Growing up in Veracruz, Lucía Gutierrez Rebolloso was weaned on the percussive, celebratory sound of son jarocho, performing in her family’s ensemble before she started grade school.
She hasn’t left her Mexican roots behind, but these days the Harlem-based singer, who records and performs under the single moniker Lucía, is one of the most sought after young artists in jazz. Her rise has been fueled by her 2022 victory at the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. The first Mexican artist to win the event, Lucía seems to be following in the ascending footsteps of previous winners Samara Joy (2019), Jazzmeia Horn (2013), and Cyrille Aimée (2012).
She’s played several high profile events around the region since her thrilling Bay Area debut at San Jose Jazz’s 2024 Summer Fest, including a performance last weekend at the vocalist-centric 68th Monterey Jazz Festival. The 24-year-old returns for a free afternoon performance at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Oct. 2 and then kicks off Stanford Live’s 2025-26 season with two shows in The Studio Oct. 3.
For Stanford Live’s senior arts leader Iris Nemani, Lucía was the perfect artist to open a season rife with exceptional female performers. She saw the singer last year at Joe’s Pub in New York City, “and she blew me away,” Nemani said.
“Her vocal style is so mature. I love the opportunity to share with my audience at the Studio someone about to explode out of that intimate room. If I was bringing her back in May I’m sure she’d be at Bing Concert Hall.”
Talking on the phone, Lucía comes across as confident, cool, and candid, but she admits that her ascent has been somewhat overwhelming.
“Honestly, I’m freaking out, but in the best way possible,” she said. “When I was growing up I’d watch livestreams with Jazzmeia Horn and Cécile McLorin Salvant. I’d transcribe and sing their arrangements. That all seemed very away and out of my league.”
She became smitten with jazz as a teenager and earned an undergraduate degree in jazz studies from the Universidad Veracruzana in 2022. The similarities between jazz and son jarocho, with their significant West African roots, drew her interest. “But what made me completely fall in love with jazz was improvisation,” she said. “As vocalists we are free to express ourselves and interact with the other band members, and to lead as well.”
For her California run Lucía is performing with Venezuelan-born, Emeryville-based pianist Edward Simon, El Cerrito bassist and sound engineer Dan Feiszli, and Mark Ferber, a drum professor at Cal State Fresno who grew up in Moraga. At her Summer Fest debut last year, she performed a gorgeous duo set with Simon. The longest tenured member of the SFJAZZ Collective, he’d already recorded with her, but the California Theatre performance was their first concert together.
Released in May on La Reserve Records, her debut album “Lucía” was produced by Matt Pierson, who’s helmed albums by Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, and most recently Samara Joy. The project gives a good sense of her bilingual repertoire, from her captivating version of the traditional lament “La Llorona,” a song she grew up with in Veracruz, to sensuous standards like “You Must Believe In Spring” and contemporary fair like Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy.”
The album opens with the song that she effectively deployed at the Sarah Vaughan competition, intermingling Mexican songwriter María Grever’s bolero “Cuando vuelva a tu lado” with the English-language version that became a hit for Dinah Washington, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” It was a late-breaking inclusion to represent her Mexican heritage, and she was more than pleased that her gesture appealed both to the competition’s judges and audiences far beyond.
“A lot of people messaged me to say thank you for representing us,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of Mexican girls emailing me, asking ‘Should I go to Sarah Vaughan?’ I tell them, ‘Yes, do it.’ In my opinion, in jazz it shouldn’t matter where you’re coming from.”
Yet the relative dearth of Mexican artists in jazz means that Lucía stands out for more than her luxuriantly rich voice. She gives due credit to drummer Antonio Sanchez, who plays on her album, and vocalist Magos Herrera, Mexican jazz artists “who set the example for everybody,” she said.
Born in Mexico City and long based in Brooklyn, Herrera collaborated with Edward Simon on his exquisite 2023 album “Femeninas: Songs of Latin American Women.” It’s a repertoire Lucía hasn’t yet much explored.
“I’ve focused more on the bolero side, but the work Magos has done is incredible,” Lucía said. “She’s our queen.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
LUCÍA
When & where: 12:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco; free; ybgfestival.org; 7 and 9 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Studio at Stanford University; $43.20-$54; live.stanford.edu