Roxana Amed

Roxana Amed, an Argentine vocalist of dusky timbre and technical command, fuses South American folk roots with layered rock textures and post-bop jazz phrasing. Recognition arrived through recordings made with fellow Argentine instrumentalist Pedro Aznar, specifically the 2004 album Limbo and the 2006 follow-up Entremundos. Additional associations have included pianist Adrian Laies and Brazilian guitarist André Mehmari. Miami has served as her base since 2013, a period during which she appeared alongside Guillermo Klein, Sofia Rei, and Frank Carlberg; the latter partnership yielded the 2013 release La Sombra De Su Sombra, which set poems by Alejandra Pizarnik to music. Further boundary-pushing Latin jazz work emerged with longtime pianist-arranger Martin Bejerano on Ontology in 2021 and Unánime in 2022. A second volume of Pizarnik-inspired material, Los Trabajos y las Noches, reunited Amed with Carlberg in 2023. She returned to Bejerano’s collaboration for the 2024 conceptual sextet recording Becoming Human, shaped by fusion sensibilities and supported by a “New Jazz Works” grant from Chamber Music America.

Born in Buenos Aires, Amed began singing early under the encouragement of her father, whose folk guitar playing and Doris Day collection shaped her first exposures. Teenage years found her supplying music for student theatrical productions. After completing high school she expanded her studies into Spanish literature and film school while maintaining live performances with local ensembles. Jazz entered her awareness during this time through vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Dee Dee Bridgewater as well as instrumentalists Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, and Kenny Wheeler. Independent projects soon followed, beginning with multi-instrumentalist and former Pat Metheny Group member Pedro Aznar; together they completed Limbo and Entremundos. Subsequent releases encompassed the 2010 duo album Cinemateca Finlandesa with pianist Adrian Laies, the 2011 recording Inocencia, and the 2013 Pizarnik project La Sombra de Su Sombra with Frank Carlberg.

Relocation to Miami in 2013 opened further work with Guillermo Klein, Emilio Solla, and vocalist Sofia Rei. She also secured a scholarship for a master’s degree in literature. Domestic honors include the Carlos Gardel Award for Argentine Music and the Martin Fierro Award for best song in a television production. In 2017, Amed and Brazilian pianist André Mehmari received a commission to honor Astor Piazzolla at the Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival. Two years later she issued Instantáneas, drawn from live-in-studio sessions. Ontology, released in 2021, featured Bejerano’s arrangements and interpretations of material by Wayne Shorter, Alberto Ginastera, and Miles Davis. The equally expansive Unánime arrived in September 2022, spotlighting historic and contemporary Latin American composers such as Ignacio Cervantes, Luis Alberto Spinetta, and Egberto Gismonti, with guest contributions from Chucho Valdes, Niño Josele, and Pedro Aznar. A June 2023 release brought the second Carlberg collaboration, Los Trabajos y las Noches, again drawing on Pizarnik’s poetry, while Becoming Human followed in 2024 as an exploratory jazz-fusion statement tracing an artist’s life cycle.