| All About Jazz- NYC |
| About the album MOBILE: "Her voice is light and elastic, sporting a fierce intellect. Couple this with a vision/sense of humor and the result is a radioactive type of 21st Century Beat Poetry. (...) Serpa's use of the texts is sparse and serves as a jumping-off point for the composer/singer to indulge vocal/musical flights of fancy inspired by the verse.(...) Serpa is searching, and her search continues to provide compelling and provocative music. " |
| To read more click here |
| Chicago Jazz Magazine |
| About the album MOBILE: "Serpa’s wordless improvisations rival those of any instrumentalists.(...). Serpa’s creativity is not diminished when she utilizes lyrics, as on the Fado “Sem Razăo” (the only track not composed by her), a song popularized by the legendary Amelia Rodrigues, that Serpa makes it all her own without losing sight of the original’s legacy. (...)Mobile is a musical journey inspired by the wanderings of the artist, but it is also, like its namesake, the work of art in motion that can be experienced from a fresh perspective with every listen." |
| To read more click here |
| Best of 2011 Lists |
"Best Vocal CD"- Step Tempest Blog " Fifty Favorite albums of 2011"- by Larry Appelbaum "Best 25 Jazz Albums of 2011"- Lucid Culture Blog |
| Jazziz Magazine (USA) |
| by Jon Garelick "When Serpa solos on “Gold Digging Ants,” she creates music any trumpeter or saxophonist would be proud of — varied in texture and dynamics, elastic in rhythm, but with a core motivic logic that seems to emerge spontaneously from one phrase to the next. So, no, listeners don’t need to Google all those books to appreciate this le all those books to appreciate this rich, satisfying CD or to feel their weighty influence on the singer." |
| To read more click here |
| Jazzman Magazine (France) |
| CHOC review "Sara Serpa's commitment to this special and difficult project and her pure voice without vibrato works wonders - and like the companions of Ulysses it would be difficult not surrender to it. The chosen crew is superbly fierce, playing attuned, while managing to come up four different and original speeches that fit like a lightweight luxury puzzle.It is up to listeners to disassemble and re-assemble it at your leisure, in order to appreciate all its subtleties" |
| New York Times (USA) |
| " Ms. Serpa, a savvy and technically nimble young jazz singer, wrote all but one of the mercurial themes on “Mobile,” inspired by a range of literary sources: Steinbeck, Herodotus, Naipaul. Her ensemble, featuring Kris Davis on piano and Andre Matos on guitar, advances her cause with sleek authority." |
| To read more click here |
| Jazz Times Magazine (USA) |
| " (...) on the tunes she demonstrates a tightly knit relationship with guitaris André Matos, who plays strict unisons with her haunting wordless vocals on twisting, stoptime numbers like "Sequoia Gigantis", "Ulysses' Costume" and "Ahab's Lament" " |
| To read more click here |
| Jazzpoes (Belgium) |
“(…) sparkling ideas and interpretations provide exciting colors and a compelling atmosphere, mixing influences from the land of the fado with jazz. You can live to be carried away” |
| Goddeau (Belgium) |
| “MOBILE is surprising and beautiful. Understanding Serpa’s music and idiosyncrasies requires some time and patience. Whoever is willing to do it, will discover a great new talent who might make a real break through.” |
| To read more click here |
| Jazz Inside Magazine (US) |
" Serpa's voice is ubiquitous (...). The listening experience involved is indeed something like following the movements of a sculptured, constructed mobile suspended from some sequestered ceiling (...)". Jazz Inside Magazine |
| Midwest Records (USA) |
"(...)this is a four star, progressive jazz vocal date" |
| Ypsilon, O Público (PT) |
Serpa creates a brave new world, mysterious and nostalgic, where her clear and personal sound resides. We discover something different from anything we have heard before”. |
| Step Tempest (USA) |
"Mobile" moves the listener in many directions, whether it's the fine keyboard work of Kris Davis, Andre Matos strong guitar playing, or the active and reactive rhythm section of Ted Poor and Ben Street. Sara Serpa's vision for the project is impressive - the creativity of her vocal work is yet another reason for one to explore this music time and again." |
| To read more click here |
| Lucid Culture (USA) |
