Vivienne Aerts 'Typuhthang'

-

Among the delights released to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 comes from vocalist, performer and composer Vivienne Aerts. Typuhthâng (‘type of thing’) that embraces women and chocolate: a musical exchange with 100 female musicians to empower female cacao farmers of Virunga State Park, Congo.

In collaboration with Original Beans Chocolate, Typuhthâng includes songs and performances around the growing, manufacture and enjoyment of chocolate. What’s not to like? The fact that the album supports a project to replant the rainforest in Congo and empower women is a major bonus.

Women were involved in every role of the project: performing, recording, arranging, mixing, and mastering. Vivienne’s songs translate feelings into music and at no point does the message that we can all make a difference become overpowering.

Alongside the six songs are three sampled soundscapes made from field recordings from Virunga State Park, Congo. In total, there are 100 female musicians from over 40 countries.

Vivienne says: “My work with Vervool, a bespoke multi-sensory experience launched with my pastry chef husband, Ted Steinebach, connected me with Original Beans Chocolate. Talking with Philipp Kauffmann, the founder, I was inspired by their passion for sustainability. The Femmes de Virunga are a cacao farm collective of 1500 women in Virunga State Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The collective, initiated and supported in 2008 by Original Beans, gave women the tools and opportunities to overcome extreme hardship and political unrest. These women, often victimised and routinely left to undertake hard agricultural labour, were empowered through literacy campaigns and leadership training, invited to cultivate cacao and set up a tree nursery. In cultivating this crop, they cultivate their communities. Continued learning, regenerative farming and stable ‘living wage’ from Original Beans enables them to elevate their standard of living.

 

“I wanted to use my music to raise awareness of this project. I wanted to use my music, not to inspire charity but to match their entrepreneurial spirit and generate business, ‘Let’s make an album that sells their chocolate.’ And of course, chocolate and music are a bit of a magical combination, right?”

 

Alongside performing jazz, Vivienne uses haute cuisine, and modern art and this album is a great album of stunning songs. She also works with Kenny Werner and the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee.


Tracklist:

  1. Just go - Arr. Linnea Lundgren (Vocal group w 26 singers) 

  2. The journey begins - Soundscape #1

  3. You’re my morning - Arr. Camila Meza (Sextet with Voice, Guitar, Harp, Cajon, Bass, Duduk, Harmonica) 

  4. The way you touched my hand - Arr. Mariel Roberts (String quintet) 

  5. Meeting the Femmes - Soundscape #2

  6. Silence - Arr. Ines Velasco Montiel (Small string orchestra ballad) 

  7. Concept of falling - Arr. Ga Young Bae (Jazz quintet with clarinet and piano)

  8. Tasting the chocolate - Soundscape #3

  9. What will we be - Arr. Zahili Gonzalez Zamora (Cuban Bolero for larger jazz ensemble) 

  10. Pygmy in Mundubiena - Soundscape #4

 

Listen to my conversation with Vivienne on Harmonious World here.

You can watch the video for ‘Silence’ here.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

-
Image
Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...
Read more

The Darius Brubeck Quartet live at Jazz Cafe Posk

-
Image
My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in  2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...
Read more

‘Memory in Motion’ with The Jazz Defenders

-
Image
A packed Pizza Express in London’s Soho was blasted by The Jazz Defenders as they unleashed their new album on the world - celebrating International Jazz Day 2024 in style. The Jazz Defenders Memory in Motion is a great album, out now on Haggis Records , with touches of Horace Silver and tinges of Herbie Hancock. There was something slightly disconcerting about an electronic keyboard sitting on top of the wonderful Dean Street Steinway and George Cooper handled them both with a dexterity and panache that made it all make sense. A talented bunch, The Jazz Defenders take their influences from wherever they choose, including some of the other ensembles in which they strut their stuff.  Horns are courtesy of Jake McMurchie (tenor sax) and Nick Malcolm (trumpet) and they are as much at ease on stabbing and intricate lines as they are on solos through the tracks. A solid rhythm and added excitement comes from Ian Matthews (drums) and Will Harris (double bass and bass guitar). Matthews ...
Read more