Ana Carla Maza

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Last Show: Saturday 29 th July 2023

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

“A seriously refreshing listen and a complete triumph. Hats off to Ana Carla Maza.” Songlines magazine loved Bahía, the latest album from the Havana-born virtuoso cellist, vocalist and composer, who is living in Barcelona. Her music draws on Cuban son, samba, bossa nova, tango, jazz and chanson and, as she says, “my travels, the stories and people I have met along the way”.    Ana Carla plays these two London shows alongside her first performance at the WOMAD festival.

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“There is a boundless sense of Cuba in her music”

BBC

Ana Carla Maza was born in Havana to a musical family - her father was Chilean pianist Carlos Maza and her mother Cuban guitarist Mirza Sierra. At the age of five, Ana Carla began to play the piano, taught by Miriam Valdés, sister of pianist Chucho Valdés. She started the cello at eight and appeared on stage for the first time in Havana when she was barely ten. For many years she was inspired by the musical traditions of her childhood, from Brazilian bossa nova to Cuban habanera incorporating Latin rhythms, pop tunes, jazz harmonies and classical techniques. 

"Her album Bahía is a seriously refreshing listen and a complete triumph. Hats off to Ana Carla Maza" Songlines

"Cellist and composer Ana Carla Maza releases her latest album, Bahía, an affecting combination of Cuban son, bossa and chanson in homage to the music of her birthplace of Havana" The Guardian

“I love the energy in her music - there is a boundless sense of Cuba in her music” Hannah Peel/BBC Radio 3

"A gorgeous multilingual voyage through Cuban, Brazilian, Argentine and Peruvian songcraft. What’s particularly remarkable is that she recorded this entirely live and unaccompanied, leaping between double-stopped bowed passages, jazz-like bass lines and guitar-like chords like a one-woman chamber orchestra.”  The Guardian

“This album is a boundaries-down melding of jazz, classical music, unhurried Cuban son and swaying Brazilian samba and bossa nova, made more distinctive by virtuosic string work and lyrics sung in silvery French and Spanish.  Lovely stuff!” Jazzwise