I was born in Medellìn, Colombia, and I’m descendent of a musical family (my
mother, Angela recorded 7 LP’s of boleros, all my brothers are musicians and my
grandfather, Enrique was the co-founder of the first Jazz Band in Medellìn in 1935). I
began playing guitar at age 12, and at 18, was traveling Colombia, with an all-female
Quartet “Ellas”. But my professional life really began in London, where, with my
oldest brother Luciano, we began to search for a way to make a living through music.
I must admit that it was my brother’s skills and convincing talent that made us – two
Colombians-, sing in English in England! Our repertoire was made up of songs from
The Beatles, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and many others. In London I
had also fallen in love with flamenco and met Joaquin Sabina, a Spanish singer
songwriter who shared many music nights with me singing at Costa del Sol. It was a
truly beautiful experience.
I returned to Colombia in 1976 and soon started to discover my Latin musical
background. Those were the days of world cultural revolution, but in Colombia things
were still very conventional, and a girl singing at night in bars and clubs was not well
seen. I moved to Bogotá where I found some people who, like me, where willing to
risk society finger pointing, and we made our own family of musicians. I sang in
English and in Portuguese. I felt I wasn’t ready to sing in Spanish yet. I needed to find
my own sound, my own vocal style. Playing Brazilian and Cuban music made me
think of my own roots. If Colombia had the same cultural mix as Brazil or Cuba, why
did our music feel obsolete, and theirs felt fresh and evolved?
Then I started to travel to small and forgotten places, looking for the roots of
Colombian folk music (and for my own), and found great people who gave me that
Colombian identity I had been looking for. However, that music needed a little
shaking, a little blend from somewhere. I wasn’t prepared to do it just yet, and I knew
I had to look for it somewhere else, away from home. My inner soul was looking for a
change.
In 1983, invited by my brother Luciano, I visited the San Francisco Bay Area and
experienced the music scene there. I knew immediately that this was my place. I
found a vibrant, professional, and creative – day and night music life – that opened up
horizons in my mind, and musically awakened me. I lived in the bay area from 1983
till 1998 (15 years). I played with the best jazz musicians there. I also mingled with
outstanding Brazilian musicians, learning all the subtleties, beauty, evolution and
creativity of Brazilian music. It was a fountain of harmony for my guitar playing, a
guide for my vocal development and a marvelous experience in band leading.
In 1989 I documented this Brazilian phase of my life in a recording called Claudia
Canta Brasil. That recording opened the doors to pursue my own sound. I went back
to my Colombian roots and started writing music that contained Colombian rhythmic
elements, covered with jazzy Brazilian harmonies; I entwined melodic patterns from
both cultures. The result was documented in my 3rd album Tierradentro, published
by Green Linnet Records (recorded in 1992 but released in 1996).
In 1992 I recorded Salamandra with Clarity Recordings. Tierradentro and
Salamandra albums gave me stability as a musician in the privileged San Francisco
Bay Area. In the bay area I truly became a musician, helped by all the generosity and
support of friends, musicians. I also finished my school degree, a Bachelor of Arts in
Music, with an emphasis in World Music, and had the privilege of studying with
African master drummers, Indian vocal teachers, as well as experiencing a year of
teaching Afro-Colombian songs at the same university.
I kept well connected to Colombia, my homeland, through periodic trips to inlands
and the coast, where I continued the search for my music ancestors. During 1994 I
spent the whole year in Colombia, traveling, performing, showing my music and
developing a repertoire of original arrangements and compositions based in
Colombian traditional music, with a modern approach to it. I performed that
repertoire for the next 9 years.
In 1998 I was ready to move on away from the bay area and ready to look for new
horizons again, and decided to go to Spain. I landed in Madrid in July 1998. If I had
been an exotic musician in California, in Spain I was totally unknown, something that
I enjoyed for a while because it allowed me to reflect on my life and over my
commitment to music. I loved Madrid’s intense nightlife, I loved starting all over
again (well…. almost!), and it brought back memories of my early music life struggle.
Spain has a way of bringing everyone down to earth, there’s little time to be an
arrogant artist; everyone is in the same pot. I met wonderful and outstanding
musicians: Jerry Gonzalez (Fort Apache), Pavel Urkiza, Gladston Galliza, Caramelo,
the San Martin brothers, Rosalia, all of them marvelous friends and artists with whom
I shared the stage many times and who I keep in my heart. There I recorded my
bolero-jazz album Vivir Cantando. Even though there’s a definite melancholy
feeling in it, it is still one of my best-recorded albums.
I traveled, at my delight, throughout Europe and played the most important places in
Madrid and Spain but soon I needed to touch base with my own roots again. I came
back to Colombia in September 2002.
I have been fortunate enough in life to have always done just what I wanted. I’ve
moved through places and people in life with the certainty that they will always be in
my heart and in my mind, but also, with the certainty that I can move away whenever
my music or my life needs it. I now live between Bogotá and my hometown,
Medellìn. In two years I’ve built a house, made a new album MAJAGUA, worked
with the government in the development of music projects for needed people in all
regions of Colombia; I have taught guitar, offered vocal workshops, and take care of
my mother, and I’m very happy doing all that. MAJAGUA has been my highest
accomplishment so far, because it was made up of a mature repertoire that was
weaved day by day, note by note, with the help and inspiration of all musicians from
all over the world and it was a gift I gave to Colombia and its musicians. They
received it so well that it made me feel at home again. And here I am. I work with
very young and also very old people, helping them direct their careers with the
confidence and certainty that, choosing music, , like me, they have chosen the right
path. I’m very happy that I’m getting to see with my own eyes the evolution I always
envisioned for Colombian music. I’m just thankful I have had the privilege to travel,
to share this life experience with so many different people and cultures. I’m a happy
woman.