" Sara Serpa puts the world on notice. In this era where full-length albums are becoming noticeably scarcer, they still make a handy way to follow the careers of the musicians and composers who continue to record them. Notable example: Sara Serpa.(...)Her clear, unadorned, disarming voice has an extraordinary directness, and honesty, and depth of feeling: if it was possible to look a mile down and see the bottom of the ocean with perfect clarity, Serpa would be the instrument to make that happen |
| To read more click here |
| Boston Globe (USA) |
"Born in Lisbon, the exceptional vocalist writes mostly songs without words and utilizes her crystal-clear soprano voice as just another essential instrument in the spare, chamber-jazz mix. This gig celebrates her new, literature-inspired disc, “Mobile,’’ a tribute to John Steinbeck, Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, and European graphic novelist Hugo Pratt’s iconic adventurer, Corto Maltese, among others." |
| To read more click here |
| Stanford Radio (USA) |
"Portuguese vocalist/composer Sara Serpa is truly unique. Serpa’s near-ethereal scatting is predominant here, with her supple, crystal-clear voice soaring in a realm of pure (but angular) melody. Great literary works with voyaging themes are the inspiration for ten challenging pieces. She’s backed by a fine modernist quartet including Kris Davis on piano and Andre Matos on guitars. Cool stuff." |
| To read more click here |
| Jazz Review (USA) |
"Unlike most vocalists, Serpa is not always 'out front.' Sometimes she accompanies the others, and sometimes they accompany her. She is completely integrated into her exceptionally fine band. The composing here is also world-class, and Serpa's music is consistently far more substantial than the typical jazz vocalist fare. Her tendency towards musical risk-taking pays huge artistic dividends throughout "Mobile." |
| To read more click here |
| Radio France |
| by Alex Dutilh, about a performance at Festa do Jazz 2011 "A climax, charming, full of introspection, with some vocal audacities too (perfectly in tune voice, beautiful colors)and as a result : a real invitation to travel" |
| To read more click here |
| Jazz Times (USA) |
| by Bill Beutller about "Camera Obscura" "It's a gem of an album with rising star Serpa." |
| To read more click here |
| Signal to Noise (USA) |
| by Brian Marley about "Camera Obscura" "She has a stratospheric upper register which is absolutely secure. (...) The standout track is the opener "When Sunny Get Blue", which has an unsettled and unsettling quality..." |
| To read more click here |
| The Australian (Australia) |
| by John McBeath "Serpa's extraordinary voice and unique approach reach astonishing levels when she sings wordlessly to blend into her backing group." |
| To read more click here |
| All About Jazz (NYC) |
| by Ken Dryden "Although “Camera Obscura” has a surprisingly short running time of under 30 minutes, the magical blend of Blake's piano with Serpa’s voice proves captivating." |
| To read more click here |
| All About Jazz (Italy) |
| By Angelo Leonardi in All About Jazz- Italy by Angelo Leonardi “ The singer plays wisely with nuances and dissonances, getting in tune with Ran Blake’s Noir universe, adding to each song a dim light, sometimes even sinister, but very appealing. Ran Blake is very supportive, always aware- his suggestions are always efficient- This is an album of laconic beauty, unvealing its charm each time we listen to it. |
| Point of Departure |
| by Bill Shoemaker "Serpa may well establish herself in the top tiers of singers in the next few years; if she does, her stature will be traced back to the promise these performances exude.” |
| To read more click here |
| Jazzitis (Spain) |
| by Ricardo Arribas "Camera Obscura is a recording that encourages us to hear it several times. At each time we find new places where it is a pleasure to enter". |
| To read more click here |
| O Público- Ypsilon (Portugal) |
| by Rodrigo Amado "Sara Serpa is the prominent figure of the national jazz of 2010". |
| To read more click here |
| The Australian |
| About the album "Camera Obscura" "The remainder are various standards in flexible tempos, opening with When Sunny Gets Blue beautifully rendered in Serpa's incomparable style: fragile and ethereal, yet assertive and deeply expressive, with a perfect soprano command of pitch. Blake's complex chords and sympathetic approach combine well with Serpa's skilful interpretation, notable at the song's ending where dissonant treble chords add dimension to the final two semitones" |
| To read more click here |
| The Age (Australia) |
| by Jessie Nichols, November 2010 (preview for Wangaratta Jazz Festival) Portuguese singer Sara Serpa sees her still-blossoming career as a path - or, rather, a series of paths. Some of these paths have been followed to their conclusion; others embarked upon and abandoned, and still others lie ahead, beckoning seductively. |
