It is never easy to sum up the careers of people like the singer and actress Ainara Ortega from Gipuzkoa and the guitarist Joaquin Chacón from Madrid in a few words. Not only is Ainara Ortega a multidisciplinary artist with a brilliant and prolific career in theatre productions such as Inalanbrikak, El Club de las Mujeres Invisibles, Kafka y la Muñeca Viajera, Mami Lebrun, Theo’s House and Eskamak kentzen, but she also holds a professional degree in violin from Francisco Escudero Conservatory in San Sebastián and was the first woman to graduate with a degree in jazz singing from Musikene. Ainara has studied modern harmony, improvisation, arranging, double bass, acting, dance and tap. A career that has led her to participate in projects such as Mac Jeara’s Band or Te Doy Una Canción alongside Iñaki Salvador, and to collaborate with renowned artists from the jazz scene such as Jorge Pardo, Bob Sands Big Band, Mikel Adueza, Jesie Davis, and Joaquin Chacón himself. She has also participated in recordings with Mac Jeara’s Band, Te Doy Una Canción, Nevermind (both 2009), Imanol Donosti, Tombuctú, Eguberri Umama and Chet Baker in memoriam. The singer from Gipuzkoa has released two albums as a band leader: Scat (2015) and Onin (2021). These records, along with her latest release, So in Love, featuring Joaquín Chacón, establish her as one of the most prominent and intriguing figures on the current jazz scene.
Since the late 1980s, Joaquín Chacón has been a leading figure on the jazz scene. He is not only one of the most influential musicians in the artistic sphere but is also recognized as one of the most renowned educators in the field of music education. As the author of records such as San (1995/1996), Promenade (2011), Skytrain (2014), and Origami (2019), Joaquin has recorded a total of fifteen albums as a bandleader and has participated in thirty recordings alongside artists such as Jorge Pardo, Perico Sambeat, Chano Domínguez, Mikel Andueza, and Iñaki Salvador, among others. Throughout his extensive career, he has performed all over the world, collaborating with renowned international artists such as Al Foster, Bobby Floyd, Dave Liebman, and the already mentioned Chano Domínguez, Perico Sambeat, and Jorge Pardo. Currently a professor at Musikene and the Escuela de Música Creativa in Madrid, he has published seminal books such as Be Bop, The Language of Jazz and Harmony for Modern Guitar, building a career that has come to be regarded as legendary over the years.
Recorded and mastered by David San José Cuesta at Rarotempo Studios in Madrid, So in Love is an intimate, elegant and delightfully organic album. It is the result of the interaction and chemistry between the two artists. A direct heir to the tradition of vocal jazz standards, it is exciting and beautiful, brimming with nuance and sensitivity throughout. Compositions such as What’s New, featuring guest saxophonist Bobby Martinez, and the delightful Like Someone in Love, with Pablo Caminero on double bass, take listeners on a thrilling journey through vocal improvisation and a variety of instrumental arrangements. The duo offers fresh interpretations of songs such as Lush Life and pays tribute to the legendary Bob Sands on, I’m in the Mood for Bob, a composition by Jimmy McHugh and Ainara Ortega featuring Bobby Martinez and Pablo Caminero once again. So in Love is devoid of artifice, revealing itself to be raw and vulnerable in songs such as Daydream, ironic and loquacious in tracks such as I Ain’t Got Nothing But the Blues and Nobody Else But Me — once again featuring Pablo Caminero on double bass — and elegant and emotional in the exquisite What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?, expanding an already extensive colour palette with the Brazilian music classic Folhas Secas.
