS ORCHESTRA JAZZFORKIDSWITHTHEJAZZSTANDARDYOUTHORCHESTRAEVERYSUNDAYAT2PM [EXCEPT MAR 3 & 31] -DIRECTEDBYDAVIDO’ROURKE THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | March 2013 7
Page 1 and 2: March 2013 | No. 131 CLAUDIA ACUÑA
Page 3 and 4: 4 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 38 45 47 New Yo
Page 5: Tom Greenland, Midnight Son Music H
Page 10 and 11: ENCORE Valerie Capers by Brad Farbe
Page 12 and 13: LABEL SPOTLIGHT Libra Records by Ke
Page 14 and 15: CD REVIEWS Capricorn Climber Kris D
Page 16 and 17: GLOBE UNITY: NORWAY Memnon: Sound P
Page 18: New Blues Aki Takase (Enja/Yellowbi
Page 21 and 22: Play the music of Benny Carter Coun
Page 23 and 24: Music is Emotion Ryan Keberle and C
Page 25 and 26: The Exterminating Angel Kirk Knuffk
Page 27 and 28: Sojourner Truth (1797?-1883) led a
Page 29 and 30: It would be hard to overstate the e
Page 31 and 32: Ellington Saxophone Encounters Mark
Page 33 and 34: The Sirens Chris Potter (ECM) by Je
Page 35 and 36: Numerology (Live at Jazz Standard)
Page 38 and 39: CALENDAR Friday, March 1 êPreserva
Page 40 and 41: Friday, March 8 êPaquito D’River
Page 42 and 43: Tuesday, March 19 êJoseph Bowie’
Page 44 and 45: Thursday, March 28 êClaire Daly’
Page 46 and 47: (INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6) T
Page 48: presents John Williams, Guitar John

JENNY SCHEINMAN

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