1994 Ugly Beauty (Northeastern Records) Duo with Frank Carlberg
1994 Round About (Music and Arts) Duo with Ran Blake
1995 Blackbird Suite (Invisible Music) with Steve Grover Quintet
1996 The Crazy Woman (Accurate) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2000 Variations on a Summer Day (Fresh Sound New Talent) Frank Carlberg Octet
2002 In the Land of Art (FSNT) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2003 The Sound of New York Jazz Underground (FSNT)
2006 State of the Union (FSNT) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2008 The American Dream (Red Piano Records) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2009 Excerpts from an Online Dating Service (RPR) Nicholas Urie Large Ensemble
2010 Out of the Shadows (RPR) Duo with Ran Blake
2011 My Garden (RPR) Nicholas Urie Large Ensemble
2011 Uncivilized Ruminations (RPR) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2012 Down Here Below – Tribute to Abbey Lincoln vol.1 (RPR) Duo with Ran Blake
2013 Big Enigmas (RPR) Frank Carlberg Septet
2013 Words Project IV (New Amsterdam) with Sam Sadigursky Quintet
2013 Mots Croisés (La Buisonne Digital) with Laurent Coq/Sam Sadigursky Sextet
2014 No Money in Art (RPR) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2015 The Road Keeps Winding-Tribute to Abbey Lincoln vol. II (RPR) with Ran Blake
2015 Word Circus (RPR) Frank Carlberg Quintet
2018 Streaming (RPR) – Duo with pianist Ran Blake
2020 When Soft Rains Fall (RPR) – Tribute to Billie Holiday with Ran Blake
2023 Just You Stand and Listen With Me (Sunnyside) – The Music of Max Roach
The music of JUST YOU STAND AND LISTEN WITH ME is drawn from Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Percussion Bitter Sweet, originally featuring the voice of Abbey Lincoln and Oscar Brown Jr.’s lyrics released in the early 1960’s during a period in Roach’s career when he was deeply engaged in the struggle for civil rights and freedoms. These pieces were created at a critical time in the nation’s history and the music was a reflection of that time. The musical content and the texts/poems speak truths to the present realities of race relations and politics in America as much as they did in the 1960’s.
“I really enjoyed the mastery and grace Christine and her ensemble brought to my father’s Freedom Now Suite. The struggle is real but music will set you free. Max is smiling…” Maxine Roach
Recordings with Ran Blake
In 1994 the Music and Arts label released Round About that includes songs from the Great American Song Book as well as select jazz compositions and Blake originals.
“Undoubtedly, we wouldn’t even have dared dream what Christine Correa (voice) and Ran Blake (piano) offer us here; like an “Ideal of the Lied”, in a tradition to which it is foreign, the shrill edge of emotion labours the verb into the flesh of syllables, infinitely detailed. Each note is the state of the world and this world is our own. No escape is possible, tragic in that it only gives us the freedom to be worthy of it, to embrace the muted pain, to recognize the demons that haunt us. At the end of this “winter’s journey” we are enriched by a renewed confidence in music, with music, by music- this music. Beneath the snow, grace” P.L. Renou, Jazz Magazine
Almost two decades later Correa and Blake released Out of the Shadows, a belated follow-up release to Round About.
“Pianist Ran Blake and vocalist Christine Correa take torch songs into the twilight zone on Out of the Shadows. A moody and intoxicating plunge into the deep end, the CD is practically a refutation of the above CDs in terms of its rawness, unpredictability and even its occasional brutality” Ottawa Citizen
Correa and Blake then dedicated a double volume tribute to the American icon Abbey Lincoln in Down Here Below that was voted Best Vocal Album 2012 in the New York City Jazz Record.
“Correa’s ethereal voice and Blake’s mature pianism in this sublime artistic expression pay a unique homage to Lincoln’s legacy” Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz
“Correa can be raw and angry as on “Freedom Day” adding petulance to the anger on “Retribution”. Her tone can be dry and harsh, as she bends melodies to extremes on “Little Niles” and “African Lady”, slide from steely to cool on “Bird Alone” or be downright sweet and engaging on the winsome “How I hoped for your love” George Kanzler, NY City Jazz Record
In The Road Keeps Winding, Correa and Blake once again select a repertoire closely connected with Lincoln to include songs of protest and hope, original Lincoln songs with her poetic lyrics as well as standards from the Great American Songbook.
In Streaming, “…Correa’s vocal, crisply articulated but bitingly emotional, defines a space that’s parallel to Blake’s, when the piano drops out for a few bars, she sails on, buoyed on a silence that nonetheless evokes the foundation Blake already had laid for her. The unique dynamic of this first track (Billie Holiday’s Don’t Explain) heralds all that follows. The point is that when combining knowledge of tradition with wide-open ears and fearlessness, the road opens to exhilarating possibility” – Bob Doerschuk, Downbeat
In When Soft Rains Fall, Correa and Blake pay tribute to the great Billie Holiday, 60 some years after the release of her Lady in Satin recording.
