Celebrated Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuna’s acclaimed new release Turning Pages serves as her reintroduction to the music world after a decade-long hiatus. Known for thriving at the cusp of jazz and Latin American music, Claudia will bring her band, and unique style, to visit host J. Michael Harrison on Friday, November 22nd at 4 PM in the WRTI Performance Studio. This will be an intimate performance ahead of her appearance at South Jazz Parlor later that evening.
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Born in Santiago and raised in Concepcion, Acuna established herself on the Chilean jazz scene in her early 20's. Her move to New York in 1995 led to collaborations with jazz heavy-hitters like Jason Lindner, Harry Whitaker, Arturo O'Farrill and bassist Avishai Cohen, who co-produced her critically hailed 2000 debut Wind From the South. Four albums came to follow, causing Acuna to stand out as a passionate and emotionally incisive singer with a gleaming, burnished bronze tone.
For much of the past decade she's put her recording career on the backburner to focus on raising her son. Instead of touring, she's thrived by pursuing multiple musical directions with artist such as Susie Ibarra, Billy Childs, Henry Threadgill, the Rodriquez Brothers and Elio Villafranca.
These directions bring us to the new album, Turning Pages, which focuses on Acuna’s original songs, and demonstrates a major creative leap. Her key collaborator was Colombian-born string wizard Juancho Herrera, who produced the album, co-wrote several songs, and had a major hand in most of the arrangements. Ready, once again, to take on the world, Acuna is eager to reconnect with long-time fans and build new audience alliances.