| To read more click here |
| The Australian (Australia) |
| by John McBeath, November 2010 (about recent performance at Wangaratta Jazz Festival) Portuguese songstress Sara Serpa, now New York-based, has attracted much attention; she not only looks superb with a model's features, she has an amazing vocal range. Her style is to sing wordlessly as if an instrument, often in unison with the guitar. Her crystal-like tones floated delicately from the stage with sensitive backing from her guitarist husband Andre Matos |
| To read more click here |
| Jazzman Magazine (France) |
| by Philippe Carles, October 2010 (about the duo album "Camera Obscura" with Ran Blake) "Bright, ethereal, fresh, pure and exquisitely juvenile: these are some of the qualities one can hear when listening to the Portuguese singer discovered by Ran Blake among his students at New England Conservatory. (...) Without hesitations we can say that Sara Serpa is a voice in ascension" |
| The Jerusalem Post |
| By Barry Davis “Blake and Serpa sound like good friends and they work well together, plying their way through complex chord structures like a knife through the proverbial creamy butter. This pair conveys a sense of commensurate ease, bordering on the insouciant, when executing material that with other artists may have sounded highly challenging..” |
| To read more click here |
| The New York Times |
| by Ben Ratliff, September 2010 (about a live performance at Cornelia Street Cafe) "Sara Serpa, a young Portuguese jazz singer who’s been living in New York for the last few years, is cool all over, from concept to execution(...) She’s got a style just about locked down. She sang the themes — wide intervals, alternation of short and long notes in a continuous, balanced stream of sound (...)" |
| To read more click here |
| Lucid Culture |
| by Alan Young, September 2010 (about a live performance at Cornelia Street Cafe) "Sara Serpa transcends everything. (...) In an unadorned, vibratoless, crystalline delivery with a clarity so pure it was scary, Serpa sang mostly carefully chosen and stunningly nuanced vocalese (...)" |
| To read more click here |
| O Expresso |
| by Raul Vaz Bernardo (about the new duo album with Ran Blake,"Camera Obscura") "The way Serpa styles her singing, without any embellishments, and her resolute delivery of each poem and melody are remarkable.(...) Suddenly we have pure gems, like "Get out of Town" and "April in Paris", charming by their simplicity (...)" |
| The New York Times |
| by Nate Chinen (about the duo album with Ran Blake, "Camera Obscura") "(...)Temperamentally Ms. Serpa is worlds apart from Ms. Lincoln — she has a bright, airy, emphatically youthful sound — but on this album she often pares down to the essence of a melody, leaving most embellishment to Mr. Blake. The directness of her expression feels, in context, like a nod to Ms. Lincoln(...)" |
| To read more click here; "A Style Lasting Beyond a Lifetime" |
| LA Jazz Scene |
| by Scott Yanow (about the new album with Ran Blake, "Camera Obscura") " While Blake alternates between being sympathetic and coming up with explosive ideas, Sara Serpa is unperturbed, bringing beauty to the melodies of such songs as "When Sunny Gets Blue," Thelonious Monk's "Nutty" and "Get Out Of Town" plus a variety of obscurities and originals. Her voice is quite attractive, she never loses sight of the melody and the song's plot, and she proves to be a very able musical partner to the unique Ran Blake." |
| Lucid Culture- Blog |
| by Alan Young (about "Camera Obscura", the duo album with Ran Blake) "She approaches these songs with a devastating clarity and vulnerability: her delivery is completely unadorned, yet absolutely resolute and ultimately fearless. This is arguably the best album so far this year in jazz(...). Together these two have raised the bar for jazz singing – and accompaniment – to an absurdly high level." |
| Read more |
| O Público |
| by Rodrigo Amado (about the duo album with Ran Blake, "Camera Obscura") “ Far from predictable artifices that most jazz singers use, Sara Serpa leaps into her most important artistic step and reassures her place as one of the most interesting voices from the actuality. (...)The profound empathy and musical delivery between Serpa and Blake make these short 30 minutes of music into an album with the highest level of creativity.” |
| National Public Radio- NPR |
| by Josh Jackson "(...)Portuguese singer Sara Serpa adds some incandescent wordless vocals to "Cobilla" and the title track (...)" |
| First Listen: NPR |
| All About Jazz. |
