MAGOS HERRERA

 

Born in Mexico City and currently based out of New York City, Magos Herrera is a dazzling jazz singer- songwriter, producer, and educator. Magos is regarded as one of the most expressive, beautiful voices and most active vocalists in the contemporary Latin American jazz scene. She is best known for her eloquent vocal improvisation and her singular bold style, which embraces elements of contemporary jazz with Latin American melodies and rhythms singing in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, in a style that elegantly blends and surpasses language boundaries. She has recorded six solo albums, has worked on joint collaborations for two more albums with producer Javier Limón in addition to having participated as a guest artist of several recordings and albums. An accomplished artist, Magos has performed in a variety of leading international cultural venues such as Lincoln Center in NYC, Kennedy Center in DC, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Union Chapel in London, Duc des Lombardes in Paris, Kamani Auditorium in Delhi, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, and has been part of the line-up of some of the most memorable jazz festivals around the world including Montreux Jazz Festival , Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival Internacional Cervantino, to mention a few. Throughout her career, Magos has garnered important awards and recognitions, including a Grammy short-list nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for her album Distancia (2009), and is the only female artist to have received the Berklee College of Music’s Master of Latin Music Award. She is well known for championing women’s causes and currently serves as spokesperson for UN Women, and has contributed to important campaigns including UNITE to end violence against women and He For She, as a promoter of gender equality. She serves as an artistic advisor of the “National Sawdust”, one of Brooklyn’s most innovative venues, and as a frequent collaborator for radio and television programs in Mexico, Magos produces and hosts a weekly radio program from New York for Mexico’s Public Radio.In 2017 she was invited as a guest artist to participate in a album to celebrate renowned Mexican poet, Octavio Paz and in Paco de Lucia’s tribute documentary, “La guitarra vuela” and celebrated the memory of the iconic Mercedes Sosa in New York along with Pedro Aznar and Ed Simon Trio.

In September 2018 Magos released her most recent album: Dreamers (Sony Music) in collaboration with the celebrated string quartet “Brooklyn Rider”. Highly acclaimed by the critics and audiences the album rapidly got into #1 Amazon, #2 iTunes and got into the Top lists of The New York Times, Billboard classical, NPR Music, NPR Alt Latino, PRI The world, KPCC-FM, KPFK’S Global Village and has been nominated for the international Grammys for Best arrangement with the song “Niña”. This album includes gems of the Ibero- American songbook reimagined by a superb group of arrangers including Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen. In the same year Magos received the Omecíhuatl Medal, an award granted by the Women's Institute of the government of Mexico City in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the empowerment of women through the arts and culture and has been included as one of the most creative Mexicans in the world by Forbes Mexico Magazine.