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Vagabundeo
(Wanderings) , the second album from Alexa Weber Morales
, and her first for producer Wayne Wallace 's Patois label,
follows the groundbreaking footsteps of her 2004 debut
release Jazzmérica . This vibrantly imagined collection
melds warm acoustic jazz with flavors from across the
vast spectrum of Latin, Cuban, Brazilian, and African
music for a mix that's at once rootsy and cosmopolitan,
street-wise and sophisticated. The singer's dynamic vocals,
innovative rhythmic sense, and emotive phrasing bring
a sizzling, soulful power to every note she sings. Her
multi-octave range and command of four languages lends
authenticity to songs as diverse as the haunting “Calling
You,” from the Bagdad Café soundtrack, and
the seldom-heard Brazilian gem, “Ave Rara .”
Like Ella Fitzgerald, one of her first inspirations, Weber
Morales uses her warm mid-range tone as a foundation,
effortlessly leaping into a dulcet higher register or
swooping down to deliver earthy, purring lows.
Vagabundeo is a rich album that highlights the striking
sound of Weber Morales, the arranging and trombone skills
of three-time Grammy nominee Wayne Wallace , and a who's
who of the San Francisco Bay Area's top Latin and jazz
players, including percussionists John Santos and Michael
Spiro , bassist David Belove , montuno maestro Murray
Low , drummer Paul van Wageningen , sax men Ron Stallings
and Melecio Magdaluyo , and pianist/synth player Frank
Martin . The arrangements combine Latin jazz, Afro-funk,
gospel, salsa, samba-canção, and pop, but
they're delivered in a seamless blend of sparkling musicianship
and understated virtuosity.
“Ave Rara” is a s amba-canção
written by composer Edu Lobo and Aldir Blanc, longtime
lyricist for João Bosco and Guinga. The tranquil
vocal track is complemented by Rick Vandivier 's guitar
solo and Frank Martin 's lush piano excursion. Weber Morales's
overdubbed harmonies intensify the feeling of saudades
, the dreamy wistfulness that makes Brazilian music so
poignant, while the outro has a Middle Eastern feel. “Calling
You,” from the film Bagdad Café , is an a
cappella tour de force. Bryan Dyer 's bass vocal and Kenny
Washington 's baritone/tenor provide a foundation for
Weber Morales's aching lead vocal.
“Angelitos Negros,” a poem by Venezuelan poet
Andrés Eloy Blanco, was set to music by Manuel
Alvarez Maciste and made popular by Mexico's Pedro Infante
in the 1948 movie of the same name. Wallace's vocal arrangement
for the choir— One Voice (Oakland Interfaith Gospel
Choir members Patricia Bahia, Kimiko Joy, Vernon Staggers
and Helen Bernard Gray ), Sandy Cressman , Ron Stallings
, and Weber Morales—gives the song a soaring, soulful
aura. “Agua de Beber/Aguas de Março”
combines two familiar tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim, likening
water to love, essential for life. The straightforward
bossa arrangement keeps the focus on Weber Morales; vocals
and percussion intertwine to produce a giddy, percolating
outro.
“The Goddess of War,” a Weber Morales original,
is the album's funkiest track. John Santos and Michael
Spiro lay down a diabolic Afro/Latin/funk groove accented
by Frank Martin 's sinister synthesizer and David Belove
's driving bass. Weber Morales's growling vocals convey
the terror and fascination we all feel in the face of
uncontrolled violence. There's also “Habanera,”
the famous aria from Bizet's Carmen , recast as a pilón-salsa
with Melecio Magdaluyo 's rumbling baritone sax; “El
Cantante” a Ruben Blades tune (famously recorded
by salsa bad boy Hector Lavoe) with a Wallace horn arrangement
that tweaks the original Fania track; and the Weber Morales
original “Her Ways Wander,” a smoky cha-cha
ballad that tells the story of a mysterious femme fatale.
Overall, Vagabundeo mirrors the gumbo of global influences
currently simmering in the Bay Area, a Latin sound as
unique as anything coming out of Miami, New York, and
San Juan. With Vagabundeo and the exceptional singing
she contributed to Wayne Wallace 's recent The Reckless
Search for Beauty project, Weber Morales is ready to step
out and take her place in the first rank of the Bay Area's—and
the nation's—jazz singers.
Alexa Weber Morales was born to a musical family in Berkeley,
California. Her father was a stay-at-home novelist and
freelance writer who loved piano rags; her mother, a university
administrator and aspiring vocalist. They placed an emphasis
on language from early on. “Partially due to our
heritage, and to their taste for well-aged wine ,”
Weber Morales laughs, “my parents started the Ecole
Bilingue in Berkeley, where my two brothers and I learned
French. We also lived in France briefly after my parents
got divorced.”
