• Home
  • Music
    • Lyric Translations
  • Events
  • Bios
  • Teaching
  • Bands
  • Photos/Video
  • EPK/Photos/Bio/Reviews
  • Guestbook
  • Links and Contact

Cressman Music

notes
0:00/???
  1. 1
    Deixa o Amor Florescer 5:45
    0:00/5:45
  2. 2
    Felicidade 4:23
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00/4:23
  3. 3
    Amor Até O Fim 3:58
    Info
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00/3:58
  4. 4
    Bilhete 4:14
    0:00/4:14
  5. 5
    Deixa 4:09
    Info
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00/4:09
  6. 6
    Inutil Paisagem 4:21
    Info
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00/4:21
  7. 7
    Vale O Escrito 2:51
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00/2:51
  8. 8
    Here In Your Arms 5:09
    0:00/5:09
0:00/???
  • Home
  • Music
    • Lyric Translations
  • Events
  • Bios
  • Teaching
  • Bands
  • Photos/Video
  • EPK/Photos/Bio/Reviews
  • Guestbook
  • Links and Contact
Media
Sandy Cressman Entre Amigos Bio Sandy Cressman Biography for
"Entre Amigos" CD
160 KB
Entre Amigos Cover Photo Entre Amigos Cover Photo 78.6 KB
Sandy Cressman Promo Photo 1 Promo photo of Sandy - Recife near Shore 391 KB
Sandy Cressman Promo Photo 2 Sandy at Window Paço do Frevo Color 626 KB
Sandy Cressman Promo Photo 3 Sandy in Window Paço do Frevo B/W 370 KB
Sandy Cressman Promo Photo 4 Sandy Cressman Paço do Frevo interior 752 KB
Sandy and Jeff Cressman Promo Photo Sandy and Jeff Cressman 60.2 KB

Reviews


Reviews and Features - "Entre Amigos":

Podcast: Vocalist Sandy Cressman's Brazilian Odyssey Brings Return To Sacramento

Interview and Podcast by Paul Conley, Capitol Public Radio, Sacramento, CA July 29, 2017

Bay area vocalist Sandy Cressman is steeped in the music of Brazil. Her sensitive, studied approach has won praise from Brazilian musicians and has earned her invitations to perform in that country.

Cressman began her career singing Manhattan Transfer-style jazz with a successful group called Pastiche. Then she fell in love with Brazilian music, and once she learned Portuguese and formed her own band, there was no turning back.

“I know most of my audiences don’t speak Portuguese and yet I’m sure what catches them is what caught me,  which is the depth of the harmonic progressions, the beauty of the melodies, the intensity of the rhythms. [Brazilian music has] a color and passion that I haven’t found in any other form of music,” says the Bronx-born, San Jose-raised singer. 

But it’s not just the music of Brazil that attracts Cressman. She says that country's language also has compelling qualities for a singer. 

“Portuguese is beautiful in that there are a lot more vowels sounds per word. So that carries a lot more tone. [In English translations] you can hear how many more consonants there are.”

Click to read more and hear PODCAST


From Santana to jam bands to Brazilian jazz — Cressman clan does it all 
The Mercury News, San Jose, CA 

By Andrew Gilbert, July 19, 2017

Jeff Cressman wasn’t happy that his rock-star ride skidded to a halt, but coming off the road last year after a long 21st century run with Santana has given the trombonist more time for other creative pursuits. Like Monday’s familial double bill at the Stanford Jazz Festival, where he’s a featured soloist in his wife Sandy Cressman’s band, Homage to Brazil, and also joins his daughter, vocalist/trombonist Natalie Cressman’s and her band Secret Garden.

“We’ve never done a show like this before,” he says. “Each group is very defined. With Sandy’s band we’re playing the Brazilian music that really attracts her, as well as her original collaborations. Natalie is finding her own music, heavily influenced by Joni Mitchell and all the great bands of her peers, like Lettuce and Snarky Puppy.”

Sandy is also finding her own way after two decades immersing herself in the music of master Brazilian songwriters like Guinga, Jobim, Djavan, and Edu Lobo. Now she’s also contributing her own songs into that verdantly creative mix.

Her recent album “Entre Amigos” features original material written in collaboration with an array of renowned musicians from Brazil and beyond, including the brilliant Rio-born pianist Jasnam Daya Singh — formerly known as Weber Iago — who joins her Sept. 17 on the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Garden Stage. She also performs at San Francisco’s Red Poppy Art House on Aug. 4 with Jeff on trombone and Natalie and some of her bandmates as special guests (redpoppyarthouse.org).

