Yilian Cañizares is a Cuban-Swiss musician.
Biography Yilian Cañizares was born in Havana, Cuba, and studied violin there, following the Russian violin school. In 1997, she moved to Venezuela, in order to pursue her studies at the "Academia Latinoamericana de violin". Three years later, she moved again, to Switzerland, in order to complete her studies at the Fribourg/Freiburg conservatory. In addition to her classical brackground. she became interested in Jazz and started developing her singing skills.
At the end of her studies, Cañizares started the band Ochumare, or "rainbow" in Yoruba, with David Brito (double bass) and Cyril Regamey (drums and percussions). She continued her career under her own name. She has been considered the raising star of the year 2013 by the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur and the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles selected her album Invocación in the top ten 2015 South America albums.
In 2018 Cañizares and the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa released the album “Aguas”, featuring Inor Sotolongo as percussionist.
The new album, “Erzulie”, named after the Haitian goddess of love and freedom, was released on 15 November 2019. Recorded in New Orleans, the album features the participation of several guests including Christian Scott (trumpet), Michael League (double bass), Bill Laurance (piano), Bobby Sparks (organ) and Justin Stanton (keyboards). With this album, Yilian has been nominated for the Songlines Music Awards as best artist/album 2021.
Yilian has collaborated with artists like Chucho Valdés, Ibrahim Maalouf, Diego El Cigala, Youn Sun Nah, Omar Sosa, Dhafer Youssef, Richard Bona, Roberto Fonseca and El Comité.
She teaches violin and jazz improvisation at the Ecole de jazz et des musiques actuelles in Lausanne. She has remained in Switzerland and has acquired citizenship.
Style Cañizares's style reflects her various influences with shades of jazz, classical music and cuban music, with a lot of space left for improvisation. The French magazine Les Inrockuptibles describes her style as a jazz instrumentation mixed with Yoruba ritual percussion. She sings in Spanish, Yoruba and French. One of her hallmarks is simultaneously playing violin and singing.
Discography Ochumare Quartet 2009: Caminos 2011: Somos Ochumare
Yilian Cañizares 2013: Ochumare, Naïve Records 2015: Invocación, Naïve Records 2019 : Erzulie, Planeta Y Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares 2018: Aguas, with Omar Sosa, Otá 2019 : Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares feat. Gustavo Ovalles - Live at Elbphilarmonie, Hamburg.
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