A musician’s journey can be a long trip that rides upon the artist’s personality, but inevitably, the road leads into unexpected territory. The musician always has an option to change direction and pursue more comfortable routes - a choice that many artists readily take. Moving in unfamiliar directions requires courage and only the more daring risk takers venture enthusiastically into the unknown. The first steps are always easy, but it’s the long-term commitment to a new approach that demands focused perseverance. The musician may stumble in the beginning, finding their footing among the new terrain; at first, they rely upon the similarities between this new path and the familiar surroundings of the past. Once the artist embraces the differences, they navigate through the new material with much more ease, immersing themselves in this new direction. The deeper the artist falls into the differences, the more they run the risk of loosing themselves; they essentially need to find a connection back to their original vision. After much thought and experimentation, the musician must evolve into a seamless mixture of the old and new, merging their original ideas with a new direction. The result will be something completely unique, which will undoubtedly inspire attention from fellow travelers. Some of these observers will find fault in the artist’s work, criticizing them for a divergence from tradition and dismissing their music as heresy. Others will celebrate the artist with open arms, championing their music at every turn and relishing in the emergence of a new approach. The artist needs to embrace both these sides of their audience and find ways to build connections; the creation of something new generally signals the start of a longer journey and by necessity, the artist needs to bring their audience with them.

Already deep into the process of establishing herself as a top notch Latin Jazz vocalist with professional support, Kat Parra let her muse grab her artistic attention and alter her direction. Parra built a solid reputation upon the success of her first two releases, Birds in Flight and Azucar De Amor, which found the vocalist performing at the top of her game over stunning arrangements from trombonist Wayne Wallace and pianist Murray Low. These two recordings mostly placed Parra’s vocals within the context of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms, but each album also included Latin Jazz arrangements of traditional Sephardic songs. These songs touched Parra’s connection to the ancient traditional music of the Sephardic Jews, and drove her to dive deeper into the style. Long hours of research and practice led Parra to a greater understanding of Sephardic music and strengthened her conviction to spend more time developing the style. Parra earned a Zellerbach Family Foundation Grant along the way, helping her pursue her interest more intently and ready her ensemble for a leap into the world of Sephardic Jazz. Wallace and Low once again contributed arrangements to Parra’s Sephardic repertoire, but the Zellerbach Grant also allowed the singer to commission arrangements from David Pinto and Oscar Stagnaro. Parra’s group, The Sephardic Music Experience performed around the Bay Area and then headed into the studio to solidify their concept. The resulting album, Dos Amantes, sparkles with an inspired joy that fuels a smart blend of traditional Sephardic songs, Caribbean and South American rhythms, and jazz. This new sound suits Parra, who performs with grace and style through the recording, boldly presenting a distinctly different approach to Latin Jazz.

In the first piece of our interview, we talked with Parra about her early musical development, and then we addressed her emergence as a defined Latin Jazz artist in part two. After years of constant development and growth as an artist, Parra continues to move ahead, pushing herself in new directions today. In the last section of our discussion, Parra talks about Sephardic music, her concept of blending her diverse musical interests, Dos Amantes, and more.

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LATIN JAZZ CORNER: The new album, Dos Amantes, is totally incredible - Sephardic music is something absolutely new to me, something that I’ve never really been exposed to before. I would imagine some of the LJC readers are in the same boat, can you just fill us in - what is it and where does it come from?

KAT PARRA: You’re right, it’s definitely something that not a lot of people know about, although it’s having a bit of a resurgence lately. Sephardic music is music of the Spanish Jews from the Iberian penninsula. There was a golden age of Spain from like 800 to 1200; it was a good span of time where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in relatively harmony with each other. Especially the Muslims and the Jews, they shared a lot of ideas, a lot of innovations, they crossed each other’s cultures. The Jews would wash their feet before they entered the Muslim temples, which was a very Muslim thing to do. The Muslims would have Hebraic text over their Mosque. It was fascinating. Just the irony when I started getting involved in this; I was watching all of this hatred between the Jews and the Muslims, and thinking how sad this is. Then I discovered this golden age where Jews and Muslims actually lived and worked together. I thought, “Can I change the world . . . probably not. But I can do my part in bringing this music out into the world.” It’s beautiful music that transcends time. So this is what really pulled me into this, in addition to the fact that I do have some Spanish Jewishness in me.

