Home is Here is a multi-movement original music work composed by Felipe Salles, for his large jazz ensemble, examining the themes of immigration and naturalization to the United States of America, with a focus on issues of cultural exchange, identity, and globalization within the international jazz community. Each piece was composed especially for and inspired by an interview with each guest artist featured in the upcoming recording.

This work will be the third of Salles’ large jazz ensemble immigration-themed works. The first, The Lullaby Project (2018), explored lullabies as a vehicle for multi-generational Brazilian cultural identity in immigrant families. The second, The New Immigrant Experience (2020), was a multi-media work (video projection and live music) inspired by the experience of the Dreamers, those who are currently protected by the DACA program.

Home is Here merges the topic with the music, as the immigrants are both the featured artist and the subject of the art. The choice to immigrate is not an easy one to make, and this is certainly reflected in the art and the cross-cultural elements these musicians share with the jazz community. In Home is Here, immigrant jazz musicians come together as one to collaborate and express their musical vision.

This performance, the premiere of the work, will feature an exciting roster of guest artists, including Jacques Schwarz-Bart who has been at the center of several musical revolutions: neo soul next to D’angelo and Erika Badu, New Jazz as a founding member of Roy Hargrove RH Factor. He outright created two surging new styles: Gwoka Jazz, and Voodoo jazz, reuniting jazz music with its Afro-Caribbean and spiritual origins. Jacques’ impressionistic writing, powerful tone, and wide-ranging language – both lyrical and angular – have fueled a growing presence on the world stage.