About Me
I was born in Medellìn, Colombia, and I’m descendent of a musical family (my mother, Angela recorded 8 LP’s of boleros, all my brothers are musicians and my grandfather Enrique was the co-founder of the first Jazz Band in Medellìn in 1935).I began playing guitar at age 12, and at 18, was traveling Colombia, with an all-female Quartet “Ellasâ€. My professional life, however, really began in London, where, with my oldest brother Luciano, we began to search for a way to make a living through music. I must admit that it was my brother’s skills and convincing talent that made us - two Colombians-, sing in English in England! Our repertoire was made up of songs from The Beatles, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and many others. In London I had also fallen in love with flamenco and got the first Spanish experience through Joaquin Sabina, a singer songwriter with whom I shared many music nights at Costa del Sol and other venues. It was a truly beautiful experience.I returned to Colombia in 1976 and soon started to discover my Latin musical background. Those were the days of world cultural revolution, but in Colombia things were still very conventional, and a girl singing at night in bars and clubs was not well seen. I moved to Bogotá where I found some people who, like me, where willing to risk society finger pointing, and so we made our own family of musicians. I sang in English and in Portuguese. I felt I wasn’t ready to sing in Spanish yet. I needed to find my own sound, my own vocal style. Playing Brazilian and Cuban music made me think of my own roots.In 1983, invited by my brother Luciano, I visited the San Francisco Bay Area. I knew immediately that this was my place. I found a vibrant, professional, and creative - day and night music life - that opened up horizons in my mind, and musically awakened me. I lived in the bay area from 1983 till 1998 (15 years). I played with the best jazz musicians there. I also mingled with outstanding Brazilian musicians, learning all the subtleties, beauty, evolution and creativity of Brazilian music. It was a fountain of harmony for my guitar playing and a guide for my vocal development, on top of a marvelous experience in band leading.In 1989 I documented this Brazilian phase of my life in a live recording called Claudia Canta Brasil. That recording opened the doors to pursue my own sound. I went back to my Colombian roots and started writing music that contained Colombian rhythmic elements, covered with jazzy Brazilian harmonies; I entwined melodic patterns from both cultures. The result was documented in my 3rd album Tierradentro, published by Green Linnet Records (recorded in 1992 but released in 1996).In 1992 I recorded Salamandra with Clarity Recordings. Tierradentro and Salamandra albums gave me stability and recognition as a musician in the privileged San Francisco Bay Area. In the bay area I truly became a musician, helped by all the generosity and support of my musician friends. I also finished my school degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with an emphasis in World Music (from San Jose State University). There I had the privilege of studying with African master drummers (Royal Hartigan), Indian vocal teachers, as well as experiencing a year of my own teaching in Afro-Colombian songs at the university.Through periodic trips to Colombia I managed to keep well connected to my homeland. I made trips to inlands and to the coast, where I continued the search for my music ancestors. I took a sabbatical year from my US life and in 1994 I went back to Colombia. There I traveled, performed and developed a repertoire of original arrangements and compositions based in Colombian traditional music, with a modern approach to it. I performed that repertoire for the next 10 years.In 1998 I was ready to move on and away from the bay area and ready to look for new horizons again, and decided to go to Spain. I landed in Madrid in July 1998. I loved Madrid’s intense nightlife.I met wonderful and outstanding musicians: Jerry Gonzalez (Fort Apache), Pavel Urkiza, Gladston Galliza, Caramelo, the San Martin brothers, Rosalia, all of them marvelous friends and artists with whom I shared the stage many times and who I keep in my heart. There I recorded my bolero-jazz album Vivir Cantando. Even though there’s a definite melancholy feeling in it, it is still one of my best-recorded albums.I traveled, at my delight, throughout Europe, and played the most important places in Madrid and Spain but soon I needed to touch base with my own roots again. I came back to Colombia in September 2002.I have been fortunate enough in life to have always done just what I wanted. I’ve moved through places and people in life with the certainty that they will always be in my heart and in my mind, but also, with the certainty that I can move away whenever my music or my life needs it.I now live between Bogotá and my hometown, Medellìn. In two years I’ve built a house, made a new album MAJAGUA, worked with the government in the development of music projects for needed people in all regions of Colombia; I have taught guitar, offered vocal workshops, and take care of my mother, and I’m very happy doing all that.MAJAGUA has been my highest accomplishment so far, because it was made up of a mature repertoire that was weaved day by day, note by note, with the help and inspiration of all musicians from all over the world and it was a gift I gave to Colombia and its musicians. They received it so well that it made me feel at home again. And here I am. I work with very young and also very old people, helping them direct their careers with the confidence and certainty that, in choosing music, like me, they have chosen the right path. I’m very happy that I’m getting to see with my own eyes the evolution I always envisioned for Colombian music. I’m just thankful I have had the privilege to travel and to share this life experience with so many different people and cultures.Since the year 2004, I immersed myself in the study of music from a cultural (anthropological, philosophical and somewhat political) perspective. I went to Havana to study my masters and in November 2007 I finished writing a book about my mother. A wonderful singer herself, this is my past-due homage to her life and musical career. It also became my master..s theses.During 2008 I..ve come back to my own music, touring Germany and the Netherlands
Antilles. I am preparing my next recording project -acoustic solo voice and guitar-, with my most recent compositions. I, however, continue doing Concert-Lectures about my mother..s style of bolero singing and learn each time, more and more, how important and definite it was to have her as a mother and as a musical influence.
