Roxana Amed

Argentina’s Roxana Amed is a dusky, virtuosic singer whose music blends South American folk traditions with sophisticated rock and post-bop jazz. Amed has earned acclaim for her albums with fellow Argentine instrumentalist Pedro Aznar, including 2004′s Limbo and 2006′s Entremundos. She has also worked with pianist Adrian Laies and Brazilian guitarist André Mehmari. Based in Miami since 2013, Amed has performed with Guillermo Klein, Sofia Rei, Frank Carlberg, and others. Working with longtime collaborator, pianist/arranger Martin Bejerano, she further explored her stylistically boundary-pushing approach to Latin jazz on 2021′s Ontology and 2022′s Unánime.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Amed started performing at a young age encouraged by her father, who played folk guitar and introduced her to Doris Day records. As a teenager, she often supplied music for student plays and musical productions. After high school, she broadened her creativity, studying Spanish literature and attending film school. All the while she continued to perform, playing gigs with local bands. It was during this period that she discovered jazz, listening to singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, as well as instrumentalists like Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, and Kenny Wheeler, among others.
She eventually began working on her own music, collaborating with Argentine multi-instrumentalist and former Pat Metheny bandmember Pedro Aznar. Together they recorded two albums, 2004′s Limbo and 2006′s Entremundos. More albums followed, including 2010′s Cinemateca Finlandesa, a duo album with pianist Adrian Laies. Inocencia arrived in 2011, followed by 2013′s La Sombra De Su Sombra, a collaboration with pianist Frank Carlberg featuring the poems of Alejandra Pizarnik.
Since relocating to Miami in 2013, Amed has worked with a bevy of globally minded luminaries including Guillermo Klein, Emilio Solla, and vocalist Sofia Rei. She also continued her education, earning a scholarship to pursue her master’s degree in Literature. Along with being embraced by American audiences, she remains connected to her home country. Amed is a recipient of the Carlos Gardel Award for Argentine Music and the Martin Fierro Award for best song in a TV production. In 2017, she was commissioned (along with Brazilian pianist André Mehmari) to pay tribute to the legendary composer Astor Piazzolla at the Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival. Two years later, she returned with Instantáneas, an album of live-in-studio performances.
In 2021, she released Ontology, which featured her group with pianist/arranger Martin Bejerano and found her interpreting songs by Wayne Shorter, Alberto Ginastera, and Miles Davis. An equally ambitious project, Unánime, arrived in September 2022 and found Amed celebrating the work of historic and contemporary Latin American composers such as Ignacio Cervantes, Luis Alberto Spinetta, and Egberto Gismonti. Featured on the album were guest appearances by Chucho Valdes, Niño Josele, Pedro Aznar, and others. ~ Matt Collar