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Mili Bermejo
For more than two decades, Boston-based vocalist/composer Mili Bermejo has transcended the borders between cultures and musical genres. Her music blends the beautiful stories and infectious rhythms of authentic Latin American poetry/folk music with social awareness and jazz improvisation.
Critics have called her "the Latin equivalent of Abbey Lincoln...a singer/composer who challenges us with her musical honesty" (Cadence) and described her inclusive sound as "part poetry-folk, part Sarah Vaughn sophistication" (Boston Magazine) and the place "where jazz meets Latin with elegance and soul" (Boston Globe).
"Cross-cultural projects are now commonplace," writes the Boston Phoenix's Jon Garelick, "but Mili Bermejo's aesthetic has always been singular...long a fixture on the Boston scene, [she] combines all manner of Latin American folk in a way that gives her music a flavor that's as up-to-the-minute as it is Old World."
Daughter of the late Mexican composer Guillermo Bermejo and his wife Luz, an Argentinean tango singer, Ms. Bermejo's blood already contained the wealth of two musical cultures at birth. She was born in Buenos Aires, but raised in the socially and artistically diverse environment of Mexico City where she grew up internalizing the music and political statements made by the Argentineans, Chileans, Brazilians and Uruguayans who fled bloody dictatorships at home.
This cultural diversity, interaction between artists of different disciplines, and commitment to tolerance in the Mexican artistic community (following the revolution in Cuba and Mexico City's massacre in 1968) laid the groundwork for her diverse style and dedication to the social responsibility of the artist.
Although she had already performed professionally most of her life, Ms. Bermejo didn’t discover jazz until her college years when her brother introduced her to the music of Miles Davis. A chance encounter with pianist and Third Stream pioneer Ran Blake led to her first trip to America for a summer jazz program in Boston in 1978. She moved to Boston permanently to study jazz at Berklee College of Music in 1980, and accepted a faculty position following her graduation in 1984.
In addition to her degrees in composition from Berklee and the National School of Music in Mexico, she has studied with Mexican composers Julio Estrada and Federico Ibarra, vocal technique specialist Elisabeth Phinney, and jazz saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi.
Looking beyond the typical female jazz vocalist canon, Ms. Bermejo's groups feature musicians, lyrics, and archetypal themes from a variety of cultural backgrounds. A veteran educator, group leader and supporter of social causes, she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Achievement in Jazz Award from New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). She is also a former Jazz Ambassador for the United States Information Service/Arts America, the recipient of multiple grants from New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, and a board member of the Institute for Community Leadership in Seattle, Washington.
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Mili Bermejo: A Time For Love
by Mark Sabbatini
From the opening it's got that ever-so-subtle touch that separates moving ballads from cocktail lounge fodder.
A Time For Love finds singer Mili Bermejo in a less-is-more setting, relying mostly on a piano and bass backing instead of the sextets and octets from her past few albums. It's a wise choice for an album inspired by global political/social unrest due to the Iraq war and the death of her father and brother a few months before the recording ...
read moreMili Bermejo Sextet with Claudio Ragazzi: Pienso el Sur
by Dave Nathan
The product of a marriage between Mexican composer Guillermo Bermejo and his Argentinean tango singer wife, Luz, composer, singer Mili Bermejo has been teaching her own brand of jazz music at the Berklee College of Music for more than 20 years. She now joins with Argentine guitarist/composer Claudio Ragazzi for a program which brings together elements of both musical cultures. The beauty and elegance of the Argentine are thoughtfully and melodically meshed with the passion of the Mexican song. While ...
read moreMili Bermejo's de Tierra Returns to Boston's Scullers Jazz Club May 10th
Source:
Improvised Communications
On Thursday, May 10th, Mili Bermejo's De Tierra will return to Scullers Jazz Club exactly one year after recording its self-titled debut, De Tierra (Ediciones Pentagrama, 2007), there in 2006. Led by Cambridge-based vocalist/composer Mili Bermejo, this eight-piece ensemble performs a unique brand of modern pan-American music, mixing her two decades of experience in the jazz world with the traditional Latin songs, poetry and social responsibility of the artist she absorbed growing up in Mexico City in the late 1960's ...
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Vocalist Mili Bermejo Announces New CD, New Website, and New Tour
Source:
All About Jazz
CONTACT: Scott Menhinick, Media Relations for Ms. Bermejo Improvised Communications (781) 893-9424 [email protected]
BOSTON, MA - Jazz vocalist, composer, and Berklee College of Music professor Mili Bermejo is proud to announce the American release of her latest recording Pienso el Sur (Ediciones Pentagrama) on June 11th, the launch of her new website, and a short Northeast tour with her Octet in July. Pienso el Sur features the Mili Bermejo Sextet, ...
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Mili Bermejo to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Washington's Kennedy Center
Source:
All About Jazz
The Mili Bermejo Trio, led by Boston-based jazz vocalist, composer and Berklee College of Music Professor Mili Bermejo will perform on the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as part of the 8th Annual Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival on Monday, May 5th at 6pm. Joined by bassist Dan Greenspan and pianist Doug Johnson, Bermejo, who was raised in Mexico City and is the daughter of Mexican ...
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--Alan Bargebuhr, Cadence
"Cross-cultural projects are now commonplace, but Mili Bermejo's aesthetic
has always been
singular...long a fixture on the Boston scene, [she] combines all manner of
Latin American folk in a way
that gives her music a flavor that’s as up-to-the-minute as it is Old World.
She has a cabaret
performer's ability to get across a song, and she expressed alternating
currents of sadness and humor
with understated dramatic flair."
--Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix
Gretchen Elise
composer / conductorMusic
Los que se Aman
From: Arte del DúoBy Mili Bermejo