Fundada en 1995, esta compañía de danza y música no sólo ha cultivado el flamenco, lo ha mezclado con otros géneros como el jazz y el rock. La Forja se ha presentado en todos los tablaos de la Ciudad de México y ha viajado por todo el país, desde Durango hasta Quintana Roo. Teatros, restaurantes, museos y universidades en los estados de San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala, Campeche, Veracruz, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Morelos y Puebla, entre otros, han disfrutado diferentes espectáculos diseñados por La Forja, como Un cante para el Quijote. Algunos de los más importantes festivales y ferias en los que la compañía ha participado son: el Festival del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México y la Feria de San Marcos, en Aguascalientes.
La compañía también ha hecho varios programas de radio y televisión, como La Valija diplomática en Horizonte, Cultura en línea en Canal 22, Los mejores músicos.com y Otro Rollo en Televisa. Actualmente, La Forja se encuentra promocionando su disco Con Aroma de Romero, un álbum espléndidamente grabado y bellamente ilustrado por el pintor mexicano Arturo Solís.
Tamaño de la compañía: 8 personas Escenarios: teatros, plazas, galerías, espacios cerrados y abiertos que tengan entarimado. Escenario mínimo: 5 x 4 metros.
Principales Producciones: 1 Un Cante para el Quijote Festival de las Artes, Mérida, Yucatán, 2006. 2 Corazón y Ritmo Festival Internacional de Puebla, 2002. 3 Xay Museo Universitario del Chopo, Ciudad de México, 1996.
Notas de prensa: “La Forja ha creado un estilo donde la música, el canto y la danza conviven en igualdad de condiciones” –Xavier Quirarte, Milenio Diario.
“La Forja encuentra nuevos mundos desde el flamenco” –Angélica Valenzuela, El Universal.
“Cuando la pasión, la sensibilidad y el arte conviven, son capaces de encender cualquier temperamento” –José Luis Martínez, Revista Milenio.
"Con Aroma de Romero es un álbum cuya naturaleza ecléctica mezcla en sus composiciones lo mejor del bagaje musical de sus integrantes" –Víctor Manuel Torres, Excélsior.
“Equilibrio y honestidad son virtudes de este disco que, además, ha sido bellamente editado”
PARTICIPACION EN FESTIVALES: CENTRO HISTORICO DE LA CIUDAD DE MEXICO DIA INTERNACIONAL DE LA DANZA EN EL CNA FESTIVAL ZOCALO EN MOVIMIENTO 2000 FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE PUEBLA IV EDICION FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL QUIMERA METEPEC 2007 FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL JOLGORIO DE QUERETARO FESTIVAL DE PRIMAVERA CENTRO HISTORICO DF 2005 FESTIVAL DEL DESIERTO EN SAN LUIS POTOSI 2004, 05, 06,07 FESTIVAL REY POETA NEZAHUALCOYOTL, TEXCOCO 2005, 06,07 FESTIVAL SAN LUIS POTOSI, CIRCUITO de la HUASTECA 2007 FESTIVAL CIUDAD. LERDO DURANGO 2007 FORO SOCIAL MUNDIAL ZOCALO DF 2008 FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE DANZA CD. DEL CARMEN CAMPECHE 2008 FESTIVAL CULTURAL DEL GRAN SEÑORIO CHALCO.EDO MEX.2008 FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE ZACATECAS 2009 PARTICIPACION EN PLANTELES EDUCATIVOS: UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA METROPOLITANA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTONOMA DE MEXICO UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE LA CIUDAD DE MEXICO UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS AMERICAS TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY. COLEGIO MADRID PREPARATORIA RECLUSORIO NORTE LICEO FRANCO MEXICANO
Championed by some of music’s most celebrated figures, Sara Gazarek has emerged as a strikingly original artist with limitless potential. In follow up to Yours, her widely hailed 2005 debut focusing on American Songbook standards, the 25-year-old Gazarek delivers a sensational follow-up on her sophomore album Return to You (Native Language NLM-0967-2), seamlessly combining the intimacy of singer/songwriter stylings with the musical and improvisational elements of jazz. Blessed with a gorgeous, translucent voice, excellent pitch, and supple sense of time, Gazarek is steeped in the jazz tradition, but is not afraid to embrace the music that moves her generation.
