JULIETA EUGENIO
Julieta Eugenio had never written a poem in English before. Which stands to reason, as English’s not her first language; the tenor saxophonist hails from Argentina. But when she took pen to paper, the poetry flowed — and it’s mightily vivid and evocative.
“I’m navigating, A sea of feelings… A state of mind?” Eugenio began. “Everything is blue, Can’t see a time or a date.” From this limbo-like jumping-off point, she structured the poem around a series of “breaths” — which she describes as “short, intimate moments” that undergirded the piece.
And the final words not only bring it home, but seem to sum up music, and her place within it. “Stay with me, I’m here,” it ends. “It’s me, Let’s navigate.”
And from that poem grew an entire album, her second as a leader: Stay , which will be self-released on March 29. The cover features an abstract, naturalistic painting by Eugenio titled RESPIRO, meaning breath in Spanish.
With a bold, expressive tenor sound that recalls Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, and Sonny Rollins, Eugenio has been making waves on the New York scene over the past few years.
“Eugenio’s tenor tone is round and polished as she plays about sadness with an ever-present tint of hopeful[ness],” observed Dan McClenaghan for AllAboutJazz.com. For WBGO, critic Nate Chinen called Jump “An admirably focused effort that often evokes the calm at the center of a storm.” Stereogum hailed her for her dynamics, and control: “Eugenio makes the most of every opportunity … bringing the intensity level up and down, increasing and decreasing her velocity but always maintaining a fundamental sense of melody.”
Like Jump, Stay features the iridescent rhythm section of bassist Matt Dwonszyk and Jonathan Barber, who provide an extraordinarily thoughtful and sympathetic foundation for Eugenio’s lyrical, imaginative explorations. And her fellow Argentinian guest on piano, the GRAMMY-winning Leo Genovese guests on two interstitial tracks: “Breath I” and “Breath II.”
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