By Chris Barton | Published August 2020
Jazz vocals are, at their most basic level, a blend of music and poetry. With the arrangements on just her second album, Vida Profunda, pianist Carolina Calvache explores that truth to lovely effect, inspired by the words from a weighty roster of poets.
The title track, based on a work by Colombian poet Porfirio Barba-Jacob, features a yearning performance by Marta Gomez against a backdrop of soaring strings and Calvache’s piano. The poem speaks to the vulnerability of mankind, and that sentiment rings through its deliberate pacing. The track gives way to “Pájaro Yo,” which features Sofia Ribeiro interpreting the words of Pablo Neruda against delicately drawn runs by flutist Hadar Noiberg. Amid a delicate churn of strings, “El Rastro” finds vocalist Sara Serpa elegantly gliding through lyrics drawn from Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, and provides wordless counterweight to the flourishes of “Hope.” In these pieces, the literary-minded Calvache proves to have stories of her own to share as well.
Vida Profunda: Vida Profunda; Pájaro Yo; Te Conocí De Nuevo; Sin Un Despido; Hope; Childhood Retreat; Stella; El Rastro; No Te Vi Crecer; Let Me Come With You. (42:14)
Personnel: Carolina Calvache, piano; Johnathan Blake, drums; Keita Ogawa, drums, percussion; Samuel Torres, percussion; Petros Klampanis, Peter Slavov, Ricky Rodriguez, bass; Tomoko Omura, Adda Kridler, Annaliesa Place, Leonor Falcon, Ben Russell, violin; Jocelin Pan, Allysin Clare, viola; Diego Garcia, Brian Sanders, cello; Hadar Noiberg, flute; Katie Scheele, oboe; Achilles Liarmakopoulos, trombone; Paul Won Jin Cho, bass clarinet; Grégoire Maret, harmonica; Michael Rodriguez, trumpet; Marta Gomez, Sofia Ribeiro, Rubén Blades, Claudia Acuña, Sara Serpa, Aubrey Johnson, Haydee Milanes, Lara Bello, Luba Mason, vocals.
