Gypsy jazz is just start for singer
With an origin story readymade for a Hollywood biopic, Cyrille Aimée can’t really blame the media for pigeonholing her as a Gypsy jazz singer.
Growing up in the French village Samois-sur-Seine in the 1990s, the singer (whose name is pronounced sur-real em-ay) fell in love with the propulsive sound of Manouche swing, sneaking out of her room during the annual Django Reinhardt Festival to hang out with Gypsy musicians camping in meadows nearby.
But she’s always resisted taking the easy route. Aimée became something of a sensation as a finalist in “Star Academy” (a French version of “American Idol”) when she walked away from the competition rather than sing music that didn’t interest her. A
few years later, while busking around Europe with friends, she decided to enter the 2007 Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition — and won.
Early in her career, she specialized in the two-guitar Gypsy jazz sound created by Reinhardt, but Aimée has thrived since moving to New York by connecting with an international cadre of musicians. Rather than seeking out players versed in a particular style, “It’s about: Do you like them as a musician as a whole? Do they make you feel something when they play?” says Aimée, 32, who is scheduled to perform two shows Saturday, Aug. 12, in Walnut Creek as part of the Jazz at Lesher series, and once on Sunday, Aug. 13, at San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest.
“It’s not about ‘This person comes from this country or that background.’ New York has great musicians with an amazing range of origins and influences, so you get the best of both worlds — the high level of musicianship and the variety of inspirations that people bring,” she adds.
Aimée has honed a repertoire encompassing French, American and Brazilian standards, but she’s as likely to turn a Michael Jackson song into a delirious romp as interpret Thelonious Monk. The band she’s touring with is designed to let her go anywhere her imagination takes her, with the Israeli drummer Dani Danor and Hawaiian-raised bassist Dylan Shamat.
“Both of the guitarists are French, but Adrien Moignard plays acoustic and is based in the Manouche realm, and Michael Valeanu plays electric, with a much more jazz fusion sound,” says Aimée. “In a Gypsy band, you wouldn’t have a color like that. When you mix the two together, it’s very different, so it’s a very versatile band with a unique sound.”
In many ways, Aimée embodies the international perspective that has long distinguished festivals produced by San Jose Jazz. More than any other jazz event in the region, the South Bay’s Summer Fest captures the dizzy multiplicity that defines the contemporary American jazz scene. Running Friday-Sunday, Aug. 11-13, at venues around the downtown Plaza de Cesar Chavez, the festival also features Benin-born, Brooklynbased star Angelique Kidjo, who is slated to present the Bay Area premiere of her tribute to Cuban salsa queen Celia Cruz at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, on the main outdoor stage on the plaza.
While Kidjo brings her West African roots to the music of an Afro-Cuban pioneer, the rising 24-year-old Cuban vocalist Daymé Arocena is blending Afro-Cuban traditions with an increasingly global palette. Steeped in the sacred chants of Santeria, Arocena is set to perform at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13, at the Hammer Theatre with an extraordinary young Cuban trio led by pianist Jorge Luis Lagarza (the same group that accompanies her at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz on Monday, Aug. 14, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in San Francisco on Aug. 19).
Both Aimée and Arocena’s performances will be recorded for broadcast next month by the multi-platform show “Jazz Night in America,” a co-production of NPR, WBGO and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Indian American vocalist Kavita Shah — who is set to perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, at Cafe Stritch — is another New York standout who made a powerful impression with her 2014 debut release, “Visions,” on Greg Osby’s label, Inner Circle Music. Produced by Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke, the album features her evolving synthesis of jazz, Afro-Brazilian, West African and Hindustani music.
But one needn’t depend on New York to supply all the improvisational firepower at this festival. Rio-born Claudia Villela, a Bay Area mainstay for three decades, is scheduled to also perform at Cafe Stritch with her stellar Brazilian jazz combo featuring reed expert Harvey Wainapel at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13.
Which isn’t to say that San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest ignores straight-ahead jazz. Carmen Lundy is an underappreciated master, a brilliant interpreter of standards and an accomplished songwriter whose acclaimed new album, “Code Noir,” features all originals. She is set to play the Hammer Theatre at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, followed by San Joseraised soul jazz vocalist Jackie Gage, who plays the Jade Lounge later that evening at 10 p.m. Now living in Harlem, the velvet-toned young singer seems to have grown exponentially each time she returns home.