The distance between the coat check
and the stage at the Blue Note may have been only a few dozen yards, but to
Claudia Acuña, in the mid-1990s, it sometimes seemed miles way.
Acuña
took the coat-check job at the world famous Manhattan jazz club after moving
from the security of her home in Chile to the uncertainty of New York City. She
made the journey in pursuit of her dream of becoming a jazz singer. And after
washing dishes and babysitting, checking coats at least had the fringe benefit
of a free ticket to top-notch jazz shows. But there was work to be done before
she got to the stage.
Acuña
sat in at countless late-night jam sessions and got to know a who’s who of New
York musicians. Now, less than a decade later, she is widely considered one of
the world’s top jazz singers. You can decide for yourself when Acuña performs
with a variety of ensembles at Penfield High School’s 34th Annual Jazz
Fundraiser Concerts.
But
those who packed her shows at last year’s Rochester International Jazz Festival
and at several club appearances here don’t need convincing. Acuña is a superb
singer, combining jazz with her Chilean roots in a style that is as sexy as it
is sublime.
Growing
up in Chile, Acuña found herself attracted to a certain kind of music she
heard on the radio and in movies. It wasn’t until she was a teenager that she
found out it was called jazz. At the ages of 16 and 17 she went as often as
possible to hear visiting musicians in Santiago jazz clubs.
She
was able to meet Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, French pianist Michel
Petrucciani, Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, and others. Acuña sat in, singing
with some of them and meeting with positive reactions. Several musicians
encouraged her to call them if she ever got to New York, but they also warned
her about how hard it was to make it in music. Acuña was not easily
discouraged.
“I
just thought how much I wanted to be a singer and it was so difficult for me to
make it possible,” Acuña says. “For a minute I thought I would never do it. My
only dream was to be in New York and to walk on the streets where Miles used to
walk, and Monk. I’d go to a club at three in the morning and there would be a
pack of musicians and smoke. And when I did that, it was not a movie, it was
not a dream, it was reality. And then, when things started to happen and doors
started to open to me, wow! It was amazing because so many people told me in
Chile that I was crazy trying to come here and sing jazz for people here.
Because, also, they have a lot of stereotype things in their minds about jazz.”
Acuña
didn’t even speak English when she arrived in the US. She didn’t know how to
read music and still doesn’t. This obviously hasn’t been an obstacle, but it
still causes her some anxiety.
“It
was a surprise for me that they wanted me [to work with Penfield students] when
they know that I don’t have formal music education. I don’t read music, I don’t
play any instruments, I don’t write music. I was surprised that they want me to
share with them what I know. I used to be very concerned about that and very
shy. A musician friend said to me, ‘Claudia, what are you worried about? Some
of the greatest musicians in jazz have never read a note and never had any
formal training.’ That made me feel a little better.”
What
she lacks in formal training, Acuña more than makes up for in passion.
Listen to her sing a standard like “Nature Boy” or a Chilean ballad like “Ay
Mariposa” on her Rhythm of Life album
and you will hear an extraordinarily rich alto voice and a powerfully emotional
delivery. Twelve songs from that CD and her first, Wind From the South, will be showcased in new arrangements
commissioned just for the Penfield events.
Acuña’s
influences come from over the musical map, ranging from Celia Cruz to Sarah
Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald to Michael Jackson.
“As
a singer how could you not be influenced by any good singer that you can come
across on records or personally?”
The
decision to sing a particular song is a very personal one to Acuña; she knows
what she’s looking for.
“The
story, the melody, what the lyric says. Somehow the lyrics connect with
something that I have experienced or something that I would like to say. I’m
very shy and I keep a lot of things to myself. Music for me has become a way of
expressing a lot of things that sometimes I can’t find words, but somebody else
says it for me.”
She
wrote only one song on her last album. Although she has a lot of ideas for
songs, she says she doesn’t finish many of them. And if she does, she doesn’t
show her songs to others.
“It’s
been a slow process for me to become confident of my compositions. There’s not
any rush so, for the moment, I’m just taking it the way it’s coming.”
Of
course, I tell her sympathetically, writing jazz tunes seems to be a lot more
intimidating than writing pop songs. You can’t just fill an album with
half-written songs when you’re competing with the great standards of the past.
“Don’t
even say that,” Acuña says, laughing. “I’m never going to write anything in my
life again! I would never even think of competing with a pop artist. Look at
Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell or Stevie Wonder. Whoh!”
The
Penfield experience will be the first time Acuña will work extensively with
young students. She loves the fact that Penfield brings in artists for four-day
residencies.
“In
a lot of places in this country they’ve been cutting the music programs in high
school. What [Penfield does] is so beautiful because you encourage kids to do
something that has to do with creativity even though some of them might become
doctors or whatever. When you encourage young people to do art you keep them
out of trouble because their minds are working too fast. They have not enough
activity.”
Acuña
is especially excited about her new album, Luna, coming out March 16 on the MAXJAZZ label. Her first two
albums were on the major Verve label, but the trend for many major labels has
been to cut back on jazz, which has a smaller percentage of listeners than pop
music. Acuña downplays any problems she may have had with the label, but she is
not pleased with the lack of respect shown to jazz elders.
“Major
labels have let go people that belong to the history of this music, and that I
find hard to understand. But nobody can take the music away from musicians.”
As
for her own ambitions:
“Like
any other artist I just want to be able to do what I do. You want to be able to
do it and share with people and be able to keep making a living and keep being
creative. I’m happy that I have the opportunity to document another page of my
musical journey.”
Claudia Acuña performs at Penfield
High School’s 34th Annual Jazz Fundraiser Concert, Friday and Saturday,
February 6 and 7, at 7:30 p.m., in the Penfield High School Auditorium, 25 High
School Drive. Tix: $10 ($6 students). 249-6700
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2004.
