Some will call it fate, others will say it was a (very) happy coincidence, but Sarah Bollinger says, laughing, that it seemed to her "divine providence".
The young American artist, about to release her first album, headed to the Algarve to learn Portuguese, went to see a Low Tech Groove concert and ended up singing a song with them.
The experience was so good for both parties that today, Friday, Sarah Bollinger and the Algarve band give a concert at Barti Café, in Faro, starting at 22 hours.
This will be a unique show, which «ends up being a pre-release of the album» for Portuguese to see, since Sarah Bollinger, owner of an excellent voice and an almost constant open smile, will take the opportunity to sing some of the songs from your first work, which will come out on August 27th, in the United States.
Accompanying her will be the most frequent formation of the young Algarve band: Marco Canas, on tenor saxophone, Paulo “Gefites” Franco, on drums, Paulo “Strak”, on bass, and João Araújo, on keys. “Low Tech Groove learned four or five songs of mine. Otherwise, we will play some jazz standards», Sarah Bollinger told Sul Informação.
The concert at Barti Café can be seen as a whetting of appetite for the show scheduled for the next 30th, in Saint Louis, in the United States of America, the “show” of the official launch of «Both/And».
It was at Barti Café, the place where this unique event will take place, that it all started. Last Saturday, the jazz and blues band, with an amusing touch of “funky”, impressed the singer from Saint Louis, who went to the Bar/Café of the Pátio de Letras space to learn a little more about the Algarve music scene.
“It was a very funny story. I went with some friends to a jazz concert at Barti Café and we were very impressed with Low Tech Groove. They played a wonderful set, I loved it. At the end, one of my colleagues said: you should sing with them. I didn't want to interrupt (laughs) because they were playing so well, but she ended up asking them and they accepted,” says Sarah Bollinger.
“I ended up singing a song with them and we got a real connection. So, we decided to play together and schedule a concert for this Friday», he added.
An unprecedented situation for Sarah Bollinger, whose notoriously shy smile and manner suggest what she confesses to our newspaper: that she is not given to throwing herself headlong into situations like this. “I think this was divine providence (laughter). Nothing like this had ever happened to me. It was a perfect timing!”, he revealed.
Music, social volunteering and Portuguese lessons
“I make music, but I also do social volunteering in Mozambique. I have been visiting this country frequently to do social work and felt the need to learn Portuguese. So I decided to come two weeks to Faro, to learn Portuguese here in Portugal», he said.
The choice of Faro it had to do with the proximity to quality beaches, something he loves, but which he normally doesn't have access to. “I'm from Saint Louis, which is right in the middle of the United States and I rarely have the opportunity to go to the beach. Besides, I've worked many times in big cities and I thought: Lisbon is a metropolis, I can go there anytime. I want to go see the beaches in Faro, I know it is very beautiful and relaxing», he said.
In the Algarve, he met people from all over the world, who also came to the region to learn Portuguese. “I'm the only American. I have classmates from Switzerland, Australia, Ireland… we have very interesting dinners», he added, laughing.
Sarah Bollinger's record will be available online
Sarah used the last week to get to know the elements of Low Tech Groove better, rehearse and, by the way, promote the album that will be released on the 27th. Yesterday, Thursday, she was at Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM with Paulo “Gefites” , as a guest of the program «My RUA has the sea in the background», by Nuno Aires and to speak with the Sul Informação.
Those who, after today's concert, want to buy the album Sarah Bollinger will release, will be able to do it online, on several platforms. «It will be available on Itunes and on the website Bandcamp, as I am also selling it as an independent artist. In the latter, it's better for me, because the artist has a greater return», he illustrated.
«Both/And» will be published on CD, but also on vinyl, a format that will be more difficult to acquire, but which the American artist is committed to sending to Portugal by mail, for those who insist on having the album in this Format.
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