The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and they pushed outwards. Many Jews went to Portugal, but were then expelled from there in 1497. The Ottoman Empire welcomed the Jews because they saw that the Jews had been very successful with many different things. The Jews were known as very educated people. They were the people that loaned money because they weren’t allowed to own land. The Jews were very much a part of Spanish society in the courts, very integral in the courts. They were advisors, and again - very, very educated. The Ottoman Empire, which was around Turkey at the time, welcomed them, and so a lot of the Spanish Jews settled in that area. They also settled in Salonica, which is now part of Greece; it was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time. They took with them the keys to their houses, because they were hoping to go back to them. So the key is a very symbolic thing to the Sephardic Jews. They also took with them of course, the language, which is Ladino. Judaeo-Español is the proper terms, but most people call it Ladino now. It’s an antiquated form of Spanish, but it’s also an amalgamation of many different languages. Kind of like English, the way that we’ve adopted words from lots of different languages, Ladino is very similar in that respect.

It was predominantly the women that preserved the secular music. The liturgical music was very much kept alive by the men. I don’t think that the women were allowed to sing that music - but the women kept the secular music alive. A lot of the songs that I sing are a discussion between a mother and a daughter or a rebellious daughter, things like that. It’s hard to know what the actual melodies were, but there are melodies that were preserved from area to area. So obviously they left Spain with some of these songs in tact or these songs that were written after they left Spain. Because of the trading and people traveling from country to country, they taught the songs to their relatives. But somehow this music has survived and grown. Who knows what the actual instrumentation was, but from what I understand, women sang basically acapella. If anything, they would have maybe a frame drum to play with. Nobody really knows for sure what the actual, traditional instrumentation should be, but a lot of people use mideval instruments to represent the music.

I’m taking this music and I’m kind of turning it on its head. The traditionalists are not really happy with what I’m doing, but that’s OK. I really struggled with how to present this music - should it be traditional? Should I stay true to whatever that traditional aspect should be? I realized that when people immigrate to different countries and they leave their homelands behind, it’s almost like they’re frozen in time. They keep the music or their culture and traditions frozen from the day they left their country. So if you go to an Italian festa, people will play the music of the old country, but they’ll play it just like it was played when they left. It’s the same with Cuba - many of the traditional Cubans want to hear traditional Cuban music. I’m of the mind that all music needs to evolve to survive. It’s just like anything in nature; it needs to evolve or it dies. Ladino is a dying language. I don’t speak Ladino fluently - I wish that I could say I do, but I don’t - I’m able to sing in the language and I think that I sing pretty authentically, at least from the Sephardic Jews that I’ve met. They tell me that I’m very authentic with my pronunciation. Based on my research, the Sephardic Jews not only went to the Ottoman Empire and Northern Africa, but they also traveled to the New World. They landed in Recife, Brazil first. The first Jewish synogauge in the New World was in Recife - or at least it was, I’m not sure if it’s still there. The Spanish Jews came to Brazil, they came into the Caribbean - they were on the trading ships that were coming across. The Dutch Trading Company was very big, there were a lot of Jews that were involved with that. They landed in all these different countries that are represented on my CD. So did the music evolve using these rhythms? No, but it could have. Maybe it’s possible that they did; I haven’t discovered that quite yet. It’s hard to know, because most of the Jews that came over were Crypto Jews - they were hiding their religion and they would only practice down in their basement away from all the other people. No one really knew what they were doing, because they could be burned alive. It’s a good reason to hide your religion.

LJC: Back on Birds in Flight and Azucar De Amor there were one or two tracks that linked to Sephardic music, but it seems like your diving in headfirst on the new album and breaking the style wide open. Was this something that you have always wanted to leap into?

KP: I just never know where life is going to take me. I make certain plans, but there’s always twists and turns along the way. My original goal was to be a Latin Jazz singer, but the Sephardic music was something that was interesting to me. I didn’t see myself focusing solely on Sephardic music, which was also another struggle for me. I don’t want to be known as only a Sephardic singer. That was my inner conversation with myself. When I was awarded the Zellerbach grant, having experimented with three Sephardic songs already, I realized that I could meld the two loves together. Why not create a Latin Jazz Sephardic sound? If you came to hear me perform live, and you heard the Latin music next to the Sephardic music, it all just blends very seamlessly together; it works together. That was my vision when I was awarded the Zellerbach grant - I wanted to take this even further than we had already explored and just really dig in deep. I was fortunate enough to get David Pinto and Oscar Stagnaro on board to help with some of the arrangements and really give it a world sound and a different perspective from the Bay Area sound. They really came through for me. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a bad arrangement on the CD, I think all the arrangements are amazing.