Return to You was created by the same talented team that put together Yours (including Grammy-award nominated bass master John Clayton as producer, and her equally youthful, all-star LA based band, Josh Nelson (p), Erik Kertes (b), and Matt Slocum (d)). Return to You features well-planned arrangements of more contemporary standards by songwriters Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Harry Connick Jr., and Gillian Welch. Some of the best material, however, comes from Gazarek’s acclaimed pianist, Josh Nelson, as he displays his considerable gifts as a composer and lyricist with four new songs.
In choosing the material for Return to You, Gazarek explains, “our live performances are very different from the record. We do a lot more up-tempo and swinging material. But we felt secure in the base we’d created with Yours and wanted to explore some of our other influences. We wanted this album to have a flow, and a sense of purpose, and we feel the listener will be able to pick up on the part of our souls we gave to this album.” Among the album’s stand out tracks are a playful version of Mitchell’s “Carey,” and a haunting rendition of Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” with an obscure final chorus that has rarely been recorded. Gazarek’s knack for spotting first-rate material shines brightest on “Northern Lights,” a ravishing song written by the brilliant tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake – a collaboration so poignant and engaging that no one should be surprised if the tune ends up spearheading a Norah Jones-like breakthrough.
“Return to You” also introduces a number of new textures and sounds, not explored before on the bands prior release. Strings, guitar, horns, and duet vocals are, as Gazarek puts it “a way to get a message across that we couldn’t express as a quartet.” And while the singer could have had her pick of all-star instrumentalists to feature on her sophomore album, Gazarek, who possesses an easy-going charisma that quietly commands attention, refuses to hog the limelight. “In this band we prefer to keep it in the family, and featured some of our most talented friends,” Gazarek says, humbly, always referring to “we” rather than “I” when speaking of her music, highlighting the indispensability of her band mates. “We truly are a family now, and they are an integral part of the way our sound has progressed.” The quartet works together in shaping arrangements, and each piece is the result of extended collaboration. She notes the importance of this collaboration, “we are constantly learning from one another.”
Born and raised in Seattle, Gazarek grew up without much exposure to jazz. She denotes any and all preliminary jazz education to her high school big band and choir director, Scott Brown. “He afforded us a lot of educational opportunities at festivals and competitions,” Gazarek remembers. As a senior in high school, she was awarded the first ever Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation Outstanding Jazz Vocalist Award at the Essentially Ellington Festival in NYC. “I guess you could say my first gig was at Avery Fisher Hall with Wynton Marsalis,” Gazarek chuckles.
Sara made her way south to Los Angeles in 2000 and found herself at the prestigious Thornton School of Music at USC, studying under the tutelage of John Clayton, Shelly Berg, Tierney Sutton, and Carmen Bradford. While there, Sara helped develop the JazzReach program and, as a result, was able to spend 2 years working with inner city elementary school children as a jazz choir director. “I’ll never forget that experience. It is so important to me to be out there, educating young people.” Sara continues to educate young people today as the sole ambassador for the non-profit music and arts education organization, Music For All. Sara and her band give clinics at local schools while on tour, because, as Gazarek puts it, “education is such an important part of our lives, and the band and I know we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that one teacher who showed us the way. It is our duty to give back.”
In 2003, Sara was awarded the 2003 Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Vocalist. Shortly after the publication hit the press, Sara was asked to perform with Oleta Adams, Karrin Allyson, and Diane Schuur as the "as yet undiscovered talent" on the Concord Jazz Festival tour. Simultaneously, Gazarek joined a number of a-list clientele (including Barry Manilow and Allyson) as a Stiletto Entertainment (management) client and was soon being booked by the industrious William Morris Agency. “I remember feeling very nervous about it all,” Sara recalls. “I’d had it drilled into me that a strong career at a young age was a fast track to obscurity.”
