Whether we consciously realize it or not, when presented with the idea that music itself is in fact magic, most of us would agree it is. It’s the one thing that can unite us all regardless of what language we speak, or what our differences may be. Music can instantly take us back to a memory or a feeling within just a few notes of recognizing a melody. It brings us together, heals emotional wounds, and soothes us in times of crisis. The genesis of CelloVoci was one of those magical musical moments.
When December 5th, 2020 arrived, James and I suddenly felt a sigh of relief as the wheels of our plane touched down at the airport in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We knew Covid-19 existed in Mexico, but there was something about landing in a warm, tropical climate that felt soothing. The immigration lines were eerily quiet: a departure from the standard two plus hours it can take in “PV” to wind through the chaos and be processed as a tourist. We’d been hustling hard since March 16th of the same year when the USA officially shut down. For us as performance artists, or those who worked in the nightlife sector, the panic was real: we couldn’t work from home. We needed audiences, and music venues, and a thriving arts culture. After months of scraping by playing virtual concerts, coupled with fill-in hosting jobs at a restaurant, we decided to fly South for an indeterminate amount of time. It should have felt like the previous four years we descended upon the beachside town to play our shows, and, in some ways, it did. The same vendors roamed the beach trying to sell their handcrafted wares, and tour operators threw their voices to wrangle us as we trod down the cobblestone streets. “Tours guys? Tours?” they would shout as we sauntered past the empty shops and restaurants. We knew it would be a gamble to leave the comfort of our NYC apartment, but winter was firming its grip in Manhattan, and isolating in the freezing cold with nowhere to go just seemed unhealthy for our psyches.
Shortly after we got settled in our downtown apartment, we put on our pink tanktops that donned all the info about our upcoming show, The Lady Gaga Songbook, and started roaming the streets and beaches to sell tickets. Any year in Puerto Vallarta can be a hustle to get people to come to shows, but with the whole city feeling like a ghost town, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle. Not to mention, people weren’t too keen on gathering to see shows or do anything around strangers no matter how much safety reassurance they’d received.
For the first couple of months we were averaging about twenty people per show, which would afford us just enough money to eat. Even without so many tourists there, the good vibes the city produces were still there for us to soak up and forget about real life for a while. Turns out, many other artists in our lane had the same ideas. The venue we played in still had two shows per night programmed seven days a week. Since every show was slow, we decided to go support some of our fellow artists. It was here that we heard Effie Passero for the first time in a joint show called Come Together with the Top 40 jazz artist Spencer Day. From the moment she took the stage and sat at the piano to play Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, our jaws dropped wide open, and stayed that way for the rest of the evening. When the show was over, we greeted the two of them and sang their praises. Effie was approachable and easy to talk to. She didn’t need to be: her talent was immense: she could have been an awful person, and we still would have respected her for her gifts.
A few weeks passed, and Puerto Vallarta joined the chorus of cities around the world with “rolling shutdowns.” Suddenly, our venue (and Effie’s) was closed for the month, and we were left scrambling with how to make money again. We turned back to virtual concerts, and immediately, I befriended Effie on Facebook, and asked her if she might join us. Without ever hearing us live, she agreed and came over to rehearse. The magic started immediately: the energy between the three of us, the blend of voices and instruments, our musical tastes and interpretations. It was all there. Little did we know we’d end up where we are now: a full-length album recorded, an imminent debut at Carnegie Hall, and the birth of a our pop-classical fusion sound. We present to you the music and magic of CelloVoci.
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