‘SARA DOWLING QUARTERT’ PLAY ‘MAR D’AMURA’ (BENEFIT CONCERT) ON 17 NOVEMBER!(EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

Sara Dowling was voted ‘Best Vocalist’ at the British Jazz Awards 2019 and she has now become recognised as one of the UK’s most talented jazz singers. She first trained as a cellist, before emerging as a powerful and expressive vocalist and composer. Her most important influences are Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan. With a voice rooted in the language of jazz language and in her own repertoire, Sara is emerging with a style of her own that resonates in both her own compositions and her original interpretations of American standards. Her sound is a lively fusion of nostalgic classical harmonies and intense American post-bop rhythms of the late 1960s, where interaction and improvisation are at the heart of the performance. With a sweeping, powerful and confident voice, her irresistible communicative power and her innate musicality has made Sara one of the UK’s leading jazz vocalists. Sara has performed at some of the UK’s most prestigious clubs and jazz festivals (Ronnie Scott’s, Buxton, International Festival, Swanage Jazz Festival, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Swanage Jazz Festival, Isle of Wight Festival), Italy, Spain, France, Bahrain and Hungary.

(EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

24/7 Valencia: Could you tell us something about your upbringing and musical education?

SARA DOWLING: I was born in Muscat, in the beautiful country of Oman and then grew up in Jordan until I was nine years of age. I am of Palestinian and Irish descent. My father was a pilot in the Gulf region. For educational purposes, we moved as a family to Cornwall in England where my father there ran a farm.

At the age of 12, I got a scholarship to study cello in Manchester and I was there for 10 years. This included 4 years at the Royal Northern College of Music, which is a conservatoire and I had amazing teachers there too. It was tough but rewarding and my classical education gave me the discipline to apply myself with rigour and conviction when I fell in love with jazz music. I was then a teacher for 5 years in a secondary school in Bolton, which was very tough but rewarding and taught me all about communication.

I then got involved in the London jazz scene as a singer and composer and met some amazing musicians there. I had hoped to record my 3^rd jazz album in the capital but then the pandemic ended that possibility. The plan now is to record a new album with my Spanish-based quartet here in Valencia, the region where I have been living for more than a year and a half now. It will be a combination of piano, voice and cello.

24/7 Valencia: Could you tell us something more about your two jazz studio albums? Your first album, ‘From Shadows into Light’ really swings!

SARA DOWLING: Thank you! Yes, it’s a very good combination with the piano and the voice. It has good production. And I think my debut album ‘From Shadows into Light’ was very well recorded. The quality of the recording is very good actually. My second album is ‘Two Sides of Sara’ and it’s actually two separate recording sessions. Hence, there are 2 sides to the album. It’s because I wanted to have the first seven tracks to be voice with piano. And then the second seven tracks…they are voice and Hammond organ, which is really unusual. If you go online and try and find albums that have that combination… you won’t find many!

24/7 Valencia: Can you tell us something about the new single, ‘Lovin’ Tone’? It is by Albert Sanz on piano and has myself on cello and I am doing the singing too. It is his composition and has classical influences. As a duo, we may possibly do an album with this kind of material. That project is called ‘Samā.’

24/7 Valencia: Do you have any tips for singers?

SARA DOWLING: I would say for singers studying other genres… to study jazz too! Why? Because jazz is musically and harmonically more difficult than pop music. And you can build a good ear from jazz. You then develop a confidence in what you want to hear and what you want to sing. Studying jazz singing, it’s like you become 5 steps ahead as a singer with the ability to really improvise. It’s like an athlete doing agility exercises and working on specific muscles. You know, there’s some jazz standards like ‘Midnight Sun’ sung by Ella Fitzgerald that are worth checking out. It is all based on descending, chromatic phrases. Yeah, it’s super hard to sing that song! One of my students didn’t really want to learn to sing jazz standards but she now has and it has really given her “the ability to deliver the goods” when it comes to singing now.

24/7 Valencia: Could you tell us something about the jazz musicians in your quartet?

SARA DOWLING: I am living in Chiva in Spain with my Italian husband, Dario Di Lecce, who is also my double bass player. He is ‘old school’ when it comes to playing bass. He doesn’t show off and he’s super-swinging. For him, it’s all about being an anchor for the music and not playing high notes on bass. He is quite happy to not be playing solos all the time. He plays a supportive role. I genuinely think he is an amazing musician too.

Tico Porcar is our drummer. He’s living in Valencia but he’s originally from the Castellon area. And what I love about Tico is his sensitivity. When I saw Tico play those drums on that drum kit at ‘Jimmy Glass’ I just heard beautiful, expressive playing. And I’ve seen him play in many different ensembles. He’s just one of those people that looks up and out and just reacts to the music. It’s kind of organic drumming. He’s not trying to lean, not trying to direct it. Well, he’s into Tony Williams and you can hear that he’s listened to a lot of those albums, like a lot of hard bop records and swing and the bebop stuff too.

Our pianist is Albert Sanz. As a pianist he is the pride of Valencia, I think, in terms of the jazz scene. He went and studied in Berklee, Boston, and then he joined the New York jazz scene for a few years. He made some albums with some pretty heavy jazz musicians. And then obviously he missed home. So, he came back as he is very Valencian. I think Albert is world class. I mean, Albert plays all sorts of music, but I think if he if he had concentrated just on jazz, I think he could have been one of the top cats in New York. But Albert is from a family where they loved so many different types of music. So, it’s impossible for him to apply himself in just one kind of category of music. You can’t tie Albert down. He doesn’t work like that. He’s a very free spirit in the music. So, he brings all sorts of influences in and he can do so many different things. And his own music, his own songwriting is, I think, much influenced by what his parents were listening to. And there are Mediterranean influences as well and flamenco too.

24/7 Valencia: Is the upcoming ‘Mar D’Amura’ gig on 17 November a benefit concert of sorts for ‘LA DANA’? Yes, there will be a voluntary fee of 4 euros added to the concert fee that will go towards the local ‘Sedajazz’ Foundation whose musical instruments were badly damaged in ‘La Dana’. Sadly, they lost quite a few pianos too. They’re going through a really difficult time and they deserve the help. At the ‘Mar D’Amura’ gig, we will be singing a ‘Duke Ellington’ prayer song, especially for the people of Valencia and the difficult time Valencia is facing now.

Interview by Will McCarthy

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

Many thanks to Shyamala Duraisingam for all her work in organizing this concert.

‘SARA DOWLING QUARTERT’ (LIVE MUSIC)

BENEFIT CONCERT FOR ‘LA DANA’

17 November

19.00h

(16€ entrance fee plus 4 euros in cash for victims of ‘La Dana’)

TICKETS: Limited availability. Please reserve for concert via email:jazzmardamura@gmail.com

Mar D’Amura

C/ Progrés, 159

Valencia, Spain