By THIRSTY
Award-winning Jazz singer
and spokesperson for the United Nations UNiTE to end violence against women
campaign, Magos Herrera recently teamed up with string quartet Brooklyn Rider to
record a debut collaboration entitled Dreamers.
Produced by Brooklyn Rider’s violinist Johnny Gandelsman, whose production
credits include Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble's
Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home
(2016) and music for the Ken Burns' documentary TV series The Vietnam War, Dreamers
includes two poems by Octavio Paz, “Niña” and “Dreams” from “Cántaro Roto”
(Broken Jug), set to music. Paz was a Mexican poet and diplomat who received
the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Herrera, after studying
in Los Angeles and Boston, settled in New York City in 2008 where she recorded
a jazz album of original songs (Distancia,
2009) and a tribute to Mexican composers from the Golden Era of the 1930s and
40s (Mexico Azul, 2011) and then collaborated
with flamenco producer and guitarist Javier Limón on an album entitled Dawn (2014). For Distancia, Herrera earned a Grammy Award short-list nomination for Best
Jazz Vocal Album.
Known as a Mexican jazz singer,
songwriter, producer and educator, she sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
She has received the Berklee Latin Masters Award, was selected as one of the
most important women of the year by Siempre
Mujer magazine and is also a spokesperson for the United Nations "HeForShe"
campaign to promote gender equality. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her
husband, Brazilian jazz drummer Alexandre Kautz.
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| Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider |
Brooklyn Rider is a
veteran string quartet comprised of: Johnny
Gandelsman, violin; Colin
Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Michael Nicolas, cello. With an
eclectic repertoire that has drawn rave reviews from classical, world and rock
critics, Brooklyn Rider’s music runs the gamut from Armenian folk songs
to music by composers as varied as Philip Glass, Björk, Vijay Iyer and Elvis Costello.
They have also explored collaborations with artists such as banjoist Béla
Fleck, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazz saxophonist Joshua
Redman, Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor.
Stay
Thirsty Magazine is pleased to feature a video of Magos
Herrera and Brooklyn Rider’s collaboration entitled “Niña,” from their album Dreamers, with music by Magos Herrera and
Felipe Pérez Santiago, to showcase their exceptional talent and magnetic energy.
For those who want to follow along, we have included the lyrics in both Spanish
and English from the poem by Octavio Paz.
Niña
Nombras el árbol, niña.
Y el árbol crece, lento y
pleno, anegando los aires,
verde deslumbramiento,
hasta volvernos verde la
mirada.
Nombras el cielo, niña.
Y el cielo azul, la nube
blanca, la luz de la mañana,
se meten en el pecho
hasta volverlo cielo y
transparencia.
Nombras el agua, niña.
Y el agua brota, no sé
dónde, baña la tierra negra,
reverdece la flor, brilla
en las hojas
y en húmedos vapores nos
convierte.
No dices nada, niña. Y
nace del silencio la vida en una ola de música
amarilla; su dorada marea
nos alza a plenitudes,
nos vuelve a ser
nosotros, extraviados.
¡Niña que me levanta y
resucita!
¡Ola sin fin, sin
límites, eterna!
Niña
You name the tree, girl,
and the tree grows, slow
and full, flooding the air,
green glare,
until our eyes turn
green.
You name the sky, girl,
and the blue sky, the
white cloud, the morning light,
penetrate our chest
until it becomes heaven
and transparency.
You name the water, girl,
and the water springs up,
I do not know where, it bathes the black earth,
green the flower, shine
on the leaves and in humid vapors it converts us.
You do not say anything,
girl.
And from the silence
life on a wave of yellow
music born;
and in its golden tide it
raises us to plenitudes, it is us again, lost.
(Photo credit: Shervin Lainez)
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