Amparo Sánchez

Spain
Die Königin des Mestizo
- taz.de

Ein überzeugender Stilmix einer der Schlüsselfiguren der internationalen Mestizo-Szene. 
- Jazzthetik

Artist information

Besides Manu Chao, Amparo Sánchez is the front figure & icon of the Mestizo movement. In 2020 Amparo Sánchez will (again) focus a little more on her solo career and release her fourth solo album "La Niña y el Lobo".

This album is a kind of "soundtrack" to her own and very honest autobiography, which she recorded live with two brilliant flamenco guitar colleagues: Víctor Iniesta Iglesias and Eduardo Espín Pacheco. Music that alternates between intimate songs and her rather uptempo and "latin inspired soul"... Diva Latina!

For her new album Amparo Sánchez apart from her own songs she has rearranged songs from Mano Negra, Radio Futura and Los Lobos among others. Besides these new songs from her upcoming album, Amaparo Sánchez will also play live the fantastic material she wrote for previous albums like "Tucson-Habana", "Alma de Cantaora" or "Espíritu del Sol". 

 

FURTHER INFO:

Born in Granada, Andalusia, Amparo Sánchez moved to Madrid in 1993 With her dark, full voice, the singer whose avowed role model is Billie Holiday, first caused a sensation in the clubs and bars of the city. The meeting with Manu Chao motivated her to form her own band. This led to the formation of the loose collective Amparanoia in the mid-nineties, whose first album "El Poder de Machín" was released in 1997. "Manu Chao is the person who inspired me the most and showed me a way for Amparanoia," Amparo Sanchez freely admits. "El Poder de Machín" also features a song that became a hymn in a version of Manu Chao on "Clandestino": "Welcome to Tijuana"...

Other close musical companions are Joey Burns and Joe Convertino from Calexico or producer Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), who contributed to Amparo Sánchez albums like "Tuscon Habana" or Espíritu del Sol.

Amparo´s solo career began 'by chance' in 2006, by which time Amparanoia had already won the BBC World Music Award and had played festivals such as Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz, Roskilde and many others.
Some members of her band had missed their flight to Canada for the Montreal Jazz Festival, so Amparo initially had no choice but to play the concert accompanied only by her drummer and bassist. Although the audience expected an energetic party atmosphere, they were simply thrilled by Amparo's intimate, acoustic session. For Amparo herself, this gig was a defining moment in her music career:

“What happened in Montreal was totally magical. I have always found inspiration listening to the blues, jazz and son with artists like Billie Holiday, Chavela Vargas or Nina Simone. And for a long time I‘d wanted to experience something new, something softer and more intimate, in order to touch people in another way, to carry them away with the sound of my voice” – Amparo Sánchez

Watch Amparo Sánchez - Mala Vida on Youtube