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Raquel Cepeda

Raquel Cepeda is a Jazz Singer and Songwriter who brings the best styles and rhythms from around the world to the refined language and aesthetics of Jazz. A highly regarded singer who has shared the stage with Jazz legends such as Ellis and Delfeayo Marsalis. A performer whose interpretative quality, approach to story telling, and multi-cultural style has the ability to reach and move the hearts and ears of the most demanding and diverse audiences. She was featured at the 1st Latin Jazz Festival of Houston in 2018, as well as the Brazilian Food and Music Festival in 2019, and has performed with the Kingwood Pops Orchestra. 
Raquel performs extensively in Houston where she resides, producing important concerts including her Annual “Jazz on Valentine’s” held at the Match Theater on Valentine’s Day, and is highly requested for many public and private performances.  
Fluent in various languages such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese, Raquel has performed abroad in Caracas, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro.

Awards

  • Winner of Urban Voice at the Ucevista Vocal Festival, Venezuela, 1995
  • #1 Latin Jazz Album of 2020 in the Root Music Report Jazz Chart
  • Nominated for Best Jazz Album at the Pepsi Music Awards 2020
  • #1 position in the Jazz Chart for 8 consecutive weeks in the Roots Music Report
  • Enjoyed Top 20 placement on the JazzWeek Charts in 2020
  • Passion charted for 9 weeks on the NACC Latin Charts in the Top 5


Tags

5
Album Review

Raquel Cepeda: Passion: Latin Jazz

Read "Passion: Latin Jazz" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Raquel Cepeda, prominent member of the Houston Jazz Mafia, drops her second recording, Passion: Latin Jazz, as a follow up to her exceptional debut, I'm Confessin' (Peonia Music, 2013). Her artistic growth over the last six years has been one of an increased gravity and a centering of her repertoire. She brings a completely new band to this recording, one propelled by pianist Barry Sames, bassist Thomas Helton and drummer Orlando Fuentes. Supplementing this rhythm section are percussionist Cassio Duarte, ...

10
Live Review

Raquel Cepeda at Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston

Read "Raquel Cepeda at Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston" reviewed by Tyran Grillo


Raquel Cepeda Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston Passion CD Release Concert Houston, Texas October 19, 2019 Raquel Cepeda is vivid proof that life is nothing if not a journey. Born in Venezuela, she worked in the oil industry as a geologist before leaving the corporate world behind in 2015 to devote herself to music fulltime. But as fascinating as her backstory is, a climactic new chapter was glorious drafted on October ...

4
Album Review

Raquel Cepeda: I'm Confessin'

Read "I'm Confessin'" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The Houston jazz mafia expands with vocalist Raquel Cepeda's I'm Confessin'. Cepeda joins the ranks of multi-instrumentalist Henry Darragh, singers Melissa Darragh, Tianna Hall, Jacqui Sutton and Danielle Reich, guitarist Paul Chester, trumpeter Dennis Dotson (who appears here), saxophonist Larry Slezak and (by extension), trumpeter Carol Morgan, Houston jazz mafiosi all. Cepeda adds eloquently to a merry band of musicians that harbor an amazing lack of overlap among their very individual styles. Singing is the Venezuelan-born Cepada's ...

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"Cepeda can rip a standard with the best of them. However, when it comes to the Latin flavor of jazz (and that means Latin, more broad than Brazilian or Bossa Nova), it is uncertain if she has an equal. (...) Cepeda reaches escape velocity with Passion: Latin Jazz, en route to the stars."

All About Jazz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

 

"Refusing to be constrained by cultural boundaries, the band closer combines Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” with a grooving “Quimbara.” The music has boundless energy, and Cepeda pulls off the vocalizing with aplomb as she makes personal moving statements, straight from her heart. “Passion” is a powerful, exciting set of Latin jazz music"

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Passion: Latin Jazz

Raquel Cepeda Music
2020

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I'm Confessin'

Peonia Music
2013

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Videos

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