Meet Manuela Sánchez Goubert

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Manuela Sánchez Goubert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Manuela, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

The journey to finding my voice was a gradual process. Early in my career, I discovered that the stage was where I felt most at home, where I could truly express myself. However, when I arrived in New York, the city that embraced me, I was uncertain about how to find my unique voice in jazz. It was when I began to intertwine jazz with my cultural roots that I truly found my voice. I started singing in Spanish and Portuguese, incorporating traditional instruments and musical genres such as cumbia or festejo into the jazz format, and I found a profound purpose in my artistic life. Since then, my mission has been to invite the audience to contemplate the experience of migration and diaspora, and to discover ways to express their own cultural heritage, their roots.

The stage is not just a platform for me, it’s a space of expression and creation where I can fully embrace my roots. This realization led me to a desire to share this power with others. That’s why my concerts are not just performances, but a combination of educational and social activities. I aim to share the transformative power of music with those who may not have the opportunity to attend concerts or participate in collective creative activities. I follow the idea of improvisation as a space of zero gravity, a concept developed by Wayne Shorter and Danilo Pérez. This concept promotes a space of expression and creation where there is no judgment, no gravity, and freedom of expression is allowed, where music becomes a tool for empowerment and liberation.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Our band, the Manuela Sanchez Goubert Band, is thrilled to share what we do and what makes it so unique. We are a group of musicians inspired by the Latin American folk traditions of the 1950s, and we offer new compositions with a modern twist. We met at Berklee College of Music in Boston during the pandemic, when many artists felt isolated. This unique circumstance brought us together, allowing us to blend our passions and influences into something truly unique yet shared by name, revisiting our cultural roots.

What truly excites us about our music is the unique bridge it forms between our deep-rooted love for Latin American traditions and our passion for jazz and experimentation. Our debut album, “RAÍCES,” released on August 5th on all digital platforms, is a testament to this fusion. It features seven tracks that take listeners on a captivating journey through the rhythms of cumbia, joropo, currulao, and festejo, reflecting our personal stories and the social histories of our countries. The lyrics delve into profound emotions, from love to the pain of social violence, creating a rich and immersive listening experience that we can’t wait to share with you.

In August 2024, we are embarking on an Americas tour to celebrate the release of our album. This tour is not just about live concerts; it also has a strong social component. We will be conducting master classes and engaging in collaborative creative activities with musicians and young people, promoting cultural exchange and artistic development. The tour will take us to cities across the Americas, including Boston, New York, Bogota, Medellin, Quito, and Lima, with performances at renowned venues.

One of the tour’s highlights will be our concert at “La Esquina Redonda” in the Creative District of the Bronx in Bogota, Colombia. We designed this event to provide a recreational and participatory activity for the local population, a community that has historically been marginalized from the city’s cultural life. The concert will feature our original music, mixing electronic sounds, folkloric traditions, and jazz. During the concert, we’ll invite local rappers to join us in a collective improvisation space, encouraging everyone to express themselves artistically and their challenging life stories and resilience.
We are deeply passionate about our music and its profound ability to connect people and inspire social change. Our journey and the stories we tell through music are a testament to this passion, and we hope they resonate with you as much as they do with us. We believe in the power of music to bring people together and create positive change, and we are excited to share this belief with you through our music.

Band members:
Manuela Sanchez Goubert: Vocalist and bandleader, she combines jazz with Latin American folk. She is a Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation ambassador and participates in the Leading Ladies of Entertainment 2024 program.

Simón Martínez: Ecuadorian pianist, composer, and music director of Berklee’s Latin American Student Association.

Juan Diego Panadero: Colombian clarinetist, two-time Latin Grammy winner, and star of the Disney+ series “The Low Tune Club.”

Sebastián Guerrero: A bassist from Medellín, Guerrero is a graduate of the Longy School of Music and versatile in genres such as jazz, tropical music, and hip-hop.

Juan Sebastián Ramírez Cubides: Colombian percussionist specializing in symphonic and popular percussion and musical production.

Federico Aristizábal: Colombian drummer and percussionist from Medellín, known for his versatility and musicality.

Luana Brazzán, a young drummer and percussionist from Arequipa, Peru, fuses Afro-Peruvian and Andean rhythms with jazz and founded the all-women Afro-Peruvian jazz band Magenta Jazz, active in festivals and concerts.

Felipe Álvarez is a Chilean music producer and guitarist, a Berklee graduate, who has performed with Latin Grammy winners and teaches music and music production at the Mattapan Teen Center.

For more information, interviews and press inquiries, please write to:
msg.management.co@gmail.com
WP: +13478941244

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Skills:
Be kind to yourself
Find your path; there is no need to compare it with the paths of others.
Take a break and try again the next day.

Advice? Try different ways to express your voice. Ask yourself hard questions (How do you like it? What do you want?) But be kind to yourself.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes! I want to generate collaborations with musicians and visual artists who want to explore the feeling of migrating, settling in, adapting and transforming the environment in the process. I’m also looking for people to help me with all the invisible tasks (promotion, distribution, management, label, etc.). Write me through my social networks and let’s start a conversation.

Contact Info:

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