Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday January 21st, 2015 with Bernard Stepien
Deceptive vocalists Sara Serpa and Silvia Pérez Cruz

Most Jazz vocalists are deeply rooted in Jazz standards, rendering them with the best lyricism they can, preferably using juicy love songs. Recently, two vocalists from the Iberian Peninsula, one Portuguese, Sara Serpa, the other Catalonian, Silvia Pérez Cruz caught my ears. They practice the ultimate art of deception by singing Jazz standards or even pop music in a completely different way where rhythmic structures and dynamics are turned on their heads, all of this with remarkable accompanists so to speak, in duo format. Serpa uses her New England Conservatory master pianist and harmonies sorcerer Ran Blake while Cruz teams up with Indie guitarist Raûl Fernandez Mirò that exploits every variant of plucked strings instruments to create incredible textures. Both transform the harmonies of these standards in unexpected ways which borders with Free Jazz. While both duets could seem to be unrelated, Ran Blake has already one similar association almost a half century ago, that is his 1963 duet with vocalist Jeanne Lee that already then reshuffled the vocal standards. Tonight we will sample Silvia Pérez Cruz Granada CD and Sara Serpa’s clean feed label Aurora CD. Missed last week’s RWAC show featuring Turkish pianist Ayse Tütüncü? Get it from the CKCU archives on this link: http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/95/20393.htmlà