Luckily, at a time when it would have been easy for Gazarek to lose track of her artistic goals, John Clayton, a mentor and teacher at USC, provided a grounding influence. When record labels first came knocking and she started to question her place, it was Clayton who set her straight. “He said, ‘Sara, everyone has his or her own path, and there’s no path that’s any more respectable than any other,’” she recalls. “‘As long as you do your homework and keep striving to be a better musician, you’ll have a lasting career.’”
Clayton agreed to produce her first album, Yours, and insisted she develop the arrangements herself with the band she’d been performing with. She found musical soul mates in her group, and the resulting record was a debut that was released to national and international rave reviews. It ranked in the Top 10 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Charts, Top 10 on the iTunes top Jazz Album Downloads (US, UK, Switzerland, and Belgium), #1 on the iTunes Top Jazz Album Downloads (Germany, France), #5 on the Jazz Week Radio Charts, #4 on the HMV (Japan) chart. In addition, Sara was voted the #3 Best New Artist in the JazzTimes Readers Poll.
With her strong sense of gratitude, this talented, graceful, constantly evolving, emotionally direct, label-pushing vocalist will continue to “do her homework.” And judging by her second album, Sara Gazarek is going to have a lot to offer the music scene for many years to come.
Borned in Rio de Janeiro,Jussanam da Silva,grew up with the carioca Samba and Bossa Nova. Besides her singing, Jussanam became an actress in various novelas (soap operas) in Brazilian TV. In the play "Adoraveis Romeu e Julieta" she also became the first black Juliet ever in Brazilian theater. She was also actress in the play indicated 5 times to Shell's Prize in 2005, "O Santo Parto" by Lauro César Muniz. Jussanam now lives in Reykavik in Iceland where she sucessfully collaborates with bassist Tomas Einarsson, one of Islands foremost Jazz musicians. With Tomás R. Einarsson and his band , Jussanam sang on TV program with highest audience in Iceland, Kastljós, in 2008 . "Tomás R. Einarsson is my musical Godfather" says her
In Sweden she collaborates with Swedish pianist Harald Erici, with who she did shows in Gothemburg in February 2009. Actually, She has a band of the respected musicians in Iceland and we destac Haukur Gröndal that is one of the best saxophonist in Iceland and Thordur Högnasson, contra-bass ex Björk musician that recorded Gling-Gló and others important Cds. Jussanam has been warming the Icelandic audience with your voice and the best of the brazilian music, with her’s Icelandic Band: Haukur Grondal(Sax), Asgeir Asgeirsson(Guitar),Thordur Hognasson(Contra Bass) and Erik Qvick (Drumms). The most important shows in Iceland are: - Icelandic National Day -17th june 2009 at Austurvollur -Reykjkavik
- Mullin Jazz Klubbur -2009
- Arts Summer Festival in Akureyri 2009
- Reykjavik Jazz Festival 2009 (with the Icelandic finest pianist Agnar Már Magnússon)
The CD "Ela é Carioca" with songs by Tom Jobim was recorded live at Tonn studio,in Reykjavik, giving to CD an athmospheric and spontaneus feeling. The propose of the CD was to record the songs how them have been presented in her show around Iceland.
Below is a critic article from the news paper in Iceland, about her first show in Iceland by Vernhard Linnet, jazz critic:
“Hot Samba on a cold night"
Is there anything sweeter than a Brazilian samba, specially if it is of an Bossa Nova origin and created by the master Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim?
…Tvelve of these songs could be heard at the Gauknum performed by the Brazilian singer Jussanam da Silva and the quartet of Tomas R. Einarssonar bass player and Matti Hemstock on drums, and the brothers Oskar and Omar Gudjonsson on sax and guitar. Da Silva sang twelve of Jobim’s songs and naturally among the fantastic collection some guests where missing there favourite songs. By my side was a grate singer who wanted to hear “Insensatez” but the song pearls where many from the opening song “Dindi” to the last one “Samba de Uma Nota So”. Da Silva sang songs that most of the guests knew, like “Desafinado” and Garota de Ipanema”. She also performed “ A Felicidade” and “Triste” and songs rather unfamiliar to me. The Girl from Rio (Ele e Carioca), which is where Da Silva is originally from, and “Favela” which of the Jobim songs is the one most resembling a N-American musical song play of the Jobims songs that I have heard.
