Obsession

The daughter of a Frenchwoman from Bordeaux and a cosmopolitan musical enthusiast from Berlin started singing along with the Brazilian classic “Rosa Morena” to an LP at the age of five. Her mother was singing French chansons to her at home, while Céline learned to play Nat Adderley’s “Work Song” on her recorder. She picked up the piano and started composing as an autodidact, then started writing French songs on the guitar at the age of twelve.

Later, Céline studied philosophy, then jazz vocals and composition at Hochschule der Künste Berlin, plunged into African music and studied with the percussionist Famoudou Konaté in West Africa. Céline Rudolph was lucky to share her passion for improvisation early in her career through vocal encounters with Lauren Newton, Bobby McFerrin and Jay Clayton. Her compositions were performed at the Köln Triennale, and she has served as professor and head of the Jazz Vocals Department at Dresden Hochschule für Musik since 2003.

Now, praised as a “voice to kneel down before” by the press and esteemed by colleagues like Bobby McFerrin, Lionel Loueke, or Jamire Williams, the worlds of Jazz, Chanson, and Bossa Nova more than ever make up her familiar musical world.

The love of Brazilian music led the singer and songwriter Céline Rudolph to São Paulo where she met producer Rodolfo Stroeter who produced three of her albums and four tours across Europe and Brazil so far.

Having performed and recorded numerous albums with many wonderful musicians including Gary Peacock, Lee Konitz, David Liebman, Leo Genovese, Burniss Travis, Wolfgang Haffner and Till Brönner, her album “Metamorflores”, in which she joined forces with Naná Vasconcelos, Toninho Ferragutti and Diego Figueiredo, won her the prestigious German Echo Jazz Award in 2010 (“Best vocal artist”). All around and in between, from “Brazaventure” and “Metamorflores” (both enja records) to “Salvador” (Verve, Universal), you may find the rather effortless musical floating and drifting of Céline Rudolph’s vocal artistry above a mellow mixture of rhythmic inspirations, all in all deceivingly relaxed but nonetheless highly sophisticated.

Most recently she collaborated with New York based Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, having played together at 12th Jarasum Int. Jazz Festival 2015 in South Korea, and having recorded the duo album “Obsession” in Berlin and New York, which will be released on October 27th 2017.

Lionel explains the cooperation: “This is a very unique project because there were no boundaries. The magic really happened because we think outside of the conventional approach. I knew from the start that we are kind of from the same tribe.” They follow their own creative waves using their personal onomatopoetic tongue inspired by percussive sounds. Céline and Lionel connected on the spot, when they first met: “When I hear you sing it reminds me of all the world I had experienced all my life”, says Céline.

Besides performing with her quartet and with Lionel Loueke, Céline Rudolph started a solo programme combining loops, effects, percussion and guitar.