With the jazz scene in St. John’s booming like never before, this year’s biennial ONSOUND experimental music festival decided to address a pressing question – What is Jazz? Hosted by Sound Arts Initiatives, the four-day festival of “improvised, experimental, and original” music set out to find an answer through a series of workshops and performances.
So on the third night of the festival, with the Friday night crowd at LPSU Hall listening intently, local singer Natasha Blackwood had an admission to make.
“The more you learn [about jazz], the less you know – it’s like parenting.”
Blackwood explained that the genre is filled with nuance, making it difficult to place into any specific box. Yet by opening her set with the century-old tunes “Bill Bailey” and “Heartaches,” she illustrated a thread that ties the history of jazz together.
“It all comes back to finding a way to express something or tell a story,” Blackwood said.
An accomplished songwriter, Blackwood turned to her own discography for the rest of her set. She called on the audience to provide a pulsating heartbeat rhythm for her innovative new single, “We Are, We Are.”
Her soulful vocals were complemented by the effortlessly cool improvisation of trumpeter Terry Campbell.
Succeeding Blackwood on stage, Brazilian-born bossa nova singer Ana Luísa Ramos highlighted the global reach of jazz.
“Bossa nova was influenced by jazz and samba,” Ramos said, although she explained that the genre isn’t considered jazz itself.
“For some reason jazz musicians really enjoy it,” joked her guitar player and partner Eric Taylor Escudero while gesturing to the crowd.
Jazz or not, Ramos’s danceable set certainly expressed a collection of emotions ranging from love to longing, nostalgia to hope.
One standout composition was the song “Clouds” from her 2024 album Solaris, a piece which Ramos wrote about her experience returning to Brazil after the isolation of the pandemic.
“I wrote this song at 6 am, while watching the sunrise. It’s about trying to have it all, and being happy,” Ramos said.
She concluded her set on a more poignant note with the Escudero-written single “All We Could Have Been,” a reflection on both the letdowns and potential of humanity.
“Blood stained ground is good for growing flowers,” Ramos sang.
Ramos demonstrated her songwriting versatility throughout the set, alternating between English and Portuguese compositions. She was accompanied by Escudero on guitar, Bill Brennan on piano, Jim Vivian on bass, and Jacob Slous on drums.
For more on Ana Luisa Ramos, here is her interview with Zach Snow on his podcast, Musical Connections
