By Bret Saunders, Special to The Denver Post
Pianist-composer-bandleader-educator Carmen Sandim has a few minutes to talk. She’s on her way out the door of her Denver home to teach a music class at Metropolitan State University, but Sandim is preparing to release her accomplished second album, “Play Doh,” and wants to get the word out about the disc’s release performances at Denver’s Dazzle (Oct. 24) and Boulder’s Caffe Sole (Oct. 25-26.)
Sandim was raised in Brazil, but in recent years has made her home in Colorado. Much of the music on “Play Doh” has one foot planted in current American jazz and the other in her native country.
“I grew up listening to Tom Jobim (also known as Antonio Carlos Jobim, the massively influential Brazilian composer and performer) and his harmonic sense, a lot of those rhythms … on my first album, none of that came out. But on this one, everything came out Brazilian,” she said.
Perhaps that’s because Sandim looks back on her upbringing on some of the album’s music. Two beautifully realized tracks, “Isaura” and Aura-Celia” are “female legacy songs” for her grandmother and mother.
“Those songs were heavily inspired by the people in my life,” she said. “My grandmother was a big influence. I wrote that song for her when she passed away a couple of years ago.”
The compositions extend to meditations on her children, as is the case with “Play Doh’s” good-natured opening track, “Aruru, Juju.”
“Being a single mother and being a musician is the biggest challenge of my life,” Sandim says. “‘Aruru’ was written while I was taking care of my kids. A lot of the music was written under circumstances where I didn’t sleep every Friday and Tuesday night (in order to complete the compositions.)”
In the years since Sandim has arrived in Colorado, she’s established professional relationships with local stalwarts Ron Miles and Art Lande, who she refers to as “jazz angels.” Lande, the veteran pianist, produced “Play Doh,” and helped introduce Sandim to several of the musicians on the album, including MVP guitarist Khabu Doug Young, who shreds on the playful track “Undergrowth.”
Sadim has learned to embrace the chaos of the multiple hats she wears as an artist and a parent.
“I think I’m starting to get the hang of it – sort of,” She says with a laugh. “I think of the Nike thing — ‘just do it.’ There’s an urgency to put things out there, the intensity of love that kids bring. It’s an affirmation of love to have kids — it’s hard, but it’s also so life-affirming.”
Sandim will appear at Denver’s Dazzle on October 24 and Caffe Sole in Boulder October 25-26. Details at carmensandim.com.
Other upcoming jazz shows to put on your calendar: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, members of the historic Neville Family and more, will appear at the Lone Tree Arts Center as part of “Take Me To The River New Orleans Live!” on Oct. 14. The John Pizzarelli Trio plays the Soiled Dove Underground Oct. 15. Ben Sidran appears at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center on Oct. 24. The Jenna McLean Quartet honors Anita O’Day at Nocturne Oct. 18 and 25. Rebirth Brass Band takes to the stage of the Gothic Theatre Oct. 26.
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