Venissa Santi - Bienvenida

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:34
Size: 122,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. Tender Shepard & Little Girl Blue
(5:07)  2. Convergencia
(3:56)  3. Lucerito de mi Amor
(5:50)  4. Talkin' To You
(5:50)  5. Embraceable You
(9:39)  6. Columbia pa' Miguel Angel
(4:51)  7. Como Fue
(5:26)  8. Tu Mi Delirio
(4:04)  9. Wish You Well
(4:53) 10. Cumpling Cumpling

The high art of Bienvenida is no accident. This is because its principal performer is the miracle behind it all. Venissa Santi is one of those supremely talented new vocalists who blazes comet-like, across the musical horizon but once in a lifetime. She joins the likes of Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, Sheila Jordan, Elis, Rosa, Celia and Flora Purim as the highest practitioners of the art of vocal music.  Santi is a sublime artist whose voice floats on the lyrical music that it inhabits. She can flutter like a bird, often appearing to glide on the song like as if she were on the wings of the songs thermal it's burning, beating heart. She often performs unbelievable vocal gymnastics shooting, in a rush of apparently hot breath, ever so high, soaring momentarily before diving on the slide of a sudden glissando to hover and ululate in a throaty gush of scatted babble. But all this is performed with so much apparent mathematical precision so as to appear to conjure the ancient wellspring of pitch and tonal color. And speaking of pitch, Santi appears to pay little heed to convention. She does not need to; she can break fresh ground in chromatic harmony, as she is capable of singing myriad quarter notes, diving into the very heart of each note's tone, hitting them with the precision of a sorceress. On the face of it Santi is a Latin artist who reaches across diverse universes to pluck idioms from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music, swishing them across and melding them with blues and jazz. 

She is playful with classical musical forms just as likely to slide through a bolero on "Convergencias," as she is to deconstruct it on "Como Fue," which she turns into a devastatingly beautiful blues (incidentally with breathtaking, gurgling guitar work from Jef Lee Johnson). Then she turns to son, breaking down into danzon in a gorgeous rendition of "Lucerito Di Mi Amor," (a "Love Star,") written by her grandfather, celebrated Cuban musician, Jacobo Ros Capablanca. And then, on "Cumpling Cumpling," a rumba that brings a rush of blood to the head as she imitates the sound of a bell pealing "pling...plang, cling," clanging her way wordlessly surely to the unbridled delight of church steeples somewhere. 

Her mastery of vocalese is quite unmatched. She might even take on the great Jon Hendricks. "Embraceable You" is a quite memorable example where Santi double-times the music in the second chorus, bending and twisting notes like a vocal alchemist. And then there is the standout track of the record, "Columbia pa Miguel Angel," sung in 6/8 time. It's a tribute to the music of the Matanzas and is a rumba and Afro-Caribbean Columbia of breathtaking beauty. This beguiling track celebrates the griot tradition, delves into the spiritual realm of Ogun and flirts also with a kind of Afro-blues. The musicians rise above themselves for this session. A debut record? How about a musical miracle? ~ Raul D' Gama Rose https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bienvenida-venissa-santi-sunnyside-records-review-by-raul-dgama-rose.php

Personnel: Venissa Santi: vocals; Michael Rodriguez: trumpet; Robert Rodriguez: piano; Yunior Terry: bass; Francois Zayas: drums and percussion; Cuco Castellanos: congas; Jef Lee Johnson: guitar and bass; Barry Sames: Hammond Organ; Daoud Shaw: drums; Chris Dockins: background vocals.

Bienvenida

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Venissa Santi - Big Stuff

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:01
Size: 121.4 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[5:11] 1. Sunny Side Of The Street
[4:11] 2. Big Stuff
[5:25] 3. What's New
[3:58] 4. My Man
[4:04] 5. Strange Fruit
[3:37] 6. Stormy Weather
[5:29] 7. You're My Thrill
[3:08] 8. Travelin' Light
[3:45] 9. Involved Again
[4:55] 10. That Old Devil Called Love
[3:45] 11. I Cover The Water Front Monks Dream-
[5:28] 12. You Better Go Now

Venissa Santí: Vocalist​​; ​François Zayas: Drums, Percussion; Tim Thompson: Trumpet; Chris Aschman: Trumpet, and Flugelhorn; John Stenger: Piano; Jason Fraticelli: Bass​; Cuco Castellanos: Congas; Madison Rast: Bass; Paul Klinefelter: Contrabass; Jon Thompson: Clarinet; Jef Lee Johnson: Guitar.

Born in NY, trained in jazz in Philadelphia, and schooled in sacred/secular music in her ancestral homeland of Cuba, vocalist Venissa Santí traveled a long road to develop her signature musical style. She is a 2008 PEW Fellow, signed to Sunnyside Records. Venissa’s artistry stems from the necessity to express the many influences that have nourished her spirit as a Cuban American. She was born in Ithaca, New York and hails from a line of Cuban artists intellectuals, but it was her grandfather, Jacobo Ros Capablanca, a Cuban composer who instilled in her a life-long passion for music.

As a child she grew up listening to the sounds of Ravel, Celia Cruz and Michael Jackson as well as theatrical productions and jazz. After completing high school, she moved to Philadelphia, where she enrolled at the University of the Arts, connected with her Cuban roots (via her grandfather’s compositions) and majored in Jazz Vocal Performance.

Big Stuff mc
Big Stuff zippy

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