Urban Skies

“I open my windows and let the stories of the city flood in…” Echoing the grit and gravitas below, Mara Sanchez’s biting voice poignantly captures the swirling dramas within the faceless crowds. A native New Yorker, Mara spent her entire career finding inspiration in these “wicked women, gnarly men, lost loves, and almost realities.”

Remaining true to this multiplicity of voices, Mara’s first solo album, appropriately titled Ventanas Abiertas (Open Windows), mingles the self-assuredness of jazz with joyous bursts of flamenco over a driving pop beat. Like Mara’s city, her sound is fusion, and authentically mixed; bearing the footprints of many lands, she sings the global story of New York.

After performing at local events with greats like Stevie Wonder, Mara began touring internationally. In Spain, she cut the hit record, Madrid, which dominated the Spanish charts in the late 90s. In Japan, she roused crowds night after night in clubs across the country. After seasoning her craft in venues from France to Puerto Rico, she returned to Manhattan, set to stretch herself as a performer.

In 2005, the singer/songwriter delighted crowds at CAMI Hall with standards from her own repertoire. From being a featured performer for Disney’s tribute to Chita Rivera, to belting, “I still dream of you,” on PBS, to ushering in the coronation pageant at the 2006 Puerto Rican parade with her stirring ballads, Mara’s burst back onto the New York music scene has been greeted with nothing but accolades from her old fans and new friends.

With the release of Ventanas Abiertas in April 2009, Mara begins a new chapter in her career. Working with Menace, a renowned producer who has recently worked with Corrine Bailey Rae, Ventanas Abiertas shows Mara’s versatility and broad appeal. Her single, “BOOM BOOM,” promises to be a crowd pleaser as Mara lays her signature sound over an explosive Reggaeton beat. Singing in three languages, Mara retells, celebrates, and blends stories from the streetscape below her window to present a collection of international rhythms that could only be born in New York.