| by John Barron, July 2010 (about Danilo Perez's new album "Providencia") Portugese-born, New York-based singer Sara Serpa, who specializes in wordless vocalizing, brings out the melodic strength in Pérez's writing. She floats effortlessly through the challenging theme of the title track. One of the more enticing tracks on the disc, Pérez takes advantage of the tune's melodic repetition to apply a countering barrage of piano showmanship. |
| Click here to read more |
| The New York Times |
| by Nate Chinen. December 2009 “Praia” (Inner Circle) is the appealingly self-assured debut by Sara Serpa, a young Portuguese singer now serving a productive apprenticeship with the alto saxophonist Greg Osby. |
| Click here to read more |
| National Public Radio- NPR |
| Listen to Serpa on her own "Dez Longas Dias De Chuva," and it's abundantly clear that she has always had her ear to jazz. |
| Sara Serpa: Wordless Jazz Improvisation |
| Time Out New York |
| Sara Serpa got a career boost recently when saxist Greg Osby produced her debut, Praia. The Portuguese singer-composer puts forth a compelling vision on the disc: Alternately tight and abstract, her bold writing highlights her airily precise voice. |
| Sara Serpa in Time Out NY |
| The New York Times |
| by Nate Chinen, August 2008 Mr. Osby has a strong new album, “9 Levels,” on his own new label, Inner Circle. (Now available as a download at innercirclemusic.net, it will soon be issued on CD.) The album features a close facsimile of the current band, with piano standing in for vibraphone; among its more distinctive sonic elements is Ms. Serpa, a bright young Portuguese singer.Through most of the set Ms. Serpa, who has her own Inner Circle release due out in the fall, sang in airtight unison with Mr. Osby: an impressive feat, given the leaps and syncopations of a tune like “Vertical Hold.” She showed even more composure on her own piece, “Praia,” which overlays a poplike structure with a slaloming melodic line. |
| Click here to read more |
| The Boston Globe |
| by Siddhartha Mitter, March 2007 She´s unique beyond words. When fully expressed, the human voice has such potential that instruments are crafted to imitate it, not the other way round. In fact, whole traditions of music honor the voice above all other instruments. Seen this way, a song can be a terribly limiting thing. Verses and refrains shackle inventiveness. Lyrics force subtle shadings of tone into foregone conclusions, constrained by language and vocabulary. That’s just one way of looking at things, of course, but it's enough to have bred a stream of jazz musicians who use their voice to interpret mainly wordless compositions. It's a different technique than scatting: In wordless singing the voice harmonizes with the other instruments, improvises, maybe takes a solo. It's hard to do, and when done poorly, can be quite a drag. Now a young singer and composer who has embraced the technique to great effect is emerging on the Boston scene. Sara Serpa was the featured guest of saxophone great Greg Osby during a recent Berklee residency. Wednesday, she takes the stage at Ryles as the leader of her quintet |
| Click here to read more |
| All About Jazz. |
| by Phil DiPietro. November 2008. She's the freshest vocalist on the scene at the moment, not just because she's new to it at age 28. (...)A main reason is that with one recording in, she raises profound questions regarding the previous role of the vocalist in jazz. |
| Click here to read more |
| Downbeat |
| by Dan Oulette, December 2008 Article about the label Inner Circle Music "(...) I had been looking for a new foil to bring a different color to my music,"said Osby, who discovered the Portugal-born vocalist through MySpace." I was fishing around and checking out a page of a friend who worked with Sara. I went to her page and her singing was so melodic, so perfect. Her music sounded like it should have sounded-not manufactured, not overproduced.(...)" "Singing in his band is a work in progress, Greg is a musician with a long career who has experienced many different things in music," Serpa said, "My aspiration is to absorb all I can while I share the stage with him as a singer, composer and improviser. He's giving me the opportunity to be exposed to challenging musical environments (...)" |
| All About Jazz |
