Maru Gutiérrez has just presented her project ‘Raíz’ in her Valladolid, an album that mixes styles, with influences from jazz, flamenco, rock, folk, Latin American music…

I prefer to say that my music is unclassifiable. I am eclectic. Now I study jazz, I delve into samba and bossa. I love jazz.

In the project there are influences from jazz, flamenco, rock, folk, Latin American music… My album is a mix of styles. I decided to put music from around the world because it is attractive and essential voices because being able to express ourselves, being able to do it, is the essence of the album. “Maru Gutiérrez enjoys talking about her project ‘Raíz’, which started in the covid stage from the idea of ​​making a play with her own songs and which in the first quarter of 2023 will become her first solo album, although the project has six other women, from different musical styles.

The 36-year-old from Valladolid, Maru comes from a family in which art, and music, had not taken hold: “Although my grandmother Matilde sang at home and in the church choir. I remember his boleros, his rancheras…». Despite this, at the age of 10 she was already taking guitar lessons and singing, also in choirs. She had contact with other performing arts, such as theatre and dance, but adolescence put a stop to everything.

She decided to study Translation and Interpretation in Granada, and there she has stayed: «I started doing theatre and people told me that they liked my voice. I had hated it when I was little because it is very deep. So I began to develop it because I realised that I could use it as a powerful tool for transformation». Her true and professional contact with music did not begin until six years ago. She continues studying at the Ool Ya Koo jazz school, although she has been in soul and reggae groups: «I also started out being very punky».

‘Coda Soul’ was her first group, with covers of soul, rock, blues… touring Granada and Malaga for a couple of years. Then came ‘Masdara’, reggae, coming out of the Basque Country: «I discovered the street, playing where, when and how you want». And she decided to go abroad with her guitar and her voice, passing through France, Germany, Switzerland… «I played on the street and in venues», she remembers.

‘Lady Day’, a show that mixed theatre and jazz in the format of educational concerts, gave way to what is today ‘Proyecto Raíz’: «I started to create songs for another play». Seven emerged, all in Spanish, which have already been presented in November in Granada and this month at the Café Teatro in Valladolid, and which will be released in disc format in the first quarter of 2023: «The project encompasses something bigger. On stage there will be dance, painting… live arts». With her there are six other women, from different musical styles; and the lyrics speak of returning to the origins: «It is important to do so to build from the place we come from. You have to listen to your body and what you feel, your emotions».

Maru says she loves philosophy: «The root thing comes from the same thing that happens in trees, we see the top but, what happens to the root, which is usually bigger? Without that support, there is no life».

This winter, the Valladolid native has traveled to Equatorial Guinea, where her paternal grandmother was from: «You have to know the origins. Everything is connected and it is important to know that Guinea was a Spanish province».

In 2023, she has a tour of Andalusia, Castile and León (Valladolid), Germany, Switzerland…

You can read the original news in El Día de Valladolid.