Natalia Rose's 'El Alma' blooms in Germany

It's spring in Germany, and the magnolias, poplars, and chestnut trees are once again bursting with vibrant colors. Winter is behind us, and the change of season has revived Natalia Rose's fascination with plants, especially the orchids that decorate her small studio in the historic district of Stuttgart, where she has lived for three and a half years. It also revives her desire to play songs from El Alma , her new album, in various clubs in that city and other nearby towns where she often performs. Feeling the sun on her skin again also fills her with nostalgia, and although she appreciates the experience of living in another country and performing in Germany's best jazz clubs, her heart and her music remain deeply rooted in Colombia.

At 34, Bogotá-born Natalia Rose Londoño Bradford is working hard to forge a career in jazz . She rehearses in the mornings, gives concerts in the evenings, teaches classes every day (her students range in age from 7 to 70), pays for an Icetex loan, and tries to improve her German to apply for a place at a local university. Last year, she earned her master's degree in jazz guitar from Stuttgart State University.

“Culturally, the difference between Colombia and Germany is huge. Living here has been quite a process. I still don't feel at home, but little by little I'm adapting. Before, I'd go out and ask myself, 'Where am I?' The way I interact with people is different; you notice it when you go to a supermarket, when you rehearse with local musicians. There are also very positive things: public transportation, the sense of security, the public policy that requires people to recycle. Plants are cheap, and I've been able to make a small garden in my apartment,” says Natalia.

His musical training began at age seven, in Quito, where he lived from ages four to twelve . There he became interested in the piano, but upon returning to Colombia after a short stay in Brazil, he abandoned his instrumental practice and wrote songs with lyrics and melody, without any accompaniment.

“When I returned to Bogotá, I had to wait to go back to school, and I spent several months at home writing those first songs and listening to hours and hours of music on the radio. I also listened to albums like Fallen by Evanescence and Life for Rent by Dido. It was at that moment, at 12 years old, that I knew I was going to dedicate my life to music,” Natalia recalls.

At 16, he received his first electric guitar, a Squier Telecaster, which he took private lessons on before studying at the Cristancho Academy. In 2011, he enrolled at the Universidad Javeriana, where he graduated in Music with an emphasis on jazz guitar. His final work, titled Portraits of a Game of Shadows—which would become his debut studio album in 2017—collects his compositions based on photographs taken by Camila Malaver in Barranco de Loba, a municipality in southern Bolívar affected by the presence of illegal armed groups.

As a reference for writing these songs, Natalia studied the programmatic music of Romanticism, which is characterized by evoking extramusical images or ideas in the listener's mind, almost as if it were a sound painting. In this context, music is not just a succession of sounds, but acts as a medium to represent landscapes, stories, emotions, and concepts. Some Romantic composers, such as Berlioz, Liszt, and Strauss, attempted to create a link between music and images, feelings, and scenes described in texts and poems. The same can be said, well into the 20th century, of albums such as Joni Mitchell's Hejira; Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin'; or Brian Eno's Another Green World, inspired by painting, visual arts, documentary photography, or the simple contemplation of open-air landscapes.

I highlight this because the connection between images and music is one of the most striking features of Natalia Rose's work as a guitarist and composer. After training with maestros such as Holman Álvarez, Adrián Herrera, Richard Narváez, and Enrique Mendoza, among others, Natalia also explored various genres with groups such as Inés Elvira y las Tortugas Albinas and Desierto de Sal, the latter a band with a marked emphasis on jazz-rock. With the project Input 91, she explored the paths of electronic music, pop, and African sounds. After the release of her first album, Natalia debuted at the 2019 edition of Jazz al Parque and performed at Barranquijazz with her quintet. In the following months, she played with great Colombian musicians and jazz artists such as Diego Pascagaza, Néstor Vivas, Pablo Muñoz, Juan David Mojica, Nicolás Ospina, and Ramón Berrocal, among others. In 2020, she performed at the Villa de Leyva Jazz Festival and began working on tracks for Impresiones, her second album.

On March 19th, Natalia launched El Alma at the Bix Jazz Club in Stuttgart, which, along with the Unterfahrt in Munich, are considered the two most important jazz clubs in Germany. John Patitucci, Ethan Iverson, Avishai Cohen, and Kurt Elling are some of the artists who regularly perform there.

“It was very exciting to play the songs from the new album in a venue as renowned as the Bix Jazz Club, but I've also made sure to send physical CDs to Colombia, where I hope to perform it live very soon,” says Natalia.

The jazz scene in Germany is going through a great moment. In major cities, even in the smallest towns, it's easy to find clubs dedicated to the genre. There are academic incentives, public and private support, concerts, and festivals for all audiences. "I wish more Colombian musicians could play here and showcase their high level of talent," says Natalia.

Recorded in Berlin last year, El Alma includes five tracks in which the guitarist expresses her nostalgia for Colombian culture and her perspective on the country from afar. She is joined by Israeli saxophonist Omri Abramov, Colombian drummer Max Simancas, and French double bassist Nicolas Buvat. The tracks "Viso" and "Refugiados" also feature a German string quartet. Another of her compositions, "Selva," is dedicated to the Colombian children who went missing in the Colombian Amazon in 2023.

“Being here has made me reflect on how each country works and how that makes you who you are. This is what I wanted to project in El Alma, that essence that defines us from birth. Colombians are down-to-earth people despite everything we've been through, and that's a beautiful thing. We're spontaneous; we're happy to meet people and make friends. It's funny because, with so much insecurity, we should be more closed off, but it's the other way around. I admire and appreciate that. I feel proudly Colombian,” says Natalia.

I connect these words with the song "Alerce" (Larch), included on the album, an allegory of the longevity of this colossal tree and the deep cultural roots that, in search of its origin, we seek far back in time. Listening to it, I think of the tenuous refractions of memory: Colombia is a heartbeat, an ups and downs, an oscillation that reveals itself in the luminous expanse of its mountains and the absurdity of its atrocities. We live in a seismic and delirious reality that overwhelms us emotionally. In "Refugiados" (Refugees), perhaps the most complex song in terms of meter and harmony on this album, one perceives the anguish of millions of Colombians displaced, wandering, or intimidated by the rise of violence; while in "Agua fuerte" (Strong Water), my favorite, a vigorous flow flows that evokes the vital source, the source, the beauty and the weakness of a stream flowing from the earth.

The great question about the meaning of the soul perhaps leads us to that: to the simple back-and-forth between questioning and memory. Natalia lives in a historic conservation area that was damaged during World War II. As she leaves her building, embedded in the sidewalk, gleam the golden plaques of the Stolpersteine ​​project (which could be translated as "obstacle stones"), installed there and in other areas of Stuttgart and Europe by the German artist Gunter Demnig, in front of the last residential address of victims of Nazism. When they come into contact with the sun, the small plaques on the ground flicker: the names of those who died or survived are there for us to encounter with that stretch of human history.

“Exchanges with people from other countries are very personal and enrich your creative process,” says Natalia, who is working on a neo-soul project called Yaelu, alongside a German singer with an Egyptian father. She has also been chosen to compose songs for a 20-piece orchestra to perform at a local jazz festival in early November, well into autumn. I know it's still a while off, but I wonder what Stuttgart will sound like when winter approaches, what tones will define its temperament, what music its inhabitants will listen to.

For now, it's spring, Natalia Rose's favorite season. It's time for soul and music to blossom.