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Roxana Amed: A Prayer

By John Chacona
May 19, 2024
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The U.S. recording career of Argentine-born vocalist Roxana Amed is a study in the frustration that assumptions about genre can create. Both 2021's Ontology and the following year's Unánime, released by Sony Music, were nominated for Latin Grammy Awards. That was well-deserved, yet these were also among the best jazz vocal recordings of those years. Her 2023 Sony Music release Los Trabajos Y Las Noches, to texts by Argentinean poet Alejandra Pizarnik, is backed by a trio of Frank Carlberg on piano, bassist Simón Willson and Michael Sarin on drums with saxophonist Adam Kolker, and language notwithstanding, it sure sounds like a jazz record.. Becoming Human (Sony Music, 2024), recorded in Miami's legendary Criteria Studios, is a deeply felt and autobiographical statement, her finest to date. It is largely sung in English and in its understated—even prayerful—way makes the strongest case for Amed's overdue inclusion among the first rank of jazz vocalists.

Contact John Chacona on All About Jazz.
John Chacona is a freelance journalist, content writer and producer in Cleveland.

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