LJC: How did you pick the songs for the album? They’re all traditional Sephardic songs, and I’m just guessing, but I would think that is are a huge bank of songs that are part of the tradition.

KP: There’s definately places that have a good amount of Sephardic songs. The way that I choose the songs is I’ll listen to the melody, and I think it’s the melody that first catches me. If it’s something that grabs me personally, then I’ll see what the words mean. If it’s something that resonates with me lyrically and musically, then that’s how I choose the song. The songs that are on the CD are the ones that are considered the more popular songs. These aren’t considered obscure Sephardic songs, so if anyone is familiar with Sephardic music, they will be very familiar with these songs. Also, they’re very accessible - the melody, the lyrics, the way that the music is, they’re very accessible. Did I choose the music because I thought it would be accessible to other people? No, I choose it because I think its beautiful and it resonates with me. I can’t sing something just because I think other people are going to like it. It’s got to come from my heart and my soul.

LJC: It’s very cool how you’ve got the Temple Sinai Choir from Oakland on the album. Is that a group that would be performing Sephardic music here in the Bay Area?

KP: Oh no, not at all - this is very new from them. They’re used to singing in Hebrew and I don’t know if they’ve ever sung in Ladino. Especially when you have a task master like me who insists on good pronunciation! They were just amazingly wonderful; it was a completely volunteer choir and they were just so gracious and so much fun to work with. I’m really hoping that when I go out with my ensemble, we could engage other choirs from around the country and have them perform with us as well.

LJC: Do you get a different reaction from when you perform music from Birds in Flight or Azucar De Amor and do you find that you have educate people a little bit more than you do with your other repertoire?

KP: The Sephardic Music Experience has had great attendance at our shows. I think that part of it is the fact that it is unusal and people are curious. Especially on the West Coast, and especially in the Bay Area, where the Sephardic tradition is not well known at all. I think that curiousity brings people out. The response with all the music whenever I perform, people seem to enjoy it. I get a lot of people coming up to me and talking to me. But the Sephardic music is definitely something that touches people, because it’s something that is so different for them. There are definitely a lot of questions. The fact that I sing predominantly in a foreign language, in Spanish, Portugese, or Ladino, I find that I have to explain - I want the audience to understand on a spiritual level, but I also want them to understand on an educational level. And I think that it’s important, especially with the Sephardic music, that there’s a bit of education there, so if it’s something that’s interesting to them, people will go off, do their own research, and dig a little bit deeper. I went to a concert last night and I talked to a man who had been to one of my concerts in Berkeley. He said, “You know, I was so fascinated with what you were doing, I went home and I just started reading everything I could about Sephardic history.” I thought, that’s what it’s about - something that sparks you enough that it intrigues you to learn more. That felt good.

LJC: This album is deep in Sephardic music; do you have any vision for the future? Are you going to keep pursuing this path or is it going to be more diverse?

KP: I don’t know. I’m feeling that I will probably follow this up with another Sephardic CD, in a similar vein. Kind of like what I did between Birds in Flight and Azucar De Amor - I followed in a similar vein. I don’t want people to think that this is just a flash in the pan, that’s not what this is about for me. This is about what calls to my heart. There’s certainly enough repertoire out there that we can dive into and really develop and continue to create this Sephardic World Jazz sound. If I’m going to create a new genre, I might as well keep going with it! I was awarded a grant through the East Bay community foundation to develop a couple of more songs, so I’ve two songs for the next CD already. I’d like to be able to mix it up with other songs as well - it may be that the next CD is all Sephardic and then I branch out and go back a little bit into the Latin Jazz stuff. Who knows - you never know where life is going to take you!

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Make sure that you check out Part 1 of the LJC interview with Kat Parra and read some history about Parra’s musical development. You can find it HERE.

Keep on reading to get the full scoop - Part 2 of the LJC interview with Kat Parra delves into her move into the Bay Area Latin music scene and the recording of her first two albums. Check it out HERE.

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Latin Jazz Conversations: John Calloway (Part 3)
Latin Jazz Conversations: Jose Madera (Part 3)
Latin Jazz Conversations: Mitch Frohman (Part 3)
Latin Jazz Conversations: Poncho Sanchez (Part 3)

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