“Sonorous Present: Songs of Border Crossings, Sunrises, and Mournings”

Single Tickets Available July 28

Presenting Series

An immersive poetic and musical passage, Sonorous Present extends sonic meditations on loss, migration, and memory across America's borderlands, as physical place and liminal space.

What began as an experimental and improvised performance in 2019—inspired by the music and poetics of Alex E. Chávez's award-winning book Sounds of Crossing—was subsequently reimagined as a studio album in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning producer Quetzal Flores, and featuring luminaries from the worlds of traditional Mexican son and jazz—including, Aloe Blacc (2015 Grammy Award nominee), Martha Gonzalez (2022 MacArthur Fellow), Ramón Gutiérrez (of Son de Madera), Roger Reeves (Guggenheim Fellow, National Book Award finalist, and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Griffin Poetry Prize recipient), and Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso (winner of the 2022 Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition).

This performance of the studio album integrates an epic spectrum of Regional Mexican and Latin American folk elements with jazz, poetry, dance, field recordings, and ethnographic songwriting that crosses the sunburst surreal of America's musical and cultural borderlands.

Musicians/Performers
Alex E. Chávez: vocals, poetry, classical guitar, roland juno
Quetzal Flores (musical director): electric guitar, requinto jarocho, jarana jarocha
Laura Cambrón: vocals, jarana jarocha
Martha Gonzalez: vocals, cajón, zapateado, chekere
Sandino Gonzalez Flores: vocals, piano, keyboards
Alberto Lopez: congas, cajón, bata
Rocío Marron: violin, viola
Juan Pérez: upright bass, electric bass
Martín Perna: baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, alto flute, chekere
Carlos García: visuals

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