Sabrina Lastman Quartet

I'm a New York based vocalist, performer, and composer born in Montevideo, Uruguay. My most recent solo album, Los pliegues del alma / The Folds of the Soul (recorded in Jerusalem & New York), was nominated by the Graffiti Awards for Uruguayan music as one of the best jazz albums of 2008. My project, the Sabrina Lastman Quartet, brings together jazz, South American rhythms (with African roots & folklore traditions) and contemporary music. This project reflects the many influences I've experienced while living in my home country Uruguay, in Israel, and more recently in New York. The Quartet plays original compositions, and arrangements of music by Latin American composers like Ruben Rada, and Egberto Gismonti, being some of my compositions inspired by the poetry of renowned South American writers. "Lastman bring those experiences – so far away from each other – to an artistic unity, showing that cultural bridges can be built. As a vocalist, Sabrina expands the possibilities of the voice, finding a rich variety of sonorities, colors, and textures. She sings in Spanish, English and Portuguese, keeping in each language a deep meaning of text and voice quality. In her music and singing can be found influences from jazz, Latin American music (Afro and folklor traditions), classical music, free music, and Avant-garde."

I've performed at Carnegie Hall, Blue Note, Blues Alley Jazz, Queens Theatre in the Park, New York City Classical Guitar Society, Heckscher Theater, Paul Hall at Juilliard, King Juan Carlos Center (NYU), Martin E. Segal Theatre (CUNY, Graduate Center), Queen Sofia Institute, and Cornelia Street Cafe, among others. She has played with the Tali Roth Trio, Fernando Otero, Pablo Aslán, Emilio Solla, Bakithi Kumalo, David Silliman, Don Harris, Gustavo Casenave, Pedro Giraudo, Villa-Lobos Brothers, Sasha Bogdanowitsch, and The M6, among others. I was honored to be selected to participate in the Professional Training Workshop Monk on Monk: Vocal Works of Meredith Monk organized by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall (just a couple of month after I arrived in the US), and the honor to be invited to sing my compositions based on the poems by Uruguayan poet Idea Vilariño, at the presentation of the book Idea Vilariño: La Vida Escrita in Montevideo, Uruguay. I have played at the Latin Jazz Series (Blues Alley Jazz, with the support of the Embassy of Uruguay in Washington DC & the Uruguayan Cultural Foundation for the Arts), Summer Night Series (Museo del Barrio), Latino Cultural Festival (Queens Theatre), Vital Vox (Teatro IATI) and KJCC Poetry Series. I have toured in Israel, Uruguay, Argentina, and the United States. "In addition to her intensive creative career Sabrina is an active educator, teaching voice at Teatro IATI, around NYC and abroad." I graduated from The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel.

Some critics:
° Outstanding singer and composer. The Folds of the Soul offers, from a very powerful individual perspective, original compositions and standards. Comprehending a wide musical spectrum...it reaches a cohesive discourse of solid creative rigor, with a clear orientation to avant-garde jazz. Sabrina sings with irreproachable technical display, and unusual expressive intensity.
-Sergio Piccirilli – El Intruso (Argentina-USA)

° The 'Folds of the Soul' is a truly amazing album. The combination of jazz, vocals and chants were truly
inspired.
-Harry Schnipper. Executive Director of Blues Alley Jazz & Blues Alley Jazz Society. (USA)

° Sabrina Lastman offers a unique and refreshing vocal approach and a refined musical construction.
-Fernando Otero – pianist/composer. Warner Music Recording Artist (USA)

° Sabrina Lastman embraces the audience with the sweetness of her voice. It doesn't matter if she sings in Spanish, English or Portuguese; her vocal timber, her powerful voice, her gesticulation and her concentration say a lot about this singer. Sabrina improvises very naturally, in a rhythmical and spontaneous way. She is unpredictable... Is not just 'the voice as an instrument', Sabrina is an instrument herself.
-Rodrigo Ribeiro – delUruguaY.net (Uruguay)

° The Folds of the Soul, a magic atmosphere which folds can only be crossed by the breath that becomes sound. And Lastman do it in a very tuned and delicate discovery of details. Her voice is impeccable. It seduces, grills, plays with contrasting images and irregular sonoric surfaces.
-Alexander Laluz – Brecha (Uruguay)

Invite you to watch videos of the Quartet at:
http://www.sabrina-lastman.com/videoarchive/color_de_arena/
http://www.sabrina-lastman.com/videoarchive/axis/
http://www.sabrina-lastman.com/videoarchive/in_a_place_i_ve_been/
http://www.sabrina-lastman.com/videoarchive/a_lo_lejos/