INTERVIEW: Jaime Lozano builds bridges with new album
Photo: From left, Alonzo Lozano and Jaime Lozano record Songs by an Immigrant. Photo courtesy of Micah Joel / Provided by press site with permission.
Jaime Lozano, the successful composer and musician, is back with the third volume of his celebrated Songs by an Immigrant series. This new album features an eclectic mix of musical styles, all paying tribute to Lozano’s upbringing in Mexico and his journey to the United States. The musicians on the new recording are listed as Jaime Lozano & The Familia, and that perfectly captures this collaborative piece of art. In the end, Songs by an Immigrant is all about family.
“It has been a long journey now,” Lozano said in a recent interview. “I’m a Mexican immigrant musical theater composer and storyteller, and we have been working on this project that is called Jaime Lozano & The Familia and this album called Songs by an Immigrant. Five years ago we released the first album because I realized that we were lacking this true presentation of Latino stories in musical theater specific, but in general in art and music in this country. So I put this group together of amazing Latino and immigrant performers. Some of them are immigrants. Some of them second- or third-generation, and what I love about these albums and this volume specifically is it’s a mix of everything. It involves no borders.”
What Lozano means by the music having no borders is that Songs by an Immigrant features a mixture of styles, everything from Latin music to musical theater to salsa to Mexican music to ballads and jazz. There are truly no borders when considering these compositions.
“It goes through everything, and because of that, I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with amazing people from all these different music styles,” he said. “We have people from Broadway. We have Latin jazz legends like Paquito D’Rivera. We have people from Mexican music or Tex-Mex music like Latin Grammy winners. It’s always an honor to be able to put such a diverse group [together]. … I think that that’s very important that the music, the stories, the songs are reflecting what we’re going through in this society right now.”
Joining Lozano on this journey are Joel Perez, Tony Succar, El Plan, Tamar Greene, Xavier Zazueta, Didi Romero, Oscar Hernández and Aline Mayagoitia, among many others.
“I think that is one of the most important things in art and society is collaboration,” Lozano said. “I consider that community is key. There’s a saying that if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I strongly believe in that. Working as a community of artists helps us to spread the word even bigger and larger, also it’s important how we learn from each other’s experiences and we learn to respect each other. Obviously we are all different, and we have different points of view on many, many things. But I think that’s why it’s important to get to know each other and respect each other no matter what. We are very different, but in the end, we are also the same.”
When Lozano is building an album, he always follows his first rule in life: Be honest. So Songs by an Immigrant is a recording that gets at the inner-truth of who Lozano is as a person. He likens the songs to a photo album of family pictures.
“It’s trying to show a little bit of who we are as immigrants, as Mexicans, as musical theater storytellers, as a father, as a husband,” Lozano said. “All that is in that album. It’s completely coming from the heart. I try to show all the different layers of me and people who are around me.”
One of Lozano’s favorite tunes, and perhaps his most personal on the album, is called “Mi Norte,” a composition he wrote and performs with El Plan. This particular song is in Spanish and centers on the theme of home.
“I mean ‘Mi Norte’ specifically means ‘my north’, and my hometown in Mexico, Monterrey, is actually in the north of Mexico, not so far from the United States, just a few hours drive from Texas,” he said. “So when I was writing ‘Mi Norte,’ it’s a song about missing home, but also using home as the north in a compass, you know. When you don’t know where you are, you look at the compass. You try to find what is the north. It’s about that. So being in another country and missing home, you try to go back and look where is your home, where is your north so you can know where you are and where you’re going.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Songs by an Immigrant: Volume 3 by Jaime Lozano & The Familia is now available. Click here for more information.
