Venissa Santi
Listen to Venissa Santi on the Umm...Drop podcast.
Latin jazz vocalist Venissa Santi has already gone through the motions of releasing her debut CD Bienvenida once. She funded and released the album herself last year, putting it up on CD Baby and relying on word-of-mouth and the Internet to help her get exposure.
It worked. When the album fell into the hands of the legendary record promoter and former Chess Records exec Dick LaPalm, Santi’s hard work and dedication paid off. Sunnyside Records picked up the album and is rereleasing it, and Santi doesn’t mind promoting it twice at all.
“When I put it out the first time, I literally made 50 copies on my own. You can only do so much as a single person with no connections—it’s all a journey,” she says. “I’ve reached an audience I never would have been able to reach without [a label] ... For me, it’s like, no, no—this hasn’t even started yet. This record needs to be heard.”
The album is a stunning combination of American jazz standards, traditional Cuban tunes and Santi’s own compositions. Her clear and dreamy vocals are almost languid at times, while billowing with restrained passion at others. Her attention to detail and nuance is apparent, and Santi readily admits she takes her work quite seriously.
“I’m making sure that I’m smart about what I’m doing and not just floating by because I’m a vocalist or whatever. I’ve always been trying to combat that rap singers get,” she says, explaining how vocalists tend to get less musical training than instrumentalists. “I can’t reiterate enough how important that is, to be able to hang and communicate with musicians ... it’s very important to have a lot of integrity and to be at the level of other musicians you’re working with.”
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1. Giovanni Rodriguez said... on Dec 29, 2009 at 08:00AM
“I work with your friend Daphnee and sit across her office and I kept hearing what she was playing and the more I heard the more I liked it until I heard you sing in spanish and that's when I completely got blown away. Your voice is so relaxing and pulls one in to the point that everything else gets blocked out. You just got yourself another fan. Hope to hear much more of you.”