(photo of Rachel Therrien by Krystal Pagan)
Québécoise trumpeter Rachel Therrien is a global (jazz) citizen in more ways than one: since immersing herself in Afro-Cuban traditions at Havana’s Instituto Supérior de Arte at the start of her career, she’s recorded with Bogotá’s best músicos (on her 2016 album Pensamiento: Proyecto Colombia), with French camarades in her European Quartet (Vena, 2020), and with New York Afro-Latin A-listers on her latest projects (Mi Hogar and Mi Hogar II). Considering her cosmopolitan résumé, bolstered by working bands in New York and Montréal and regular side roles in ensembles like Arturo O’Farrill’s Grammy-winning Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, it’s no wonder DownBeat’s Brian Zimmerman tagged Therrien as one of “the most innovative artists operating at the intersection of jazz and world music.” Her musical and actual travels across Latin America, the Caribbean, Europa, y el Norte have made her fluent in a whole welter of jazz and jazz-adjacent languages, from salsa, rumba, and danzón to cool jazz, post-bop, and fusion.
This touring edition of Therrien’s Latin Jazz Project is spangled with expatriate estrellas. Pianist Camila Cortina Bello trained in classical piano in her native Cuba and in jazz and global traditions at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. A 2023 New Music USA Next Jazz Legacy Fellow, she has performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Miguel Zenón, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Dianne Reeves, and appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert with the Afro-Cuban band OKAN. New York-based Cuban bassist Raul Reyes studied jazz at the Juilliard School and the University of North Texas; he now works regularly in and around New York with bandleaders like Tia Fuller and Arturo O’Farrill and has toured with such renowned Latin artists as Tito Puente Jr. and Willie Gonzales. In 2009, Cuban-born drummer-percussionist Michel Medrano Brindis relocated to Canada, where he’s played or recorded with luminaries like Jane Bunnett, Hilario Durán, Gipsy Kings, and the late David Sanborn. And award-winning conguero Lázaro Martinez, a former student of the legendary “Changuito” (founder of the seminal Cuban band Los Van Van) is a percussionist, singer, composer, and teacher who for the past decade has shuttled between Texas, New York, and his home base of Montreal.
Sponsors
We couldn’t present world-class artists at such low prices without the steadfast support of dozens of RJA members & sponsors, not to mention the community spirit of Arcata’s own dynamic arts agency, Playhouse Arts. Special thanks to Bug Press, the most steadfast of jazz allies, for its abiding generosity.
Additional support for this show comes from Cafe Brio, Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, Bob & Amy Doran, Amy Gonzalez at Humboldt Retreats, John Helie & Monica Simms, and North Coast Co-Op.