LUCÍA

Three years ago, 23-year-old singer LUCÍA was a finalist at the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition – and the first Mexican artist to enter the contest. When it came time to select the song that she would perform in the final round, she picked a standard that reflected her musical sensibility, colored in equal parts by the beauty of jazz and the Latin American songbook.

“We played ‘What a Difference a Day Makes,’ which was popularized by Dinah Washington, but in its initial incarnation was a bolero written in Spanish by María Grever,” she says from her home in New York City. “We started it as a jazz ballad in English, then switched to Spanish and added some zapateado dancing. My mother arrived with a contingent of fellow Mexicans to cheer me on. She told me that being able to sing in Spanish while dancing was what made me different from everyone else.”

Lucía won the competition, and the fact that she did it with such a soulful, multicultural rendition of a jazz standard also marked her arrival on the music scene. “What a Difference a Day Makes” is now the opening cut of the self-titled Lucía, an exquisite debut album that showcases the luminous qualities of her voice, and her superb technique and versatility.

From her velvety reading of McCoy Tyner and Sammy Cahn’s “You Taught My Heart To Sing” and an achingly vulnerable cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy” to a mournful “Alfonsina y el Mar” and a version of “Veracruz” that brims with Lucía’s Mexican pride, the album finds the emerging singer surrounded by a cadre of jazz virtuosos: Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon, American double-bassist Larry Grenadier, Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, and Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sánchez. The session was helmed by visionary producer Matt Pierson, known for his work with legends such as Brad Mehldau, Milton Nascimento and Samara Joy.

“There was a moment in the studio when we were recording ‘Veracruz’ and I just started to cry,” Lucía recalls. “It was that line about Veracruz shimmering in my soul, and the need to return to its distant beaches. I had sung that beautiful Agustín Lara song in choir during elementary school, and suddenly here I was, making a record with Antonio Sánchez and Larry Grenadier standing next to me. Matt asked me if I was OK, and I explained that I was crying out of sheer happiness.”

Her innate talent was nurtured from a very young age. Born in Veracruz, Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso began performing at age two, together with her parents Laura Rebolloso and Ramón Gutiérrez and their acclaimed Son de Madera, a son jarocho ensemble. She grew up surrounded by fandangos and the son jarocho community, and is also the niece of Quetzal Flores, founder of the Los Angeles-based Chicano rock band Quetzal. Most importantly, Lucía’s parents played many records at home – from the salsa nuggets of El Gran Combo to the Latin folk of Mercedes Sosa and the healing Soul sides of Aretha Franklin.

“I never had a Justin Bieber phase,” she laughs. “I was eight years old and was already obsessed with The Beatles, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV, which resulted in a few tantrums, but now I’m grateful about that because those choices expanded my horizons.”

After getting a degree in Jazz Studies from the university of Veracruz, Lucía contributed vocals to Mexican singer/songwriter Natalia Lafourcade’s De Todas Las Flores–one of the key Latin albums of the 21st century.She also performed with Lafourcade at Carnegie Hall (as well as being a backup singer on tour for two years), an experience that had a massive effect on her carving out her own path.

“I got really nervous minutes before going onstage,” she admits. “Our performance involved zapateado, and I was scared of falling down. This was uncharted territory for me, and anything could go wrong. But when I saw Natalia singing alone with her guitar in front of thousands of people, any signs of nervousness faded away. At that moment, I decided to invest everything I had into my performance.”

With the release of her debut album coming up in May 2025, Lucía is planning a tour across Europe and the Americas that will present her unique approach to her songbook to the world. The combination of traditional American jazz with the warmth of Latin folk remains at the core of her identity – both as a person, and a vocalist.

“If sticking to jazz standards is your thing, then that’s incredibly cool,” she says with the relentless positivity that defines her in conversation. “I love all that stuff so much, but there is also another side of me that resonates deeply whenever I go to a fandango party or a son jarocho concert. I wouldn’t be true to myself if I just did an album of songs in English. Fortunately, Matt (Pierson) appeared and connected with my vision immediately.”

She pauses for a minute, and smiles. “I was in love with jazz and doing big band recitals, but on my debut album, I managed to fuse that sound with my own roots in a very organic way,” she says. “I wanted to generate a musical project that would paint an accurate picture of who I really am.”

Lucía’s future looks bright indeed with her sparkling onstage presence and a debut album that represents the global evolution of jazz, where cultures from all over the world can dance together in harmony.

