Vocalist/Composer Sara Gazarek Embraces The Light & The Dark On Her Sixth Album
THIRSTY GHOST
(Available August 23, 2019)
CD Release Tour Dates:
August 10 @ The Jazz Standard, NYC
August 14 @ Blues Alley, Washington, D.C.
August 16 & 17 @ Dirty Dog Jazz Café, Grosse Pointe, MI
September 16 @ Yoshi’s, Oakland, CA
September 17 & 18 @ Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA
October 24 @ Guadalajara, Spain
October 25 @ Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
October 28-30 @ Café Central, Madrid, Spain
“a powerful, epic-yet-intimate collection of largely original songs and a few choice, at times surprising, covers. The overarching feeling and lyrical content reflect Gazarek's recent romantic tumult, and her commitment to grow from the experience and re-evaluate who she was as an artist and a person.” – Abe Beeson, KNKX
“a wondrous, questioning, atmospheric and rhythmically diverse brew of jazz, folk-rock and art song, with some Latin and pop flavors thrown in. On Sam Smith’s pining ballad of infidelity, ‘Not the Only One,’ underpinned with Fender Rhodes keyboard and silvery backup vocals, Gazarek falls off notes with a sigh. On Björk’s ‘Cocoon,’ she creates a moody, ambient feel, using her clear soprano as a wordless instrument. A new arrangement of a signature piece that combines the Nick Drake song ‘Riverman’ with a poem by Sara Teasdale features haunting bass clarinet. Pianist Brad Mehldau’s ‘When It Rains’ is propelled by a quietly urgent danzón beat, to which Gazarek added lyrics about the promise of a storm.” – Paul DeBarros, The Seattle Times
" . . . she may well turn out to be the next important jazz singer." – Don Heckman, The Los Angeles Times
On vocalist/composer Sara Gazarek’s previous five, critically-acclaimed albums (Yours-2005, Live at The Jazz Bakery-2006, Return To You-2007, Blossom & Bee-2012, Dream In The Blue-2016), we hear an accomplished artist steeped in the history of jazz and blues, who effortlessly explores complex rhythmic and harmonic ideas, expressive phrasing, to-die-for range, exquisite tone, and authentic story-telling, and so much more. On her sixth recording, Thirsty Ghost (due out on August 23, 2019), we hear Gazarek’s soul. Over twelve select tunes (plus bonus tracks) we experience an un-caged Gazarek, flush with the courage, artistic volition, and musical acumen to be able to offer her audience a transformative, revelatory album that explores a more honest, messy, beautiful place – of hunger, thirst, and of wanting more. More connection, more transparency, and a more wholehearted experience that is welcomed only when one can finally address the exultation and lamentation that comes with taking a deeper look at adulthood.
Four years ago, Gazarek found herself standing at a fork in the road regarding her artistic direction and raison d'être. The vocalist elaborated, “I had experienced a near-death trauma in my family, there was palpable tension in my long time musical partnership, and my marriage was crumbling. I was singing mostly straight ahead songs about light hearted things, and, in a genre that prides itself in authenticity and expression, an incessant knot in my stomach told me something was about to explode. It was my dear friend and mentor Kurt Elling who, after a performance at Birdland in NYC, metaphorically took me by the shoulders and shook my soul with these very poignant words:”
“I see who you are… And it’s so much bigger, so much deeper, so much more multi-dimensional than your music is right now. Don’t be afraid to walk away from what you think people want from you – and to step into all of the depth, darkness, and radiance of who you really are. That’s what we are thirsty for. The honest, messy, beautiful YOU.”
As the dust began to settle, Gazarek stood in a state of bewilderment -- and, like any artist, she did all she knew how to do: she took a deep breath, and turned headlong into her art. She listened, wrote, read, improvised, traveled, sought, leapt, learned, and watched. Gazarek explained, “I finally felt ready to explore new songs and sounds, hoping to give voice to very specific experiences and, in some instances, wounds that I wanted to heal.” Gazarek worked alongside Stu Mindeman, Josh Johnson, Geoff Keezer, Larry Goldings, Erin Bentlage, and Alan Ferber, in an attempt to reconnect with her own authentic creative voice. “We began to perform these songs, and it was entirely terrifying, but necessary. And most importantly, it felt exhilarating to finally be making art that reflected what I was experiencing – music that was vulnerable and human. In the end, I internalized the idea that ‘a forest never grows, higher than the depths it knows // the warmth of sunlight comes and goes, but beauty only grows, When It Rains. (Distant Storm)”
In retrospect, Gazarek is now able to acknowledge that, while her world was falling apart, it may have felt wildly chaotic – but that now, looking back, she sees a beautifully orchestrated ballet that brought her exactly where she needed to be. “I’m finally here, living wholeheartedly in the light and the dark,” explains Gazarek. “We decided to record these songs, in the hopes that people might see their own human experiences reflected back at them, through these songs and these arrangements.”