“A superlative release. A sublime and respectful look at an American icon….Blake and Correa pull off this artistic gem with relative ease” Critical Jazz
Recordings with Frank Carlberg
Correa’s recording Ugly Beauty is a duo recording with Finnish-American pianist Frank Carlberg – the first of many collaborations. Ugly Beauty features a mix of folk music (Indian and Finnish) as well as free improvisations, original compositions and repertoire from the Great American Song Book.
“In Ugly Beauty (with Finnish pianist Frank Carlberg) there is the introduction of certain traditional Indian folk elements; an area where Ms. Correa excels. Both principles mesh into a cozy relationship that impacts profoundly on this most enjoyable endeavour” Gerard Futrick, Coda Magazine
The next CD, The Crazy Woman is the first of Carlberg’s settings to 20th century poets such as Jack Kerouac and Anna Akhmatova. The recording features a quintet format, which is to become the core of several future projects with Correa as the voice.
“(Correa) has her own light sound, emphasizing precise (but not prissy) enunciation and attention to detail for emotional emphasis….shows she can use expressive inflections without slipping into parody” Steve Holtje, The Wire
Variations on a Summer Day, a 13 part song cycle, features Carlberg’s settings to a Wallace Stevens’ poem.
“Correa’s voice is controlled, confident, jazz inflected….Her time and intonation are beacons to steer by” Tom Patton, Dissident
In the Land of Art features settings to poems by Robert Creeley, Anselm Hollo, Kenneth Rexroth, and others.
“Correa is clearly developing her sources with her own insights and sense of interpretation, bolstered by subtly demonstrative technical flair” Milo Fine, Cadence
State of the Union makes more pointed political statements and uses cut-up versions of The Bill of Rights among other settings.
“ Vocalist Christine Correa smoothes out the edges of the music’s angular, drawn-out phrases with a silky, warm-blanket tone, bringing musical comfort to the cold, at times cynical, poetic settings. With magnificent control she delivers a convincing case for the text, managing unbelievably precise pronunciation against, in the case of ‘The Word Is’ and ‘Song of the Washing Machine’ Carlberg’s melodic twists and turns” John Vincent Barron, Jazz Review
The American Dream is a 12-part song cycle with settings of poetry by Robert Creeley.
“a masterful feast of music that suggests a beautiful portrait of Creeley’s poetry – joyous, reflective, plaintive, hopeful, and always radiating with great humanity” All About Jazz.
Uncivilized Ruminations includes Carlberg’s settings to texts by poets such as Anselm Hollo, Jim Gustafson and Kai Niemenen.
“Ms. Correa sings with an intensity that measures every distance between fury and tranquility with fearsome accuracy” Alan Bargebubr, Cadence
Big Enigmas features the poems of Ken Mikolowski and the group is expanded to a septet to include Matt Moran on vibraphone and John Carlson on trumpet.
“Serious music, seriously performed” George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
No Money in Art and Word Circus is a commissioned work by Chamber Music America that includes settings of poems by Anselm Hollo, Jim Gustafson, Ron Padgett, Anselm Berrigan, Ken Mikolowski among others.
“Correa is sheer power and fractured momentum” Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Other Projects:
In 2003 Correa recorded a couple of Carlberg Big Band pieces in a special release by Fresh Sound Records: The Sound of New York Jazz Underground – a double CD set featuring music by eight composers associated with the label.
Correa has also received praise for her work in the recordings of drummer/composer, Steve Grover’s The Blackbird Suite.
“The most arresting performance on the Kennedy Center’s stage came from vocalist Christine Correa whose reading of “Blackbird Suite” based on poet Wallace Stevens ‘13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,’ combined the beauty and pioneering spirit one associates with the best of the jazz (or any) genre. (She infused) the text and melody with sensuality, longing and integrity” Reuben Jackson, Jazz Times
Saxophonist Sam Sadigursky’s Word Project IV contains cheerful and contemplative art songs based on the poems of Carl Sandburg, Bertold Brecht, Kim Addonizio, Sadi Ranson, etc. while Mots Croisés/Crosswords is a collaborative effort by the French pianist Laurent Coq with Sam Sadigursky. This recording includes translations of the same four poems by William Carlos Williams, Muriel Rukeyser, and others sung in French by Laurence Allison and in English by Correa and was recorded at La Buisonne in Avignon, France.
Correa has also recorded the music of composer Nicholas Urie, Excerpts from an Online Dating Service and My Garden in which Urie set music to the poems of Charles Bukowski.
“Correa is completely composed at all times. She has complete control over her vocal cords. And because her style is so singular – so ancient, yet so modern – she seems to narrate epic stories as she treads through the fabric of the songs….these solo outings…serve to accentuate the qualities that each artist brings to the session: intensity, singular purpose and unqualified dedication to the art of music” Raul D’Gama Rose, All About Jazz