Sofía Rei is considered one of the most passionate, charismatic and inventive vocalists on the current New York music scene. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, her own music is grounded in traditional South American rhythms such as chacarera, zamba and vidala from Argentina, Afro-Peruvian festejo and lando, Afro-Uruguayan candombe, Colombian cumbia and bullerengue and other genres that merge involving jazz harmonies, electronic sounds and rich improvisations. Singing in Spanish, English or Portuguese, Sofia’s voice brings more than the depth and fullness of a riveting voice, tying together diverse influences in a program full of rhythmic complexity, and a melodic purity that haunts even as it uplifts. Her ensemble produces a range of textures as diverse as the cultural roots of its members, an international cast that includes some of the most exciting young talent from North and South America.
 
Building on the success of her Independent Music Award-winning second release Sube Azul, Sofia returns with the spellbinding De Tierra Y Oro (“of earth and gold”). She describes the album as a series of “philosophical wanderings” —songs that draw on a wide range of South American folkloric influences and bracingly modern sounds, with Rei’s powerful voice in the forefront. Rei produced the album with her longtime bassist and collaborator Jorge Roeder and co-producer Fabrice Dupont. The textures run the gamut of contemporary to traditional: from layered and effects-treated vocals, electric guitars, loops and drum machines to Bolivian charangos, Paraguayan harps, Colombian marimbas, Argentine bombos, Peruvian cajones and more. Rei’s vibrant multi-tracked vocals and use of reverbs, delays and harmonizers make De Tierra Y Oro a bold departure from her previous work. Singing in Spanish, Rei tells stories that reflect her diverse travels and experiences: a cock fight in Cartagena, a nightmare in Buenos Aires, a love letter in New York, a haunted man in the Andes. In De Tierra Y Oro we encounter Latin American myths and icons, loneliness and laughter, religious doubt, political protest, true love.
 
Sofia is a restless artist, one of the most versatile and in-demand singers on the New York music scene. In a short period of time she has recorded, performed and collaborated with renowned musicians and groups such as Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, John Zorn, Folklore Urbano, Frank London, Guillermo Klein, Celso Duarte, Lionel Loueke, Geoffrey Keezer, Pavel Urkiza (Gema y Pavel), Russ Ferrante (Yellow Jackets), Bob Moses, Steve Lacy, Aquiles Baez, Samuel Torres Group, Pedro Martinez, La Bomba de Tiempo, Grupo Caracumbe, Alcatraz, and Pablo Aslan’s Avantango. She toured Europe with the Grammy award winning Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and premiered with the group Cerulean Skies, a piece commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. In May of 2008, she was featured with vocal giant Bobby McFerrin in Instant Opera at Carnegie Hall. The piece was a fully improvised opera based on the story of the Tower of Babel. Sofia is a member of “Mycale”, a NY based international a- capella quartet with Basya Schechter (Brooklyn), Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (Israel) and Malika Zarra (Morocco). Mycale was commissioned by composer John Zorn to arrange, perform and record eleven compositions from his Book of Angels: Masada Book II. Their cd “Mycale: Book of Angels 13” was released in early 2010, and they have been touring internationally since then. Sofia is currently part of John Zorn’s Song Project, along with vocalists Mike Patton and Jesse Harris. She is also the vocalist of Geoffrey Keezer’s Aurea, whose self-titled 2009 release received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album. In October 2009, Sofia contributed her vocals to Ljova Zhurbin’s Niña Dance, a song cycle inspired by the unsolved murders & disappearances of women and young girls in the city of Juárez, Mexico. The premiere of this piece took place at Zankel Hall and it was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation in 2009. In December 2009 she was one of four featured vocalists chosen to premiere newly commissioned work as part of The Jazz Gallery’s “New Voices” concert series.
 
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