| by Frank A. Matzner, October 2008 Interview with Greg Osby about new record and new label "AAJ: Let's take a look at the first release for the label, 9 Levels. A tremendous work, owing its success in no small part to the new slate of band members,including vocalist Sara Serpa who is heavily featured. You discovered Sara on the Internet, correct? GO: Right, right. I was surfing. I was on a friend's page and she happened to be [pictured] there and I said, what a charming looking young lady. Which isn't really what I said, you understand. Wow. She's fine! [Laughs] Then, I was listening and on the first tune she was singing this tricky rhyme and she was perfectly in tune. And her delivery had this really nice lilt to it, a nice bounce. Man, she sounded like a flute at times then she sounded like a trumpet, then at times violin tendencies and guitarist, percussion things. It wasn't necessarily a scat thing—more like a horn. And I had been thinking for years, who am I going to employ to be my trusted second? I'd had guitarists, other horn players, tenors, trumpets, trombones. For a long time I'd be like: If I could get a singer that could sing my melodies in tandem with me and ghost my melodicism, I'd be there. Now there are a couple of other people that I've considered, but they don't have the improvisational prowess that Sara has. She can look at chord changes and negotiate them like a horn player. She has perfect pitch. Great range, incredible stamina, and just a fearlessness that is necessary to get on stage with a group like us. AAJ: It also sounds like this band has pushed your own playing to new places. GO: Well, I had to create custom material for the individuals' personalities. Which was challenging because I didn't really know them that well. I knew them enough to know that I would have to step up my game. So given that, the music I wrote was the most difficult music I've ever written in my life, technically. I had to actually practice it for a really long time to execute it. Then I heard Sara singing it and she was nailing it a lot more accurately than I was! That was impressive." |
| Click here to read more |
| All About Jazz. |
| by Mark F. Turner, August 2008 The sextet's sixth element is found in the unique vocals of singer Sara Serpa from Lisboa, Portugal. Her voice a finely tuned instrument, serious scattin' on "Truth," choral phrases on "Humility" or wordless touches like a painter's brushstrokes on canvass on the lovely abstract piece "Tolerance.” |
| Click here to read more |
| All About Jazz. |
| by Phil DiPietro. November 2008. (about collaboration in ROSA-SHOCK by André Matos) The most obvious difference between this and some of the other stellar TOAP dates, is the presence of a vocalist, the remarkable Sara Serpa. With four new releases hitting almost simultaneously—including a brilliant debut recording, she makes an unexpected and deceptively simple bid to challenge nothing less than the very concept of the role of a jazz vocalist in a small ensemble. Serpa doesn't sing songs as much as she becomes part of them, using no lyrics, with a natural vocalese that cannot be called scatting. Singing as any front-line member of the ensemble would play, she moves effortlessly from melodist to soloist to ensemble voice.(…) Because if Serpa's Praia and this recording by Matos are any indication, their dance should continue to be fruitful, surprising and enticing for years to come. |
| Click here to read more |
| All About Jazz. |
| by Franz A. Matzner While each player possesses enormous ability in his or her own right, it is Serpa’s astonishing vocal ability that clearly forms the heart of Osby’s latest endeavor, and it was her stunningly unique approach that left the Kennedy Center’s audience breathless. (…)Blending her voice with Osby’s alto in a wordless improvisation, Serpa seamlessly integrated her lines and solos together with Osby’s. Acting more as an additional frontline horn than a traditional vocalist, Serpa’s vocal style resists description and defies the task of identifying precursors or analogs. More than a modernized scatť, Serpa has abandoned the syllabic conventions codified in earlier decades for a thoroughly contemporary form based on flowing lines, color, and texture, owing its closest relation perhaps to opera, with a bit of Luciana Souza, Bjork, and the only briefly recorded Devorah Day mixed.(…)As a first outing, the Osby Five’s performance can only be summarized as heraldic, and Serpa a phenomena |
| Click here to read more |
| The DCist |
| by Sriram Gopal. May 2009 Vocalist Sara Serpa's career track is a road less traveled in today's jazz world. Many singers are beholden to the past, choosing to express themselves through the standards of yesteryear, while trying to recreate the sound of the great crooners, whether it be Sinatra, Holiday, or Fitzgerald. Serpa, originally from Lisbon, Portugal, not only does not limit herself to old material, but has an approach closer to that of an instrumentalist instead of a chanteuse |
| Click here to read more |
