La Princesa de la Naturaleza—Nature's Princess: SF Bay Area vocalist Maria Marquez creates a stunning Venezuelan jazz vocal album on her latest CD

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Jesse Varela

SEEDS

On her latest album--Princesa de la Naturaleza (Nature's Princess)--vocalist Maria Márquez showcases a brilliant musical bouquet as she explores the melodies of Latin America and her Venezuelan homeland. From romantic boleros embroidered in string quartets to moody tangos dripping with nostalgic accordions, Márquez delivers original and classic compositions with a well-honed jazz sensibility and organic love and respect for her cultural heritage.

"The generation that inspired me most was that of my parents," says Márquez from her Sonoma County home in Northern California's Wine country. "For them, the bolero was essential. It was our daily bread. The influence of Cuba on that region of South America is tremendous and provided the framework for many Venezuelan composers to express themselves, There's a simplicity and purity to old Venezuelan music that I remember hearing in the orchestras of Billo's Caracas Boys and Los Melódicos."

Born in Caracas, Márquez began her professional career singing duet with rock and pop singer Vytas Brenner. Born in Lithuania but raised in Venezuela, Brenner is considered a godfather of Venezuelan rock. María Fernanda (Márquez's full name) appeared with him on national television and at the first Festival de Onda Nueva organized by Aldemaro Romero, one of the Country's greatest composers. She also worked as a music programmer in her hometown at radio station Jazz 95.5 FM.

"From a young age my mother listened to a lot of music and loved to sing. I remember as a child when my parents took me to see Duke Ellington. He played at Teatro Nacional in Caracas. I'll never forget the impression it left on me. I bad never heard anything like it. I didn't understand it but knew it was something important. My mom also loved to listen to swing music and Billie Holiday."

With Brenner, María began to dip into her own cultural heritage. The keyboardist was one of the first to fuse Venezuelan folkloric elements with contemporary idioms like Jazz and rock. Through his experiments, Márquez was exposed to obscure forma of music, Hearing Canto De Pilón for the first time opened her ears to new possibilities. "When I first heard Canto de Pilón and these women singing these com mashing songs in the fields, it left a deep impression. It inspired me to search for worksongs and to reach into the organic folklore."

BLOSSOMS

In 1977, Márquez enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. As a single mother (of daughter Francesca), she graduated in 1982 with a degree in Professional Music. Searching for her vocal identity, she was part, at that time, of a gifted generation of Latin American students at Berklee. Her classmates included the likes of cellist Jacques Morelembaum, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and singer Mili Bermejo, all of whom played in the same band.

María Márquez landed in the Bay Area in 1983, and studied with the late Judy Davis, a famed vocal coach who tutored Barbara Streisand. While integrating into the local scene, she sang with Chalo Eduardo's Brasilian Beat and Voz Do Samba. An appearance at the SF Jazz Festival in 1985 (with Voz Do Samba) garnered positive ink in the SF Chronicle and helped to establish her career. That same year, she collaborated with keyboardist Frank Harris on a 45-rpm disc, featuring the songs Canto de Pilón and Campesina. Fusing Venezuelan folk with electronic textures, the recording received critical acclaim.

1985 continued to prove pivotal as Márquez joined Trio Altamira with Jackeline Rago and Claudia Gómez. The potent trio shared the stage at Davies Symphony Hall with Lucecita Benitez and Pablo Milanés. She returned briefly to Venezuela in 1989, and carne back to join Wild Mango, the all-woman world music band. A great testament to her Wild Mango years is the album Oba, in which she sings a sensuously-delivered Look of Love.

De Uno y Otro Lado is the title of her 1995 debut album. Recorded in Venezuela, it showcased the vibrato and tonal control that define her voice, Interpreting Ellington, Mingus and Silver, as well as several Latin American composers, it signaled her arrival, Her 2000 release Once Cuentos De Amor (Eleven Love Stories), confirmed it. Her sparse textures and interplay caught the attention of producer Chris Blackwell, who released the album on his Palm Pictures label.

A BOUQUET

There is no doubt that La Princesa de la Naturaleza (Nature's Princesa) is Márquez's hest artistic effort to date. It is a modern-day imprint of a golden age. From Consuelo Velásquez's Bésame Mucho (delivered in a medium-slow shuffle groove with Hammond B3 organ) to romantic boleros--with strings like Conny Mendez's Es Decir (It is to Say)--Márquez gives each tune an individual stamp.

"My last album was minimalist--duos, trios, quartets--so I wanted to orchestrate this one differently and give it another texture, as far as instrumentation. The songs also lend themselves to different types of arrangements. Throughout, I explore them with percussion, bass, tuba, sousaphone, clarinet and woodwinds. The string quartet is some thing I always wanted to do, and it's a dream realized. But overall, I would say I concentrated mostly on the orchestrations."