AEA Sessions: Sara Gazarek – Retrograde

Jazz singer Sara Gazarek’s rendition of James Blake’s ‘Retrograde’ shines through the reverberant echo chamber at Nest Recorders in Los Angeles in this AEA Sessions video. Sara’s acapella performance piece uses the physical environment as both a musical instrument and an acoustical space. Drumming her fists on the walls creates the percussive foundation that levitates her swooping vocals, which are captured by an R84 mic through a steel-plate reverb system. The output then drives a live room through a speaker and is captured by an R88 mic creating a continuous feedback loop of reverb, all powered with TRP2 preamps.

About The Artist

Championed by some of music’s most celebrated figures, Sara Gazarek has emerged as a strikingly original artist with limitless potential. With four highly acclaimed CD’s under her belt at the young age of 34, Sara has been hailed by the LA Times as “the next important jazz singer,” and “impeccable,” by the Winnipeg Free Press, Sara continues to seamlessly combine the intimacy of singer/songwriter stylings with the musical and improvisational elements of jazz. Blessed with a gorgeous, translucent voice, excellent pitch, and supple sense of time, Gazarek is steeped in the jazz tradition but is not afraid to embrace the music that moves her generation.