Biography

Barbie Martínez Cuarteto's biography

Special guests: Ángel Sucheras and Carlos Lastra
Barbie Martínez is one of the up-and-coming talents of vocal jazz in Argentina. Her style reflects a maturity and an awareness of the tradition which don’t match her young age. She took her first singing lessons at age 18 with teachers Dolores Ortiz de Rozas, Patricia Andrade and Carlitos Olivera, later to specialise in jazz with Cecilia Escudero, Jorge Cutello and María Viau. She studied improvisation with Carlos Lastra. Barbie has toured the local circuit of clubs and theatres and played with such diverse artists as Américo Bellotto, Juan Carlos Cirigliano and Ramiro Flores, among others. In 2008 she was honoured by the Jazzología season as Newcomer Singer of the Season. In this new edition of the Festival she will be presenting her first album, Swing! (BAU Records, 2009). Her regular ensemble, both for the recording of the album and for live appearances, is made up of three artists with a lot in common: their youth, their expertise and their vitality when it comes to performing. Miguel Marengo, a very promising pianist, studied with Susana Kasakoff, Ernesto Jodos and Carlos Lastra, and has just recorded his first trio album No te duermas, to be released shortly.
Damián Falcón, a graduate from the Instituto Tecnológico de Música Contemporánea, regularly plays the double bass alongside musicians such as Carlos Lastra, Sergio Wagner and Nicolás Ospina. He has taken lessons with renowned teachers like Hernán Merlo, Juan Elías and Guillermo Delgado.
On this occasion, Barbie will be accompanied by Ángel Sucheras, a pianist of an extensive and prestigious career which includes a long period of professional activity in Europe and the United States, where he taught at the University of Texas. Back in the country, he played an active role for ten years in the music scene of Las Leñas, Mendoza, where he founded the Jazz Seminar, which granted several scholarships for young jazz musicians for many years. Sucheras has just presented his solo album, Midnight.
See Sebastián Groshaus’s details on p. 50 and Carlos Lastra’s on p. 55.

www.myspace.com/barbiemartinez • www.myspace.com/miguelmarengopiano
www.myspace.com/damianfalcon