Da Silva is possibly related to the Brazilian athletic jumper who snatched the gold from our Vilhelm in the past, at the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. But she is charming singer with a good voice- …but what toped the night for me was the singing in Portuguese which I find the most beautiful language to sing in…. Tomas and Matthias where a solid erythematic duo in the southern swing.
A lovely night that warmed the root of one’s heart in the cold of the night.
Lynne Arriale has captured the imaginations of jazz and mainstream music lovers with her outstanding CD and DVD recordings and performances. She has been critically acclaimed as having a ‘singular voice’ as a pianist, leader, composer, arranger and for “putting the heart back into jazz” (London Times). Arriale’s consistently excellent recordings have topped every notable jazz chart. With back to back #1 Jazz Week radio hits, a #17 debut on Billboard’s Jazz Chart, the top ten “Best Of” lists for The New Yorker, United Press International and The German Record Critics Association, Arriale has earned her place among elite international jazz artists. Further evidence of her status includes her being featured on the PBS nationally televised program, Profile of a Recording Artist, and on multiple NPR programs including Weekend Edition, Jazz Set, and Piano Jazz with Marion McPartland.
In August ’08, and in a departure from her ten previous trio recordings, Arriale presented an extraordinary new lineup of iconic musicians who joined her on her new CD/DVD, “Nuance,” The Bennett Studio Sessions. In addition to Arriale as leader/composer/arranger, the remarkable band features jazz legend George Mraz on bass; Anthony Pinciotti on drums, whose work with James Moody and John Abercrombie has received high critical praise; and the great All-Star, Randy Brecker on trumpet / flugelhorn. The project was recorded at the multi-Grammy and Emmy Award winning BENNETT STUDIOS, and will include video documentation of behind the scenes footage of the CD recording, a bonus DVD program of a live, private, “in-studio” audience concert, and up close and personal interviews with each artist. With the release scheduled for April ’09, this stellar group will be on tour internationally in support of this CD/DVD release. This Motéma Music release will feature Arriale’s compelling new originals, as well as her innovative reinventions of pop classics, jazz and world music selections.
Arriale’s current release, LIVE (Motéma), recorded by BR-TV at Germany’s oldest and most prestigious jazz event, The Burghausen Jazz Festival, won the 2007 German Record Critics Award for best jazz CD/DVD recording. She has toured Japan with the legendary “100 Golden Fingers”group, a bill Lynne shared with jazz legends Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, Ray Bryant, Junior Mance, Harold Mabern, Roger Kellaway and Monty Alexander. In 1993 she earned first place at Jacksonville’s prestigious Great American Piano Competition. Arriale continues to perform such internationally prestigious venues as The Spoleto Arts Festival, Ireland’s Cork Jazz Festival, The Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, the Burghausen and Stuttgart Jazz Festivals, The Montreal Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, The Folly Theater, The Gilmore Festival, The Jacksonville Jazz Festival, The San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival and numerous other festivals, concerts and clubs throughout Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania, Norway, The Czech Republic, Ireland, the UK and Australia.
Over the past few years, Arriale has performed with legendary saxophonist, Benny Golson as well as jazz luminaries Rufus Reid, Roy Hargrove, Buster Williams and Eddie Henderson. Upcoming dates in ‘09 include performances with Grammy winner, trumpet/flugelhorn player, Randy Brecker and jazz icon, bassist George Mraz.
Deeply committed to jazz education, Lynne Arriale is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano and Director of the Jazz Combo Program at The University of North Florida. She also conducts master classes, clinics and workshops internationally for professionals, students and communities at large.
