The singer from Palafrugell and pianist from Menorca release their first album as a duet, a work created from a live performance at the Blue Note, a well-known Tokyo jazz club.
Both Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Marco Mezquida believe that the strength of their interpretations lies in their live performances. Hence their live recording of the shared experience they starred in, in one of the Japanese capital’s most popular jazz haunts. That's how they brought us a selection of jazz standards, cover versions, original pieces and songs we had never heard before, first in album format and now as a concert. Two original pieces accompany cover versions of musicians ranging from the Argentinian Jorge Fandermole to Maria del Mar Bonet and musicians from the Anglo-Saxon scene such as Paul Simon and Radiohead, in addition to El pequeño vals vienés, now a classic in the Pérez Cruz repertoire.
The album we’ll be hearing live wasn’t mean to be released until the end of the year, but its early release was prompted by the postponement, due to the Covid-19 crisis lockdown, of another work Sílvia Pérez Cruz was putting together. That was Farsa (Género imposible), a celebration of interdisciplinary artistic endeavour with a certain theatrical dimension, the stage version of which could not be prepared in time for its presentation at the festival. Instead, we’ll be hearing Ma. Live in Tokyo. The title of this work features ma, a Japanese character (間)in the form of a double-opening door between which the moon appears. It refers to a concept that doesn't even exist in our culture but which has to do with what exists between things, that which links and at the same time separates people, times or two opposite worlds. It refers here to the space or silence between two notes of a composition... Or maybe to the air that unites and separates the two people performing it, who happen to be, here, Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Marco Mezquida. Sílvia hails from Empordà and grew up surrounded by music and art. After studying at the Taller de Músics and at the Catalan Higher School of Music, among other prestigious centres, she worked with notable groups ranging from Las Migas to Coetus and collaborated with great musicians (Eliseo Parra and Joan Manuel Serrat, in addition to many others) before establishing herself as one of the most prestigious singers in the country. She performs as a pianist, composer and improviser who is one of the greats in jazz, with a strong connection to flamenco. Her career has led her to collaborate with big names from the world of theatre such as T de Teatre and Julio Manrique, and in 2019 she won a City of Barcelona award with the guitarist Chicuelo for their joint album No hay dos sin tres.
An El Pez Cruz production
The show will be broadcast live by betevé and via the website beteve.cat on Monday, 27 July, at 8.30 pm.
Music performed by: Sílvia Pérez Cruz (voice and guitar), Marco Mezquida (piano) Lighting design: cube.bz Sound engineering: Juan Casanovas Photography: Clara Belles, Cesar Lucadamo