Click for MORE


Another Reason to Celebrate by Elzy Kolb
Everlasting love
Hot House Jazz Guide, New York

 By Elzy Kolb, Hot House Jazz Guide, April 5, 2017

Although she doesn’t get to the Big Apple very often, each visit is a homecoming of sorts for Bay Area vocalist and composer Sandy Cressman. The Bronx-born singer spent some of her pre-school years here and coming back keeps her in touch with her roots. “I still feel like New York is where I’m from; being there, experiencing it, helps me understand my parents,” she muses.

Her musical roots extend even farther afield: Brazilian music has been her love since first listen. From youthful enthusiasm ignited by Sergio Mendes, to being “floored” when a classmate performed a Brazilian tune at school, to picking up tips and homemade cassettes from Marcus Silva when she sang with the vocal group Pastiche: Sandy was hooked. She discovered the music of Ivan Lins by hearing one of his recordings played over the sound system between sets at a Pat Metheny concert at Berkeley’s Greek Theater. “I hiked all the way down to the sound booth to find out what it was.”

The Brazilian singer/songwriter Djavan was another ear-opener. “I couldn’t believe it; the music was so great. It was so funky with great chord changes, groove and melody.” Since 1999, Sandy has released three albums of Brazilian music as a leader, including the new Entre Amigos (Cressman Music), for which she contributed lyrics for each of the ten tunes, and music for half of them. The CD includes “Ela É,” the first song she wrote in Portuguese; Sandy learned the language so she could perform the music more authentically.

Click for MORE


Sandy Cressman: Entre Amigos
World Music Report


by Raul de Gama, World Music Report, March 22, 2017

The heavenly-voiced Sandy Cressman comes from, what might easily be considered in knowledgeable circles as, West Coast musical royalty. She and her husband and trombonist, producer and recording engineer have graced music in the Jazz styles Brasilian, in the US, and in Brasil. Together they are also parents to two daughters; Natalie who, is based in New York, is a wonderfully gifted trombonist in her own right, taking after her father, Jeff, whose mighty virtuosity propelled Santana’s band as well. Julianna, a younger daughter, has made enviable start as a dancer, also on the United States West Coast.

Entre Amigos, the 2017 recording by Sandy Cressman gloriously encapsulates the singer’s far-reaching Brasilian development as it takes her further afield from the comfort of the ‘carioca’ surroundings that she knows so well into the complex and magical Northeastern region of Brasil. Her ebullient frevo “Não Me Acorde Não (Don’t Wake Me)” shows a gifted grasp of the complex and idiomatic rhythms and features an effervescent solo by the frevo mestre, Spok, who also arranges and conducts a wonderful team of Brasilian musicians from the legendary Spok Frevo Orchestra.

Further down the album, Sandy Cressman pays tribute to Brasil’s beloved O Bruxo, The Sorcerer himself: Hermeto Pascoal with a piece (“Para Hermeto”) that warmly embraces Pascoal’s wickedly inventive metres and she is fortunate to have pianist, Jovino Santos Neto as co-writer here. No one knows Pascoal better, musically, than Jovino Santos Neto who teams up with Sandy Cressman here. Eduardo Neves’ extraordinary flute solo turns an already stellar piece into a truly enchanted one blending Pascoal-like mock-rustic mischief with unashamedly gorgeous re-harmonisations, courtesy of Jovino Santos Neto.

It would not be wholly wild to speculate here that Jeff Cressman’s articulate and amorous exploits on the trombone are forged not only in the naturally sensuousness of the Brasilian idiom, but are also drawn to his wife’s beguiling vocalastics. Natalie Cressman makes a guest appearance on trombone on “Deixa O Amor Florescer” and turns in a luminous performance as well. Other songs also feature extraordinary musicians from Brasil and the American West Coast music scene that bring a winning combination of genuine excitement and bustling virtuosity to Entre Amigos.

However, it is the radiant lyricism in the voice of Sandy Cressman, complete with the affective whisperings and exhilarating resonances that combine with the poetry of her music that make this recording quite unforgettable.  
_______________________________________
Click for MORE


 

Jazz Weekly
Sandy Cressman: Entre Amigos

by George W. Harris • Jazz Weekly March 9, 2017

Vocalist Sandy Cressman takes you on a Brazilian tour of sounds in both English and Portuguese on this charming and lithe session. She mixes and matches her warm and nasal intonations with a rotating team of David Matthews/key, Phil Thompson/dr, David Belove/b Ian Faquini/g and various guests.

