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Cyrille Aimée: Improvisation Is A Way Of Life
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Long before singer
Cyrille Aimée
vocalsb.1984
Samois-sur-Seine is very small but in the 1990s of Cyrille's childhood it did have one claim to fame: it was the town where the legendary french gypsy jazz guitarist
Django Reinhardt
guitar1910 - 1953
Riding her bike through town one summer day, Cyrille had a chance encounter with some young Gypsy kids that would lead to a friendship that ultimately changed her life. The Manouche taught her to sing, taught her to perform, taught her to improvise and see improvisation as not only a musical pursuit but also a kind of life goal.
To watch Cyrille perform is to watch a kind of ecstatic manifestation. She's very physically engaged, her whole body gets involved when she sings. She says that music was originally an extension of dance for her and that since her instrument is her body, dance is still a vital part of her singing. That physicality is part of her charm. She's a natural performer.
But she's also an accomplished singer, dance or no dance. She is naturally in tune with the language of jazz, bebop, funk, and soul. She's a precise and fluent scat singer, technical and soulful at the same time.
Cyrille won awards and accolades along the way—she won the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition in 2007, was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, and she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition in 2012. Her 2019 album Move On featured cover versions of songs by Stephen Sondheim. The album was praised by Sondheim himself and one of its songs, "Marry Me a Little," was nominated for a Grammy Award. And a live stream video of Cyrille on
Emmet Cohen
pianob.1990
Aimée released two albums in 2021, Petit Fleur recorded with
Adonis Rose
drums
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
band / ensemble / orchestraMichael Valeanu
guitarWhen she's not on the road, Cyrille has been living between New Orleans and Costa Rica. We spoke about growing up in Samois-sur-Seine, what she learned from the Gypsies, moving to America, how to learn new languages, the importance of confronting and overcoming fear for creativity, how to be honest with the audience, and where to find good cheese.
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