Growing up, she alternated weeks staying on her father's
sailboat in the Berkeley Marina, her ex-stepmother's artist
commune, and her mother's place. She began classical piano
lessons at five and sang her first solo at eight at Malcolm
X Elementary, during a performance with Bobby McFerrin
. “ Dick Whittington [legendary jazz pianist and
music educator] was my teacher. He liked my husky alto,
but when I studied classical voice later on, they called
me a high soprano.
“I've been singing as long as I can remember. I
can sing an aria and sight-read, but my voice is contemporary.
As with everything in my life, there's a broad range:
I'm drawn to the street and the intellectual, the refined
and the folk.”
During her final fling with academia, Weber Morales studied
languages at Bryn Mawr College. Desperate for music, however,
she performed in cabaret and theater, and listened to
k.d. lang . She left college in her sophomore year and
took several months to drive cross-country, playing Take
6 , the Gypsy Kings , and the soundtrack to the movie
Bagdad Café all the way. One evening, sitting alone
on top of a green hill in South Texas, she wrote her first
song.
Back in the Bay Area, Weber Morales worked as an apprentice
carpenter for a salty storyteller, an auto mechanic for
a saucy old Hungarian, a roofer for a randy New Englander,
a translator for a crazy government agent, and a freelance
writer for a frazzled magazine editor. She also delivered
singing telegrams, sang on boats and in malls, performed
at Renaissance Faires and cafés, soloed with chamber
choirs and at Grace Cathedral, and fronted big bands.
While she continued her independent music studies, she
worked her way up through the Bay Area music scene:
“It's been a long road, but I'm so lucky to have
played with Carlos Federico and studied with Ed Kelly
, just to name two of many heroes. It seems like you're
not making any headway, and then you look back and see
that those first lessons with Faith Winthrop and Macatee
Hollie , those kind words I received from Madeline Eastman
or Mark Murphy or Nancy Wilson —there are hundreds
of milestones like that on a path that has led to this
pretty cool place where I am today.”
It did take years, however, to find a way to reconcile
making money and making music. “I married young,
and my husband told me that music is a nice hobby, but
it will never be some-thing big. I told him we'd get married
on two conditions: I'd have a lot of animals and eventually,
I was going to make it as a singer.” Her husband
was a recent immigrant who came equipped with his own
Mexican cultural force-field, resulting in plenty of clashes
for the newlyweds.
The insider perspective on Latin America had its positives,
though, helping Alexa land a job editing a Spanish-language
magazine. When the company decided to launch a Brazilian
edition, she taught herself Portuguese by memorizing singer
Gal Costa 's repertoire. She honed her Portuguese during
several trips to Brazil, where she was often mistaken
for a Carioca, or Rio native. Subsequently she traveled
to Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba.
It was in 1999, during class at Jazz Camp West taught
by Wayne Wallace , that she began to understand that not
only her singing voice but her songs were viable. “Wayne
respected me as a musician and songwriter,” says
Weber Morales. “He has wide-ranging interests and
can approach a song melodically, or groove-wise, or as
a lyric or a concept. I have a lot of words in my head
and he has a lot of notes in his, so it works out well.”
A mother of two young boys, Alexa began preproduction
on Vagabundeo while pregnant with her second child and
maintained demanding recording and gigging schedules just
weeks after giving birth. She once struggled with balancing
art and commerce; now her priorities are motherhood and
music. “I was laid off from my magazine job when
I was pregnant in December 2005. Everyone wonders when
to quit their day job. In my case, it quit me. Now I'm
applying everything I learned from ten years in that creative
business to my full-time focus as a musician.”
It appears the timing couldn't have been better. Wallace
produced her first album, Jazzmérica , an eclectic
brew of salsa, jazz, and Brazilian influences. Despite
the fact that she had no promotion budget, Jazzmérica
slowly built a buzz. Rave local and national reviews led
to airplay across the nation. Its success led to profiles
on such syndicated radio programs as “Listen Here”
and the BBC's “Have Your Say”; guest performances
with the Reno Jazz Orchestra; working with Wallace as
a Monterey Jazz Festival Latin Jazz Clinician; and contributing
lead vocals to The Reckless Search for Beauty (Patois
Records, 2007), Wallace's latest release. Their successful
collaboration continues on Vagabundeo , another exciting
step in the lifelong musical journey of Alexa Weber Morales. |
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