Fully Altered Media is very pleased to announce that we will be working a May 5th release by a stunning newcomer to the New York scene: the Mexican jazz vocalist and composer Magos Herrera.

Magos Herrera – Distancia (Sunnyside Records)
Release Date: May 05, 2009

If you listen to “Salt of the Earth,” the sensational track from saxophonist Tim Ries’ recent Sunnyside release, Stones World, you’ll hear a sensuous and thrilling contralto voice that swings and sighs, like no other. That voice belongs to the brilliant and beautiful, Mexican-born, New York-based singer, Magos Herrera. Like Luciana Souza and Claudia Acuna, she is a world-class jazz vocalist in the literal sense of the word: She’s fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and is likewise proficient in deciphering and delivering the syncopated science of jazz, and Afro-Hispanic musical genres. Her gifts are on full display on her Sunnyside debut, Distancia, supported by an exceptional rhythm section featuring guitarist Lionel Loueke, pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Ricky Rodriguez, drummer Alex Kautz, with background vocalists Ingrid and Jennifer Beaujean. Buoyed by that stellar lineup, Herrera delivers a delicious, dancing and diverse ten-track potpourri of original songs, and standards by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, and Cesar Portillo de la Luz.

Magos’ love and thanks come through loud and clear on this disc – co-produced by Tim Ries. Her self-penned songs “Reencuentro” “Tu Ojos,” “Staying Closer,” “Alegria,” “ New Song”are pulsed by scintillating vocal percussion, interlocking, Pan-Afro/American rhythmic structures, tinges of Joni Mitchell-style rock timbres, and flamenco-flavored handclaps. Magos reinterprets the works of master composers with equal verve. She updates Caesar Portillo De la Luz’s famous bolero “Tu, Mi Delirio,” with a kind of “quiet storm” vibe. Nascimento’s “Vera Cruz” is resurrected with a deep groove, which morphs into a spirited Tower of Babel-style vocal beat box. And Jobim’s “Retrato em Blanco E Preto,” “Inutil Paisaje,” and “Dindi” are rendered in impassioned ballad, bossa nova-scat, and John Coltrane-ish settings.

If, as the saying goes,  “it takes a village to raise a child,” then it takes an musician open to all of the world’s musical hues and grooves to produce an artist like Magos Herrera. Born in Mexico City, Herrera graduated from the Musicians Institute of Technology, and studied at Mannes College of Music, the New England Conservatory, and privately with opera teacher Konstantin Jadan. She moved back to Mexico City in 1998, where she released her first CD, Cajuina (Independent, 1998), followed by Whispering Orchids (Opcion Sonica, 2000), Mexican Divas II/III (Opcion Sonica, 2001-2002), Pais Maravilla (JM Distributors, 2003), Magos Herrera Compilacion (Mecca Records, 2004), Todo Puede Inspirar (EMI Music, 2005), and Soliluna (JM Distribuidores, 2006). She has toured Latin America, India, Japan and the United States . Over the past 4 years, through her pro-active love for music, she produced and hosted two television programs on public television that promoted music for Mexico’s channel 22, bringing on featured guests such as Ute Lemper, Jerry Gonzalez, Diego el Cigala, and many others.

Magos Herrera has evolved into a global-centric musician, capable of expressing herself in a multiplicity of languages, and vocal settings; from straight-ahead, ballads, scats, and the various dimensions and invention of Afro-Latin music. As Distancia, proves, no style of music is distant from her.

May 20, 2009
Jazz Standard – CD Release Concert
116 E 27th St, New York, NY 10016, US
(212) 576-2232 or http://www.jazzstandard.net/
2 sets: 7:30 & 9:30.
Cover: $20.
Lineup: Magos Herrera – vocals; Aaron Goldberg – piano; Ricky Rodriguez – bass; Alex Kautz – drums; Ingrid Beaujean – vocals; Jenny Beaujean – vocals