She’s able to change moods in a single song, going from a slow intro to a staccato’d delivery on the peppy “Here In Your Arms” while riding the liquid groove on the soft “Ela E.” She has a percussive feel to her incantations on the lively “Como Eu Quero Cantar” and can get slinky with the percussion on “Menina Vai.” Most of the moods are folksy and cheerful sambas, taking the Jobim feel to the next step on “Eu Mais Voce” and the fluffy “Eu Vou Lembrar.” Lots to love on this sublime beauty.

www.cressmanmusic.com

 


San Francisco Chronicle:
SF singer Sandy Cressman found inspiration
in sounds of Brazil

By Andrew Gilbert, S.F. Chronicle Feb. 14, 2017
 

For San Francisco vocalist Sandy Cressman, music isn’t just a calling — it’s a family affair.

And it’s not just that her band often features her husband, trombonist and sound engineer Jeff Cressman, who recently concluded his 16-year run with Santana. Or that their older daughter, New York trombonist/vocalist Natalie Cressman, contributed a horn arrangement on her mother’s new album “Entre Amigos.” 

Beyond the binding ties of blood and matrimony, Cressman’s musical circle embraces an ever-expanding array of brilliant Brazilian musicians and Bay Area artists who share her abiding Brazilophilia. Her two previous albums with her band Homenagem Brasileira drew on her Bay Area cadre, projects that focused Cressman’s keen interpretive powers and supple rhythmic phrasing on songs rarely explored by American jazz singers.

With “Entre Amigos,” Cressman makes a huge creative leap by adding her own songs to the repertoire via collaborations with major Brazilian artists like Recife saxophonist/composer Spok, Rio-raised pianist Jovino Santos Neto, and the Sao Paulo mother-and-daughter tandem of keyboardist Debora and vocalist Dani Gurgel, respectively.

Click for MORE

Sandy Cressman explores other side of Brazilian music

By Carol Weber for AXS.com: 
 

Bay Area vocalist Sandy Cressman dives into lesser-known styles of Brazilian music on her upcoming album, Entre Amigos — a community affair, including her trombonist husband Jeff (Santana), Seattle-based pianist Jovino Santos Neto, bossa-nova veteran Antonio Adolfo, and a host of other well-known musicians of the genre.

Most of the 10 tunes breeze along as any Brazilian-jazz record might. For the average listener, it’s hard to pick out differences in the various styles and genres available, from samba jazz to frevo and maracatu, São Paulo to Northeast.

That is, until the ballad of “Nossa História (Our Story).” The sad song rises and falls on Cressman’s plaintive voice, heightened and accompanied only by guitar. The song is a collaborative, Nascimentian duet with guitarist Ian Faquini, a musician originally born in Brazil and raised in Berkeley.  

click for MORE

 


Reviews of "Brasil-Sempre No Coração" and "Homenagem Brasileira"

Singer Sandy Cressman presents a soulful tribute to the contemporary musical heritage of Brazil on her debut release for A-Records, a subsidiary of Challenge Records in the Netherlands. A singer's singer who has graced the work of artists like Ray Obiedo, Pete Escovedo, and Rebeca Mauleon, Sandy has carved a name for herself in the '80s with jazz vocal group Pastiche. "Homenagem Brasileira" is a cool shower of interpretive works that showcases the warmly superb and crystalline voice of this emerging diva. In collaboration with pianist and keyboardist Marcos Silva (former musical director for Flora Purim and Airto), the album features reedman Harvey Wainapel, who splashes a variety of colors from a variety of saxophones. Bassist David Belove anchors it with a seasoned tumbao that allows drummer Celso Alberti to add a rainbow of percussive adornment. Silva is also extremely impressive, constructing these gorgeous arrangements and riffing out stellar solos with a virtuosity that swings. But it's Sandy's party all the way, as the New York City-born Cressman caresses the Portuguese lyrics with confidence and a surprising, almost French, articulation. The uptempo samba "Vale O Escrito" opens it and threads very nicely this well sequenced album. The melodicism of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Felicidade" showcases her superb intonation while the "Ivan Lins Medley", a passioinate rendition of six Lins classics, shows its radiance. This record is straight and to the point with modest production value that allows for the musical talent to carry it and they do that with A+ caliber.

Latin Beat Magazine (Jesse Varela)

 "....Here, then, is a nest of true chirps (bop term for female singer), ladies who aver, it would seem, that without a song the day wouldn't even begin, let alone never end.

Sandy Cressman: Homenagem Brasileira (Homage to Brazil) (A Records 73134; 56:58) ***1/2 ( three and a half stars) San Francisco Bay Area-based Cressman speaks Portuguese and has an innate feel for that land's music. Backed by Rio-born pianist Marcos Silva, she cranks out an appealing program that includes Nascimento's "Viola Violar" and Jobim's "Felicidade".

Downbeat (Zan Stewart)

"...Singing the all-Brazilian program in Portuguese, Cressman's voice floated smoothly over Harvey Wainapel's clarinet and saxes, the keyboards of Marcos Silva, the guitar of Carlos Oliveira, David Belove's bass and Celso Alberti's drums.

