Amber Epp, Winnipeg jazz scene’s “next big thing,” will be releasing her debut CD with Latin-influenced jazz combo Trio Bembe this Monday, Nov. 23 at the West End Cultural Centre.

Epp, who plays weekly with the Papa Mambo Trio at Hermanos, the new Exchange District hotspot for Latin American food and music, recently graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Music School and has a burning passion to contribute as well as perform.

“How can I improvise on these jazz gems and not write for myself?” asked Epp at Hermanos last weekend.

Epp may have a Mennonite name, but her influences come from all over the Latin American map: from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and even Spain.

Growing up in Steinbach may not seem the ideal place for a lover of the hot and loose sounds of the southern hemisphere, but Epp continues to defy skeptics with her passion for the culture, even to the point of learning Spanish and Portuguese, maintaining a great sensitivity to the phrasing, and conveying an understanding in languages not her own.

“I started with intro Spanish classes at university and am continuing today to learn the language. I still don’t write [in Spanish],” Epp said.

Three of the album’s 13 pieces are hers, along with her appropriate interpretation of celebrated Argentinian novelist and poet Jorge Luis Borges.

“Instantes from the record was a poem I read in one of my classes by Borges and I knew I had to put it to music.”

“ How can I improvise on these jazz gems and not write for myself?

Amber Epp, musician

Epp’s passion for this music is relatively new for her, first meeting Rodrigo Hernan Muñoz (of Papa Mambo) at the weekly jazz jam “Cool Monday Night Hang” at the Orbit Room only four years ago.

“This was the first place I heard live jazz. The more I heard the Latin flavour, the more I knew I had to learn this,” Epp explained.

Learn she did, eventually joining the award-winning Papa Mambo band as well as earning her chops with other students culminating in the Amber Epp Quartet.

“It was tough at first, a new language and I had to sing and dance, and then add in with percussion. Percussion is essential to Latin music; it’s all about the rhythm,” Epp said.

The ever-passionate and apt pupil of local jazz and Latin legends is excitedly anticipating her CD release.

“This music is fun, uplifting and upbeat. This isn’t just jazz, this is the folk music of the people and Winnipeg should take this rare opportunity to hear this music.”

Trio Bembe plans to tour this release, taking this incredibly sublime and smouldering package as far as they can.

“Better catch us now before we’re gone!” Epp warned, jokingly.

Published in Volume 64, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 19, 2009)