Paraguayan harpist and composer Juanjo Corbalán released a new album with his Juanjo Corbalán Quartet last spring, available from major streaming platforms. He describes his compositions represented on the quartet’s fourth recording, Jazz no es Polca (Jazz is not Polka), as a blend of Paraguayan music and Latin American rhythms with elements of jazz and 20th-century music.
“For the album Jazz no es Polca, I liked being able to bring the sounds of folkloric roots to the universal,” Corbalán says. “When I started to write these songs, [I was inspired by] many influences and ways of seeing folk music…from a broader perspective, looking at the harp and being able to dialogue [between styles] and turn it into a sonic bridge between tradition and avant-garde. [My compositions on the album feature] traditional rhythms of Paraguay, such as Polka, Guarania, and Peteke Peteke. You can also hear a bit of Uruguayan Candombe and a bit of Peruvian Festejo, Cha-Cha, Rumba and Salsa. [The music] has some jazz [aspects] but it is not [jazz]; [it also contains] many improvisations and some elements of 20th-century music.”
“In addition to all [these stylistic influences], I was deeply inspired by the music of [Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist] Hermeto Pascoal and his vision of Universal Music, an aesthetic and philosophical vision of music in which musical boundaries do not exist,” Corbalán says. He recorded the self-released album under the musical direction of André Marques, pianist for Pascoal, with the support of the Care, Coaching, Career (CCC) development program. The CCC was part of his award as the first prize winner at the 2022 Dutch Harp Festival World Harp Competition in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
The Juanjo Corbalán Quartet comprises Lara Barreto (alto and soprano saxophone), Víctor Álvarez (piano), Sebastián Ramírez (drums and percussion), and Corbalán (Paraguayan harp and compositions). “[The group] brings together sounds of Paraguayan popular music, combining various elements of traditional Paraguayan and Latin American instrumental rhythms and jazz influences, thus incorporating Paraguay’s folk instrument, the harp, into a more free-spirited musical context,” Corbalán says. Corbalán founded the group in 2017, and he and his quartet have performed at various festivals and concert halls throughout Latin America and Europe. The ensemble was selected to perform at the “Jazzahead!” festival in Bremen, Germany, earlier this year.
Read Harp Column’s feature interview with Corbalán following his Dutch World Harp Competition win in our July/August 2022 issue.
