By Carmen Rioja
The Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider tour is coming as part of the Dreamers Project at the Chamber Music Festival in San Miguel. Mexican jazz singer, Magos Herrera, and the multi-faceted string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, merge talents in a musical journey. They will be reinterpreting classics from Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain. They will also be celebrating some literary luminaries such as Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, Rubén Darío and more recent singer-songwriters such as Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso.
The Brooklyn Rider quartet is made up of Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen on violins, Nicholas Cords on viola, and Michael Nicolas on cello. Accomplished vocalist, Magos Herrera has toured stages around the world including Lincoln Center in NYC, Kennedy Center in DC, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Union Chapel in London, Duc des Lombardes in Paris, Kamani Auditorium in Delhi, Palau de la Música in Valencia. He has appeared in the artistic programs of the most important international jazz festivals such as Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival Internacional Cervantino, to name a few. He has received major awards, including the International Grammy shortlist nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album for his 2009 production, Distancia.
Magos Herrera is a dazzling Mexican singer, currently residing in New York. She is a composer, producer, and educator in the field of jazz. Considered one of the greatest contemporary singers according to the Latin Jazz network, Magos is one of the most active vocalists in the Latin American contemporary jazz scene. She is widely known for her eloquent vocal improvisational ability. Her bold, unique style is characterized by a particular way of blending contemporary jazz with Latin American melodies and rhythms, and her ancient Iberian heritage.
In 2018 Magos released her album Dreamers (Sony Music) in collaboration with Brooklyn Rider. «Dreamers is not only a work of art that features musicians of the highest caliber to achieve music with a purpose, but it is also a labor of love,» stated an article in Sounds and Colors regarding this critically acclaimed recording. It was included in the lists of the best music of 2018 in the New York Times, Billboard classical, NPR Music, NPR Alt Latino, PRI The world, among others. It has been nominated for the International Grammys for Best Arrangement with the song «Niña.» Featuring collaborations with Spanish producer, Javier Limón, this album includes themes from the Ibero-American repertoire reimagined by an extraordinary group of arrangers including Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Colin Jacobsen.
In addition, Magos is the first female vocalist to receive the Master of Latin Music Award from the Berkley College of Music. She is a great promoter of causes to favor women, is a spokesperson for UN Women, and has been active in the UNITE campaigns to end violence against women and “He for She,” to promote gender equality. She is currently an artistic advisor for the avant-garde cultural venue «National Sawdust» in Brooklyn, and is a regular contributor to radio and television programs in Mexico. From New York, she produces and hosts a weekly program for the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio on Horizonte Jazz. 107.9FM.
Since its launch, this project has been presented in the best venues in the US with full houses, including Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
LINKS: Niña https://youtu.be/pSMdOCly_6c Undiu