Walter Smith III

August 5, 2019 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport, RI, USA
August 25, 2019 Da Camera
Houston, TX, USA

Steve Lehman Trio // "The People I Love" US Tour

September 19, 2019 Kuumbwa Jazz Center
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
September 20, 2019 SFJAZZ Center
San Francisco, CA, USA
September 21, 2019 Constellation
Chicago, IL, USA
September 22, 2019 Bop Stop
Cleveland, OH, USA
September 24, 2019 – September 25, 2019 Jazz Standard
New York, NY, USA
September 26, 2019 Regatta Bar
Boston, MA, USA

The Jazz Gallery All-Stars

September 1, 2020 – October 18, 2020 AVAIL Worldwide

Tigran Hamasyan

April 30, 2020 Lawrence University
Appleton, WI, USA

Theo Croker 'Star People Nation'

September 14, 2019 Lodge Room
Los Angeles, CA, USA
September 16, 2019 Springfield Technical Community College
Springfield, MA, USA
September 20, 2019 – September 21, 2019 Blue LLama
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
September 23, 2019 Dizzy's Club (Big Brother Big Band)
New York, NY, USA
October 22, 2019 CBE
Cologne, Germany
October 27, 2019 Grillo Theater
Essen, Germany
November 1, 2019 The Loft, UCSD
San Diego, CA, USA

Gerald Clayton Quartet US Tour

September 23, 2019 – September 24, 2019 Lied Center (Solo)
Lawrence, KS, USA
September 27, 2019 Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey, CA, USA
September 28, 2019 – September 29, 2019 Moss Theatre
Los Angeles, CA, USA
October 1, 2019 Musical Instrument Museum
Phoenix, AZ, USA
October 3, 2019 The Outpost
Albuquerque, NM, USA
October 4, 2019 Santa Fe Music Collective
Santa Fe, NM, USA
October 6, 2019 Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
Half Moon Bay, CA, USA
October 7, 2019 University of Nevada
Reno, NV, USA
October 8, 2019 The Triple Door
Seattle, WA, USA
October 10, 2019 – October 13, 2019 Jazz Standard
New York, NY, USA
October 16, 2019 Blues Alley
Washington, DC, USA
October 19, 2019 The Factory at Franklin
Franklin, TN, USA
November 20, 2019 Herb Alpert Music Center (Solo)
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Buika

August 1, 2019 Patio Theater
Chicago, IL, USA
August 3, 2019 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport, RI, USA

JD Allen

January 25, 2020 Jefferson Center
Roanoke , VA, USA

New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

September 1, 2019 Detroit Jazz Festival
Detroit, MI, USA
December 13, 2019 – December 14, 2019 JALC with René Marie
New York, NY, USA

Marcus Lewis Big Band

September 3, 2019 Des Moines Jazz Festival
Des Moines, IA, USA

Camila Meza & The Nectar Orchestra

August 4, 2019 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport, RI, USA
September 14, 2019 Lake George Jazz Festival
Lake George, NY, USA
September 28, 2019 Tempe Arts Center
Tempe, AZ, USA
October 12, 2019 Mondriaan Jazz Festival
The Hague, Netherlands
November 8, 2019 SFJAZZ
San Francisco, CA, USA
November 11, 2019 Arcata Playhouse
Arcata, CA, USA
November 15, 2019 – November 16, 2019 Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Marcus Strickland 'Twi-Life'

August 4, 2019 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport, RI, USA

Joel Ross 'Good Vibes' 'Kingmaker' Release Tour

August 3, 2019 Newport Jazz Festival
Newport, RI, USA
August 30, 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival
Chicago, IL, USA
September 13, 2019 White Plains Jazz Festival
White Plains, NY, USA
October 17, 2019 Kummbwa Jazz Center
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
October 18, 2019 Vashon Center for the Arts
Vashon, WA, USA
October 19, 2019 Earshot Jazz Festival
Seattle, WA, USA
October 20, 2019 Holocene
Portland, OR, USA
October 21, 2019 Brubeck Institute
Stockton, CA, USA
October 25, 2019 BRIC Jazz Festival
Brooklyn, NY, USA
November 21, 2019 Annenberg Center
Philadelphia, PA, USA
December 29, 2019 – January 1, 2020 Umbria Winter Jazz Festival
Umbria, Italy

Sullivan Fortner Trio

July 20, 2019 – July 21, 2019 Cola Jazz Camp
Columbia, SC, USA
July 28, 2019 Woods Hole Jazz (Solo Piano)
Falmouth, MA, USA
September 19, 2019 Temple University
Philadelphia, PA, USA
September 22, 2019 – September 23, 2019 Boise Jazz Society
Boise , ID, USA
October 1, 2019 Exuberance
Philadelphia, PA, USA
October 3, 2019 – October 6, 2019 Jazz Standard
New York, NY, USA
October 26, 2019 Clermont-Ferrand
Clarmont-Ferrand, France
November 18, 2019 – November 19, 2019 Paris Philharmonie
Paris, France
December 29, 2019 – January 1, 2020 Umbria Winter Residency
Umbria, Italy

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