vagabonds 🧳


Happy Friday,

I’m on the other side of the recording sessions of last week and I’m almost at a loss for words. I’ll have more thoughts and pictures and stories to share in weeks to come!

In the meantime, I will be singing with the Ted Nash Big Band at Dizzy’s on June 2nd. They’re playing music of the 20’s and 30’s, and I’ll be singing a Kurt Weill song that is one of the most significant of the 20th century(!). I hope you’ll come – it’s going to be a great night.

Onto the pairing….!


Juice

People who truly love wine, love to wander – even if it’s just around a wine list.

Recently, at Justine’s in the West Village, I could not resist a rarely seen Swiss section of the list, especially one priced so tantalizingly.

Amigne de Vétroz is an ancient white grape native to the Valais region of Switzerland. Winemaker Fabienne Cottagnoud of Cave des Tilleuls produced this particular variety with panache in this stunning 2015 vintage. Wine takes us on journeys through continents and countries, and time itself. This bottle retains some of the charms of youth and the balance is in the maturity and presence of age.

Candied pineapple and fragrant, couldn’t-be-riper honeydew melon swirl on the palate, while a shimmering ribbon of acidity brings it all to a pleasingly pithy dry finish. Served at a perfectly not-too-chilled temperature, it continued to relax and blossom in the glass – a window into another time, a winemaker’s talent, and the fruits of vertiginous landscapes yet unseen.


Jazz

I heard this song for the first time the other night (by a singer I’ll surely feature soon) and was captivated. My Portuguese is lacking, yet one word I did understand was the second in the title “Coração Vagabundo” – and a vagabond spirit of yearning infused the song and me in the hearing of it.

Written by Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso and sung by the same, it is performed here with transparency and ease which is easy to take for granted as a listener. Achieving this level of intimacy as a singer and songwriter is truly a feat of courage and vulnerability. The song trembles as a leaf in the wind – flutes and strings on the track add to its delicacy.

The vagabonds of love, art, or pleasure are after something more than a picture or a story. As the song says:

My vagabond heart

Wants to keep the world in me

artist
Coração Vagabundo
Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso
PREVIEW
Spotify Logo
 

Have a great week.

Truly,

Kristen

P.S. This newsletter is a labor of love -- if you'd like to support it, please click here (and thank you!) 🍇🎶

kristenleesergeant.com


Unsubscribe · Preferences

Jazz & Juice

a poetic pairing of wine & song, every other Friday

Read more from Jazz & Juice

Happy Friday, Hope you're staying cool and feeling good. It's been a busy week over here -- overdubbing some solos for the new album in particular has been a highlight, we're really excited to start mixing it soon! I loved this week's pairing as you'll read -- and hope you do too. Juice When I bought my first bottle of this 2023 trousseau gris from Two Shepherds of the Russian River Valley, I thought I purchased an enticing domestic rosé that promised intrigue (and delivered). Then I bought a...

Happy Friday, Thanks to y'all who came out to Dizzy's this past Monday. I recapped a bit of what it meant to me to sing Weill's "Pirate Jenny" on Insta with a clip from soundcheck, if it's of interest.:) In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this week's pairing! Juice bleep When I see a label, emblazoned with neon, expletives, and a rounded sans serif font, I often expect a wine that’s a little rough hewn, on the fringes of the expected, and perhaps only appealing to a narrow audience. Fabien...

Happy Friday, It’s a few days before recording. In addition to writing to you, it’s a lot of fine tuning and prepping of all kinds. Listening to this week’s singer has been a pleasurable part of my work -- and I know you’ll enjoy it too. (I’ll justify the wine as prep in good time.:)) Juice Does ubiquity make something less valuable? Rarity is oftentimes coupled with worth for good reason, but just because something is easy to find (or grow) doesn’t make it any less great. Chardonnay is a...