Jazz Articles about Sara Serpa

About Sara Serpa

Radio & Podcasts

Jazz And Poetry Plus Notable 2021 Releases, Part 2

by Mary Foster Conklin
January 17, 2022

This broadcast presents new releases from Dee Bell and The Greenaway Group featuring vocalist Carla Cook, with a focus in the second hour on the heady combination of Jazz with spoken word featuring recent recordings by Sara Serpa, Jazzmeia Horn, a preview single from Javon Jackson's latest album plus part 2 of a look back to notable albums made in 2021 despite the disruption of the pandemic. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their ...

Album Review

Sara Serpa: Recognition

Read "Recognition" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 30, 2020

A lot of people have started to come to grips with shameful parts of their national heritage in recent times. In America, that has meant protests against displays of the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate Civil War generals. For Portuguese-born vocalist and composer Sara Serpa, dealing with her heritage has taken a more personal form with Recognition, a multi-media work dealing with Portugal's history of colonial oppression and subjugation of native peoples in Angola. The piece has ...

Album Review

Sara Serpa: Close Up

Read "Close Up" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 13, 2018

Finalmente un album pienamente convincente della cantante portoghese (qui anche autrice di tutto il materiale tematico), spesso preziosa, nella sua produzione, ma altrove (anche all'interno di uno stesso lavoro, suo o altrui) un po' disarticolata, quasi schizoide, magari solo curiosa, e comunque alterna nella resa in concreto. Sarà senz'altro anche merito dei due musicisti che l'affiancano, fatto sta che questo suo ultimo album, live alla Pete's House di Brooklyn nel giugno 2017, convince senza arzigogoli o avvitamenti (critici, estetici) di ...

Multiple Reviews

Clean Feed 2018

by Mark Corroto
May 9, 2018

Since it's inception in 2002, Lisbon, Portugal's Clean Feed Records has released nearly 500 recordings. Last year the total was 64. Keeping up with their output might be the best way to follow innovative jazz and improvised music in the 21st century. Besides releasing music by masters such as Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Ivo Perelman, Elliott Sharp, Anthony Braxton, and Rudresh Mahanthappa, they have introduced world audiences to the talents of Rodrigo Amado, Luís Lopes, Dre Hočevar, Gard Nilssen, and ...

Album Review

Sara Serpa: Close Up

Read "Close Up" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
April 13, 2018

Portuguese vocalist Sara Serpa has been a significant presence on the New York jazz scene for several years now, creating music with literary and artistic allusions in the company of renowned musicians like Ran Blake, Nicole Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey. For her latest project she leads a trio that also features saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and cellist Erik Friedlander. The music they make together, with Serpa often singing wordlessly, creates an airy tapestry of sound. On “Sol Enganador" Friedlander ...

Album Review

Vadim Neselovskyi: Get Up And Go

Read "Get Up And Go" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 6, 2017

Ukrainian pianist Vadim Neselovskyi has an affecting, organic sound that draws more from classical and folk idioms than the usual jazz materials. It can range from fragile to overpowering and on this CD, it allows him to establish a strong, individual presence in the crowded piano trio field.On fast pieces like “On A Bicycle" and “Who Is It?" Neselovskyi's playing is busy and relentless and stays in close rapport with bassist Dan Loomis and drummer Ronen Itzik who ...

Album Review

Vadim Neselovskyi Trio: Get Up And Go

Read "Get Up And Go" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 2, 2017

In June of 2014, Pianist Vadim Neselovskyi was in his native Ukraine, eager and ready to bring his singular brand of energy to a crowd at that country's premier jazz gathering--the Alfa Jazz Fest. Minutes before his trio was set to take the stage, Neselovskyi learned that a Ukrainian military plane had been shot down by separatists. The audience he was due to perform for was in a downhearted state, reflective of the feeling(s) across the entire nation, and the ...