DownBeat Magazine publishes In-Depth Article on Felipe Salles’ "Home is Here"

A recent recording by UMass professor Felipe Salles is the subject of an in-depth article in DownBeat Magazine, widely considered the top publication for “jazz, blues, and beyond.” The article by music journalist Ted Panken delves into the story behind Salles' newest CD, Home is Here, the third of a trilogy of recordings featuring Salles' original compositions, all of which were inspired by the experiences of immigrants. Salles is currently Professor of Jazz Studies, Saxophone, and Composition in the Department of Music and Dance’s Jazz and African American Music Studies program.

Home is Here follows The Lullaby Project (2018), which used the lullabies of Salles’ native Brazil to reflect on his own personal journey, and The New Immigrant Experience (2020), a Guggenheim-funded project fueled by frustration over the treatment of the “Dreamers” – the hundreds of thousands of people protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

For the DownBeat article, Panken interviewed some of the performers from Home is Here whose experiences as immigrants figured directly in Salles’ newest compositions, including Cuban-American saxophonist and clarinettist Paquito D’Rivera, Swedish trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis, and Guadeloupean saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart. Panken also interviewed Salles and explored how the composer’s conflicted emotions and experiences as an immigrant, along with the anti-immigrant tone of recent political discourse, helped to shape what ultimately became a full three-CD project.

Read the full article from DownBeat’s website here.