Sofia Carrasco's "Alma Escondida" a soundtrack of evolving jazz/introspection
NJCU jazz performance grad's album is top tier
By D. Menzies
A few months ago, Sofia Carrasco dropped an album via Bandcamp I played not expecting my ears to stay glued through its roughly 45-minute runtime. But with “Alma Escondida,” or “Hidden Soul,” the saxophonist crafts an album that’s lively in a way that made it hard for my mind to wander; there’s no transitional or structural “lulls” (to use my own layman term) that weren’t engaging on some level, and if my mind did wander, “Alma Escondida” is a very good soundtrack for that — the experience of life in an urban place, trying to ride the peaks and valleys of a sound- and landscape someone may not have much control over, from outside their homes or inside.
On “Alma Escondida” Carrasco and company explore dance as less group social activity and more one person’s inward journey. As Carrasco preps for the album to make its way to Spotify soon, she talked to Chilltown Blues about how it came together.
“I started playing saxophone when I was 15 in Arequipa, a city in southern Peru where jazz isn’t very present,” Carrasco said. “My high school had a big band where I learned to play in an ensemble and became comfortable reading music. After high school the only option to study music formally in Arequipa was classical saxophone, so I pursued that alongside visual arts, graduating in 2018. Studying classical saxophone was key in building my technique and developing sound. Around that time, I also played in a saxophone quartet that specialized in traditional Peruvian music, which helped me become more familiar with the rhythms and sounds of Peru.”
In 2020, Carrasco became interested in a central Peruvian — “from Jauja (Junín),” she said — style of music called tunantada.
“(It’s) very different from jazz, classical or other Peruvian styles I’d heard,” Carrasco said. “That same year, during the pandemic, I began studying online at Berklee College of Music, where I got my first real introduction to jazz improvisation, along with music production and theory.”
Two years later, Carrasco started playing with the Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet. “… A huge step for me,” she said. “It helped me gain confidence with improvisation and deepened my understanding of Afro-Peruvian rhythms. That same year, I moved to New Jersey to start a master’s in jazz performance at NJCU. That’s when I began seriously studying jazz, listening, transcribing, and trying to understand its language. It has been challenging because I come from a completely different musical tradition, but I’ve come to see jazz as a lifelong journey, and I truly enjoy learning and incorporating it into my voice.”
“The dance element connects to rhythm, which is at the heart of both Peruvian music and jazz. But in this case, I’m not using rhythm to express celebration. I’m using it to reflect introspection.” - Sofia Carrasco
In 2023, still at NJCU, Carrasco returned to tunantada, the genre she discovered in 2020.
“I decided to study it more seriously, taking lessons with experts in the tradition — Candy Hurtado and Aron Mucha,” Carrasco said. “Tunantada music inspired two songs in the album: ‘Donde esta mi alma escondida?’ (‘Where is my hidden soul?’ and ‘Vida Pasajera’ (‘Passing Life’) which is actually a tunantada melody by Julio Rosales.
Carrasco said she thinks that what I mentioned about the way her music avoids “lulls” may be down to “how I’ve absorbed and combined different influences: tunantada, Afro-Peruvian rhythms, and jazz,” she said.
“I wanted the music to reflect that mix and feel personal, not like I was trying to prove something,” Carrasco said. “Since jazz and improvisation are still relatively new to me, I tend to listen more than I play, focusing on responding to the band and shaping the overall sound. I also put a lot of thought into the compositions and forms, so even without heavy improvisation, the written material is meant to hold the listener’s interest, maybe differently than more traditional jazz structures where solos are the main focus.”
Jazz continues to evolve as a genre in surprising ways, though opportunities to be part of that have a class element.*
Carrasco, who clarified that she’s not an expert or ethnomusicologist, offered her thoughts on the history of Peruvian jazz and Afro-Peruvian music.
“I’d say Peruvian jazz is still something quite new,” Carrasco said. “From what I understand, it’s mostly the idea of combining jazz harmony and improvisation with rhythms and melodies from Peru, especially Afro-Peruvian ones like festejo and landó. But like anything, it’s constantly evolving and hard to define. Even the word ‘jazz’ itself can mean so many different things, it covers a huge range of music that often sounds very different. In the end, these categories are mostly used to label and market music, or to assign awards, but the reality is much more complex.
“For me, what ties it all together to ‘jazz’ is the use of improvisation and a more open approach to form, where musicians can really interact. That interaction, the freedom to respond to each other, is what I value most in jazz.” - Sofia Carrasco
“Today, there are many Peruvian musicians — myself included — who are trying to create music that reflects their different influences,” Carrasco said. “For me, what ties it all together to ‘jazz’ is the use of improvisation and a more open approach to form, where musicians can really interact. That interaction, the freedom to respond to each other, is what I value most in jazz.”
As for Andean music, that’s huge and very hard to categorize, Carrasco said. “It was the most prominent traditional music of Peru before colonization. Afro-Peruvian styles developed later, through the cultural contributions of enslaved Africans brought to Peru, and they’ve become an essential part of our musical identity as well.
