On her previous six albums, dating back to 2001, and in all of
her performances, esteemed Bay Area vocalist Jackie Ryan has often featured Spanish-language
songs in memory of her Mexican-born mother Soledad Garcia. Jackie's new cd, "Recuerdos de
mi Madre," is inspired by and dedicated to Soledad and includes
many of the songs Jackie spent her childhood soaking up: "Siboney,"
"El Dia Que Me Quieras," "Perfidia," "Maria
Elena," "Noche de Ronda";
pianist/trumpeter Marco Diaz handled
arrangements, and Cuban jazz legend Paquito D'Rivera guests on
three tracks.
RICHMOND, Calif., Aug. 11,
2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Having established her
mastery of the Great American Songbook, San Francisco Bay Area vocalist Jackie Ryan sets her sights on the Latin
American Songbook with "Recuerdos de mi Madre," set for an
October 7 release on the OpenArt
Productions label. The album's ten tracks are all Spanish-language
standards—the backbone of Latin American popular music—performed
with a core band that includes pianist/trumpeter Marco Diaz, bassist Saúl Sierra, and
percussionists Carlos Caro and
Louie Romero. It also features a
number of special guests, foremost among them the legendary Cuban
clarinetist/saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera.
The youngest child of a Mexican-born mother and Irish-American
father, Ryan recalls Latin music as the first she heard, and has
always included at least one Latin song on each of her albums as a
marker of that heritage. "Something happens to me when I sing in
Spanish," Ryan says. "Latino people don't mind talking about sad
things. My aunts and my cousins, their emotions are on their
sleeves."
These songs let Ryan channel that same passion. When she
incorporated them into her live set, she recalls, "People would
come up and say, 'Do you have a Latin album?'"
"Recuerdos de mi Madre" is the answer to that frequent request.
It is also, true to its title ("Memories of My Mother"), a tribute
to her late parent who introduced her to the songs she sings here.
(Soledad Garcia Ryan passed away
when her daughter was 15.)
The record bears out Ryan's belief that singing in Spanish
enhances her expressiveness. The emotion she pours into
"Noche de Ronda," "Perfidia," and
"Sabor A Mí" is as exquisite as her technique. The songs also
provide a spotlight for her marvelous rhythmic chops: She glides
along the contours of "Maria Elena"
and "Siboney" with great precision and a gorgeous time feel.
Ryan is not alone in bringing these songs to life. In addition
to playing piano and trumpet (and occasional backing vocals), Diaz
serves as the album's musical director and provides impeccable
arrangements for nine of the 10 tracks. The rhythm section of
Sierra, Caro, and/or Romero is sensitive, even mesmerizing, and
occasional guests Seth Asarnow
(bandoneon), Hugo Wainzinger (guitar), Braulio Barrera (cajon), Jeremy Cohen or Carlos
Reyes (violin), and Steffen
Kuehn (trumpet) add depth and color to whatever they
touch.
D'Rivera, of course, brings the proceedings to another level.
His clarinet playing is surpassingly sweet on "El Día Que Me
Quieras" and both lively and ponderous on "Perfidia"; his alto
saxophone on "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" is sly and soulful. "I've
loved his music for many years," Ryan says in the liner notes to
"Recuerdos de mi Madre." "Paquito exudes joy, both musically and
personally…. To me, he is music incarnate!"
Born and raised in San Rafael,
California, just north of San
Francisco, Jackie Ryan spent
her childhood listening to the Spanish classical music and Latin
American popular songs that her mother played and sang for her. She
was 15 years old when she took her first professional singing job
in an R&B dance band. After she blew out her voice on the road,
she spent two years healing, doing speech therapy and falling in
love with jazz.
Reinventing herself as a jazz singer, she went back out on the
road, spending some time in Hawaii
and in Los Angeles as she honed
her chops, studied Portuguese, and gained experience with
Sergio Mendes's original rhythm
section and Sarah Vaughan's onetime
pianist George Gaffney before
returning to the Bay Area in the 1990s.
That link with Sarah Vaughan
served Ryan in good stead. Her 2001 debut album "For Heaven's Sake"
featured a trio led by another former Vaughan accompanist,
Mike Wofford; her third, 2003's
"This Heart of Mine," featured two Vaughan associates in pianist
Jon Mayer and drummer Omar Clay. That was only one of Ryan's many
artistic dimensions, however. She also built a multilingual
repertoire of songs in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese,
which she demonstrated on 2002's "Passion Flower". The next three
records (2007's "You and the Night and the Music," 2009's "DOOZY,"
and 2012's "Listen Here") confirmed her ability to stand toe-to-toe
with legendary figures like Jeff
Hamilton, Cyrus Chestnut, and
John Clayton, respectively. With
2022's "Recuerdos de mi Madre" she brings all those skills to bear
in paying a long-imagined tribute to her mother, the first person
to nurture her artistry.
Jackie Ryan will be performing a
CD release show at Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison Street,
Berkeley, on Friday 10/28 at
8pm.
Media Contact
Terri Hinte, Terri Hinte Public
Relations, +15102348781, hudba@sbcglobal.net
SOURCE OpenArt Productions