Cressman pours out her love, sometimes to excess, for the delightfully sensuous and melodious Brazilian lyrics in all her renditions. Her medley of Ivan Lins songs, her deft handling of Milton Nascimento's difficult "Viola Violar" and and her interpretations of songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Donato and Dori Caymmi are nicely turned."

San Francisco Examiner (Phillip Elwood)

"Sandy Cressman is a Northern California singer/songwriter whose heart belongs to Rio. Her vocals on these under-exposed Brazilian classics (Ivan Lins/Milton Nascimento/Gilberto Gil/Jobim et al) are confident and expressive. A real bonus for Keyboard readers is Marcos Silva's captivating piano playing and arranging; if you've ever wanted to cop the Brazilian keyboard style, this is the disc to scrutinize.

Keyboard Magazine (Richard Leiter)

 Judging by the vibe at Monday's CD release concert for her Homenagem Brasileira ("Homage to Brazil"), San Francisco singer Sandy Cressman loves Brazil so much that she probably dreams in Portuguese. Dressed more for the beach than for the bar, in a skimpy and glittering black mini skirt and matching top with bare midriff, Cressman stroked her long, curly brunette locks, and simmered with her energized quintet of Brazilian and BraziI-loving instrumentalists on two sets of her favorite sambas and Brazilian pop tunes.

It's quite a stylistic leap from her old days as one-third of the upscale jazz harmony trio Pastiche. Married to Peter Apfelbaum trombonist Jeff Cressman, she took time off to have two children, and in the process became publicist to the Apfelbaum crew. She received so many requests to do PR for other acts that she seriously considered that option before choosing to return to singing, this time the Brazilian fare she loves most.

Just back from her first pilgrimage to Brazil, Cressman sang her warm, romantic lyrics without strain. The band was the same as on Homenagem Brasileira, with long-time accompanist, arranger and keyboardist Marcos silva, electric bassist David Belove, drummer Celso Alberti, the ever-amazing saxophonist Harvey Wainapel (a bebopper who, like Cressman, is now a full-blown Brazil addict), and (for part of the concert) guitarist and percussionist Carlinhos Oliveira.

At times it was just Cressman and a guitar; more often the whole electric band smoothly followed her as she harmonized with Silva or scatted along with Wainapel's marvelous soprano sax and clarinet improvisations. What Cressman and her musicians brought to the evening was a reverential tribute to the spirit of Brazil through its music, a sensual and warm performance that was both celebration and showcase for Cressman's fine singing.

East Bay Express Review of Sandy's CD Release Performance at Yoshi's (Larry Kelp)

I feel much the same as Sandy Cressman does about Brazilian music, in her own words: "Somehow this music opens the doors to my deepest emotions, and lights a fire that makes me feel alive." Homenagem Brasileira is homage to an era of Brazilian composers and artists featuring a fine choice of material from classic Jobim, to contemporary artists such as Ivan Lins, Djavan, Dori Caymmi and others. Formerly of the vocal trio Pastiche, Sandy's voice is well suited to this genre. Sweet, yet with plenty of substance and emotional depth, often reminded me of Leila Pinheiro. All songs are performed in Portuguese. Supported by a superb blend of players featuring Marcos silva, who in addition to the various instruments he plays here, is the producer and arranger. His arrangements are rich, interesting, and contemporary. Steeped in the tropical brew of his native Brazil, we hear with the lush harmonies, and diverse rhythms infused with a touch of jazz. Harvey Wainapel;s tasty harmonic and rhythmic stylings add a colo9rful flavor to the mix. the end result is an uplifting and very listenable album that flows smoothly along like the waves at Ipanema.

Bayjazz dot com review of Homenagem Brasileira (Mishla)

Got a nice call the other day from singer Sandy Cressman, who was still high from her sold-out record release party on February 1 at Yoshi's Nitespot in Oakland. She is just back from Brazil, and her debut recording is entitled "Homenagem Brasileira" on the Dutch label A-Records. With pianist and keyboardist Marcos Silva, it's a gem, with special guest Harvey Wainapel adding his sax textures to the gorgeous musical mix of Jazz brasileiro. Bassist David Belove anors it all with a seasoned tumbao that allows drummer Celso Alberti to add a rainbow of percussive adornment. I love "Vale O Escrito", but it's the Ivan Lins medley that lets Sandy strut her stuff. Sandy was formerly with the ace vocal Jazz ensemble Pastiche. She is the wife of talented trombonist Jeff Cressman as well as a mom. Sandy is one to keep your eyes and ears on as her star rises.

JazzNow (Jesse Varela)

 


 

 

©2009 Cressman Music
    Powered by Bandzoogle