“And yes, I agree with your point,* access definitely depends on social class. What people can learn or explore musically often comes down to opportunity.”
Soul work
Bailar, or dancing, along with wrestling with melancholy feel intertwined on the album, as part of the album’s intrinsic theme of what I call “soul work.” Carrasco paints a portrait of this on two levels — musically and visually, with striking illustrations like the melancholic cover art, and other pieces intertwined with the design of the CD version of the album; and that are viewable on Carrasco’s website. This art captures melancholy and movement, and perhaps movement through melancholy.
“I do feel that searching for the ‘soul’ is deeply connected to melancholy, sadness, and introspection, something we all go through just by being human and carrying personal experiences and childhood trauma,” Carrasco said. “The album is titled ‘Alma Escondida’ because that phrase came to me very naturally while writing the second song. I was singing the melody and sang, ‘¿Dónde está mi alma escondida?’ Months later, when I was thinking about a title for the album, that line felt like a good description.”
“At that time, and still now, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how to connect more deeply with myself,” Carrasco continued. “I wasn’t raised in a religious household, and I’ve always leaned toward science and logic, but at some point I started feeling that not everything can be explained that way. I began watching documentaries about and reading a little bit to Carl Jung, reading a bit about Buddhism and novels by Hermann Hesse, and thinking about what it means to believe in something greater than ourselves, a spiritual force, maybe, or something we can’t fully name. I connect that feeling with the idea of the soul: something within us that also connects us to others.”
Carrasco has also been moved by certain Andean beliefs by learning about tunantada and Andean music in general, “like how singing a specific melody can bring or stop the rain,” she said. “Those beliefs give life meaning. I grew up without that kind of spiritual framework, so in a way I felt like my soul was hidden, and that I’m trying to find it through music, art, reading, and reflection. That search naturally brings up themes like trauma, melancholy, and death, which are present in both the album and the visual artworks.”
This also distinguishes the way “Alma Escondida” handles rhythm.
“The dance element connects to rhythm, which is at the heart of both Peruvian music and jazz,” Carrasco said. “But in this case, I’m not using rhythm to express celebration. I’m using it to reflect introspection. Just like with singing or playing music, dancing can also be a way to reconnect with yourself, to get closer to that idea of the ‘soul’ especially through repetition like in rituals.”
JC influence and teaching
Having earned her master’s, along with Misti Music and Education partner Victor Sotomayor, in jazz performance at NJCU in Jersey City, I asked her how, if at all, the city influenced her music and, additionally, if teaching has.
“I really appreciate the diversity in Jersey City,” Carrasco said. “It’s very different from Peru, and I love that I get to see and interact with so many cultures here. That experience constantly reminds me of the shared humanity we all have, I feel that idea of the soul is universal. Different philosophies or religions might call it different things, but living in a place where I see so much cultural variety every day makes me reflect on that more deeply. Also, Jersey City, especially NJCU, is where I spent most of my time practicing, listening to jazz, and learning. It’s a very important part of my journey.”
As for teaching, Carrasco really loves it, she said. “Especially to kids. It’s one of the few times I feel like I’m doing something for others. Making music often feels more personal or introspective, like I’m doing it for myself. But teaching brings me joy, and I really value the time I spend with kids, the way they see the world is so different and honest. Sometimes they understand things adults can’t.”
“All of these experiences and thoughts influence who I am,” Carrasco said, “and if I try to be honest when I write music, I think those parts of myself naturally come through.”
The two halves of “Alma Escondida”
“Alma Escondida” makes for two halves of a project that can be enjoyed separately, but Carrasco also envisioned ways they could compliment each other as a unified experience.
“Yes, I wanted to create something that brought together the two things I do and love most, music and visual art,” Carrasco said. “It’s my first time combining them in this way, so I’m still learning a lot through the process. I’m realizing that if I want audiences to fully experience both sides, I may need to find better digital formats or platforms to represent the visual element alongside the music.”
Carrasco’s original idea was to present a concert of the album with the drawings integrated into the stage design, she said, “so people could experience the connection between the sound and the images.”
“I still want to do that in the future and I did it once at Green Space Studios in Union City,” Carrasco continued, “but often it’s hard or even impossible to transport and install the drawings at music venues. So even though the project was conceived as a whole, definitely the music and visual work can stand alone.”
Next month, Carrasco’s drawings inspired by tunantada will be exhibited in Lima, Peru, without her there to facilitate the music part of it, she said. “But I’ve shared the concept and the audio with the organizers, and maybe a few people will choose to listen to the music while viewing the art, and that might mean something special to them."
“I feel maybe the whole project isn’t meant to be consumed on a large scale, and I’m okay with that,” Carrasco said. “But I’m also interested in learning new ways to integrate my visual work into my music, and that’s definitely something I want to keep developing.”
Check out “Alma Escondida” on Bandcamp. Follow Carrasco on Instagram @ sofiacarrasco.i, where you can keep up with when the album from Misti Music & Education drops on Spotify.
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