Gabi Hartmann, new star without artifices from the jazz scene

After a first successful passage at the Montreal International Jazz Festival (FIJM) last year, the French Gabi Hartmann is there again to present her new album, The woman with salt eyes. A musical tale that sails, as in his previous works, between jazz and world music, but in which also resonates pop influences.

Gabi Hartmann will perform in Gesù for his third concert in Montreal. His first meeting with the Montreal public had taken place at Casa del Popolo, at the end of summer 2023.

The host from here music Alexandre Courteau fell in love with this talented and bright artist with a hot voice. It was the best concert I saw of the year, he recalls. A concert without decor, without artifices, with just the delicacy of his voice. At the end of the concert, André Ménard, the co -founder of Fijmeven asked him for an autograph.

The crush between Montreal and Gabi Hartmann was reciprocal. The artist is delighted to find this audience that she finds warm and welcoming, as well as this special festival in her eyes.

It’s in the heart of the city, I find it very beautiful, she rejoices. The fact that many concerts are free allows you to democratize jazz.

An intimate concert

Friday evening, Gabi Hartmann will only be accompanied on stage by a pianist, a bass player and a clarinetist-Saxophonist. She will perform titles from her first album Gabi Hartmannwhich was a great success in 2023, and The woman with salt eyesunveiled last March.

Oniric tale inspired by the oceanic universe, this album sung in French, English and Portuguese follows Salinda, a woman born with eyes filled with salt, who undertakes a trip to find a remedy that will prevent them from melting when she cries. This story allowed me to tell the different trips I made, she said. It is an album like my life and my experiences.

Love at first sight for Brazil

Born in Paris in 1991, Gabi Hartmann followed a double course in political science and philosophy. Craded in her youth by African-American voices, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, and the French song by Barbara or Serge Gainsbourg, listening to Adele and Amy Winehouse, during her adolescence, pushes her to jazz and soul.

Leaving in Brazil for a year as part of her studies, she stayed there one more year, as she fell in love with this country and her music. There, she learns Portuguese, but also initiated himself from Bossa-Nova.

The double game of Brazilian music, between joy and melancholy, I like it very much.

She also traveled to Africa, leaving South African jazz or the traditional music of Guinea feeding her multiple inspirations. I wanted to introduce this music to an audience who has less access to it.

The woman with salt eyes is of course more marked by the characteristic eclecticism of Gabi Hartmann’s music, between jazz, folk, soul and African and Latin music. He also ventures into the pop field, notably thanks to the meeting of the singer with the instrumentalist and composer Laurent Bardainne, who worked with Camélia Jordana and November Ultra.

On this album, Gabi Hartmann also collaborated with Jesse Harris, who wrote success Don’t Know Why of Norah Jones.

Naturally

Gabi Hartmann is brilliant and really good, she skillfully mixes styles, with her own style.

What she does is really original, and not overproduced, while today, in the world of music, there are still a lot of effects [ajoutés]he adds. She always offers something true, clear, with beautiful voices.

The popularity of Gabi Hartmann means that we tend to bring her closer to the show Melody Gardot, the two sharing the same musical elegance, even if Gardot explores the standards of jazz than his youngest. I see a similarity in my voice, in this beautiful cozy stamp that rocksestimates Alexandre Courteau.

Gabi Hartmann will sing in Gesù, in Montreal, on July 4, at 6 p.m., as part of the Fijm. There remains only one handful of available tickets.