Distancia

Comment: This is just an amazing album. I tend to work late into the night and just gradually found myself listening to it more often. It has a wonderful evening feel and seems to show me something different every time. I started out thinking "This is pretty nice!" But that soon morphed into "This is my favorite album of 2009!" I keep buying copies and giving it out to friends. Wow! Currently I am absolutely rapt listening to the percussion, but on different days I tune into different parts. Her voice is rich and fascinating, all that training was not for nothing. I like every tune on the disk, but the ones that really flip my switch are Tus Ojos, Inutil Paisaje, and Veracruz. Especially Veracruz. Give it a few listens if it doesn't grab you right away - it has a wonderful way of creeping up your playlist and becoming indispensable.

Comment: Magos Herrera enchants us with her range of emotion and voice distilling some of the best of Brazil's bossa nova. The instrumental background and support remains elusive with the exception of the solitary voice of a man's adlib and perhaps lover's complaint. The album is pure dream and suggestion.

Comment: Five ENJOYABLE Stars!! Stunning performances! Magos Herrera has become the consummate international jazz singer: she can sing latin pop ballads, dazzle New York's jazz venues, be heralded by DownBeat magazine, visibly mesmerize maestro Don Armando Manzanero on TV in Mexico City with her voice and guitar, and show her versatility through a number of recent recordings, such as Pais Maravilla. And she has ability to sing natively in English, Spanish, and Portuguese but don't let the languages stop you, this music transcends language into a realm of pure wordless enjoyment that the listener should approach like "scat-singing" richly emoted, intense vocal notes. An example is the stunning work on "Reencuentro" (Encounter) where it could be all 'scat' but it's just great music. This music truly comes over a "distance" to the listener from as far away as Brazil, Mexico, Africa, Cuba, the USA and the "distance" from your ear to your heart. It is music that is quite personal, intimate, and at times overwhelming as she takes on some new songs and some Jobim, Nascimento, and Portillo de la Luz classics. The excellent backup group has DownBeat "guitar rising star winner" Lionel Loueke who is also on vocals, the inventive Aaron Goldberg on piano, and the excellent shadings and underpinnings of Ricky Rodriguez on bass and Alex Kautz drums.

The 'best of the best' begins with "Reencuentro" (Encounter), which has Ms Herrera's vocal 'beat box' surging into 'scat' and eventually into Spanish and it's just great singing, with Mr Loueke's laying down an intense densely chorded solo. "Alegria" has Magos soaring and very inventive with the group showing their Coltrane influences through some intense solos over a modal underpinning. The lush "Tus Ojos" (Your Eyes) is an example of the fact that Ms Herrera sings in Spanish on an almost spiritual level of pure beauty, and here her group gives us some blazing solos from Aaron Goldberg on piano and Lionel Loueke on guitar, with Kautz' laying down effective rim shots over Rodriguez' hip bass lines. The Tom Jobin/Chico Buarque classic "Retrato Em Branco e Preto" (Portrait in Black & White), so closely associated with the late, great Brazilian super-diva Elis Regina becomes a jazzy, hip, modally-paced, and very emotional journey with Alex Kautz dropping Elvin Jones-like bombs in the background over Goldberg's inventive Tyner-isms. The classic Jobim tune "Dindi" is given a captivating performance. She 're-imagines' Milton Nascimento's "Vera Cruz", singing in Spanish, using arrangement elements from Elis Regina's original shorter version, stretching it way out with vocal nuances, hot instrumental solos, and a surprising wild coda that drops us into the middle of a South American street festival. And perhaps best of all is her overwhelmingly beautiful performance of César Portillo de la Luz' classic composition "Tu Mi Delirio" ("You, My Delirium"), which is Ms Herrera's best vocal performance on a CD that is full of superlative vocal and musical performances. Magos Herrera is a fascinating, multi-talended singer and this is one of 2009's best vocal performances. My Highest Recommendation. Five INTERNATIONAL Stars! (This review is based on an iTunes download)
RBSProds review.

Comment: Magos Herrera's lucid, flowing contralto achieves full expression in this latest offering. Originally from Mexico, she blends influences and shifts effortlessly between languages to create a distinctive signature that is world jazz without borders. This disc nicely captures the intensity of her live performances, which are not to be missed.