| About.com |
| by Jacob Teichroew, December 2008 There is underlying joy on 9 Levels, due mostly to three things: Greg Osby’s laughing improvisation style, Sara Serpa’s smooth-as-glass voice, and the conversational nature of the solos. |
| Click here to read more |
| The Chicago Reader |
| by Peter Margasak, August 2008 He hasn't released much since parting ways with Blue Note a couple years ago, but for the fine new 9 Levels (…) he's assembled an unusual group with guitarist Nir Felder, drummer Hamir Atwal, bassist Joseph Lepore, pianist Adam Birnbaum, and a Portuguese singer, Sara Serpa, whom he discovered on MySpace. They handle his twisty postbop compositions with impressive fluidity and clarity, darting through precise arrangements marked by running contrapuntal commentary and taut unison figures--Serpa is especially impressive, her wordless vocals locked to Osby's sax lines in perfect tune. |
| Click here to read more |
| Jazz.pt |
| by António Branco. January 2009. Even before her debut cd had been released, Sara Serpa was already making history on the national jazz archives, as the first Portuguese musician performing at the legendary New York venue, The Village Vanguard, as a sideman in Greg Osby’s band. (...)With a very personal approach to music, Sara Serpa presents herself as a composer and improviser, singing wordless, through a crystal clear voice, on the same level as her fellow instrumentalists. (...) To summarize, this is an interesting debut by a vocalist that will clearly change the vocal scene in and outside of Portugal in the years to come." |
| Jazz no País do Improviso |
| by Joăo Moreira dos Santos, January 2009 Praia is a challenging and original work that it is worth listening to. It reveals the beginning of Sara Serpa’s exploration of her great creative potential- Serpa is a singer that can go further and what we listen to now is just the tip of a big iceberg of talent. Two things we know for sure: Serpa has all it needs to bring this talent to the surface and is very well accompanied by guitarist Andre Matos. Matos, once again proved to be one of the greatest Portuguese guitarist of the moment, with his unique sound and phrasing. |
| Click here to read more |
| O Sítio do Jazz |
| by Manuel Jorge Veloso, January 2009 Going straight to the point, Praia is an album that I have enjoyed listening to with great pleasure. Sara Serpa’s choice of expressing herself, technically and aesthetically, through wordless vocals, without vibrato, is specially demanding and brave, going beyond the traditional scat. Not only Serpa exposes keen flexibility, perfect intonation, harmonic ear, amazing range and use of extended techniques but also she proves to be a composer of great quality, being all the pieces recorded in this album of her own. (…). |
| Click here to read more |
| O Expresso |
| by Raul Vaz Bernardo. January 2009. (about collaboration in ROSA-SHOCK by André Matos) What brings even more value to this recording is the presence of the vocalist Sara Serpa. Recently, Serpa has collaborated with Greg Osby, with whom she recorded his first record for his new label, Inner Circle Music. Sara Serpa is a phenomenon of musicality. Her limpid, wordless and non-exhibitionist way of singing is natural and spontaneous, becoming part of the whole orchestral ensemble, without restraint. Listen to “Rare Birds” and you will find the reason why Mr. Osby must have been surprised when he first heard her |
| Bodyspace.net |
| by Nuno Catarino, December 2008 Serpa owns an amazing vocal quality and with this album "Praia", she demonstrates a rare audacity, taking risks fearlessly, without worrying about commercial factors. |
| Click here to read more |
| Jazz.pt |
| by Paulo Barbosa , July 2007 (...) Sara Serpa was a good surprise, presenting one of the best concerts at Festa do Jazz. Her compositions are very strong and the trio featuring Albert Sanz, Masa Kamaguchi and R.J. Miller played with an exciting sense of communion. Guitarist André Matos, always getting better on his improvisation skills, brought to the music an interesting color. Serpa took high risks and proved to have an amazing control of her instrument, making a successful use of few "out of tune" pitches as one more vocal effect. Kamaguchi demonstrated that he's one of the most virtuoso and musical double bass players of the moment |
| O Sol |
| by Dora Guennes, September 2007 "She's one of new talents of jazz in Portugal. Vocalist and composer, owner of a sweet and ethereal voice, Sara Serpa leads her own quintet and dreams about an international career. " |
| Click here to read more |
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