Dreamers

Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider

Jazz Singer MAGOS HERRERA and String Quartet BROOKLYN RIDERDebut Collaboration, Dreamers, Released September 21 on Sony Music MasterworksCelebrating the Power of Beauty as a Political Act and Exploring the Artistry of Violeta Parra, Caetano Veloso, Federico Garcia Lorca, Gilberto Gil, Joao Gilberto, Octavio Paz and OthersGems of the Ibero-American Songbook in New Arrangements by Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Brooklyn Rider’s Colin JacobsenThese days, when even the term “dreamers” is disputed territory, celebrating beauty is a political act. That is the beating heart of Dreamers, the collaboration between New York-based Mexican singer Magos Herrera and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider.The recording, released on September 21 on Sony Music Masterworks, includes gems of the Ibero-American songbook such as “Volver a los 17,” (To Be 17 Again); “Coraçao Vagabundo,” (Vagabond Heart); and “Balderrama,” as well as pieces written to texts by Octavio Paz, Rubén Darío, and Federico García Lorca — all reimagined by a superb group of arrangers including Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen.The connecting thread is that the poets and songwriters featured on Dreamers came from places that have endured brutal state violence. Consider Violeta Parra, from Chile; Joao Gilberto, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, from Brazil; Gustavo “Cuchi” Leguizamón, from Argentina and García Lorca, Spain. Poet, essayist and Nobel Prize winner Paz even resigned as Mexico’s ambassador to India in 1968 to protest his government’s violent repression of student demonstrations.“It is, first of all, an album of incredible songs, beautiful songs,” says Herrera. But it’s beauty with a purpose. The creators featured here, “were affected in different ways, but what transcends is their work, and their work represents love, “ she says. “Love for humanity, love for democracy and the inspiration to dream. It’s important to remember that every big change in history happened because someone dared to dream about it. This work is to inspire people to keep dreaming.”In fact, for Colin Jacobsen, the quartet’s violinist and resident composer and arranger, Dreamers is a reminder that “beauty can come out of terrible situations. This year the world is celebrating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein and I think he has one of the great quotes: ‘This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before’."Dreamers was produced by Brooklyn Rider’s violinist Johnny Gandelsman, whose production credits also include Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble's Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home (2016), and music for the Ken Burns' documentary TV series The Vietnam War.Herrera, who after studying in Los Angeles and Boston settled in New York City in 2008, has proven to be an intrepid jazz singer, and her attitude and skill has led her to intriguing pursuits. In recent years — and these are only some broad brushstrokes — she followed a jazz album of original songs (Distancia, 2009) with a tribute to Mexican composers from the Golden Era of the 1930s and 40s (Mexico Azul, 2011) before pivoting to collaborate with flamenco producer and guitarist Javier Limón (Dawn, 2014).Brooklyn Rider — Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Michael Nicolas, cello — also have made ignoring musical boundaries a defining element of their identity. They served notice with their debut recording Passport (2008), which included arrangements of Armenian folk songs, an arrangement of a song by Mexican rockers Café Tacuba and an original by Jacobsen, and have since continued to expand their repertoire to include music by composers as disparate as Philip Glass, Björk, Vijay Iyer and Elvis Costello. They have also explored collaborations with artists such as banjoist Béla Fleck, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, and Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor.“This