Rachel Black

Multi liguist, Rachel was interested in music from an early age, dabbling in piano and saxophone and then more seriously guitar and vocals. She began her performing career at Bristol University in 1990, as vocalist and saxophonist for an 8 piece Latin band and 4 piece Brazilian Bossa band performing for BBC Radio.

During a three year stint in Mexico City she joined Latin jazz bands Ya son tres and Vuelta Continua touring successfully around Mexico including prestigious festivals such as Aguascalientes. Back in the UK she sang with London based Salsa band Los Tropicales appearing on Resonance FM radio and performing in various Latin festivals and clubs.

More recently she has been working with fusion band, db-Infusion, as well as in piano and guitar duos and as a soloist. She performs Latin American and Mediterranean music, as well as Latin Jazz around London and the UK including the Birmingham Jazz festival, Greenwich Riverfront Jazz festival and London open air summer concerts. In 2002 she released a solo album of original Latin tracks titled Etiquetas Incompletas. She has performed extensively in Italy (including work with Vito Caporale i Baraonna), as well as Istanbul, Colonne, Stuttgart Kultur Haus, Rio de Janeiro, Spain and France. Rachel has lived in Mexico, Brazil, France, Spain and Italy. She speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian fluently, singing and teaching in all of them.

Rachel has studied music at Morley College and City Lit, London and has studied guitar for many years with George Black (classical, PA to John Williams ), Francisco Antonio (flamenco) Jairo Castro and Roberto Castellarin (Latin rhythms).

She originally began her vocal training with classical technique, and has passed through many teachers and techniques with varying levels of effectiveness, but upon discovering Speech Level Singing (SLS) in Spring 2004 her voice made an immediate and radical improvement. Huge gaps in her middle range began to disappear as the voice became connected, the bridges were smoothed out and the whole voice became more balanced and resonant. She was so amazed by the rapidity of improvement and the high success rate brought by SLS that she decided to train to teach it and has never looked back. Rachel has been teaching singing for the past 5 years and has taught in Rome and Naples (Stage di canto e perfezionamento vocale 2007) and has been working in London with English, Italian, Spanish, French and Latin American students.

Credits include:

Sideline/Foyer gigs for Michel Petrucciani (Feria de Aguascalientes, Mexico)

For Dhafer Youssef and Omar Sosa (Southill Park, Bracknell)

Extensive work with Vito Caporale (I Baraonna, Rome) and with db-Infusion (work with Hugh McDowell- ELO, John Helliwell-Supertramp, John Etheridge, Mike Gibbs, Jan Ackerman-Focus, Christopher Lee) She has also worked with David-Jean Baptiste (clarinet), Rowland Sutherland (flute-George Benson,Incognito,Joyce,Flora Purim), Mark Waterman (sax,piano- Paul Young), Roberto Manes (violin) Juan Ramirez (flamenco guitar) and many other brilliant musicians!