Ana Ayala Sextet

Behind this project is a young Canarian flautist and singer who recently graduated from the Liceu Conservatory. After years of dedication as a sidewoman in multiple jazz projects, this sextet serves as the vehicle for her debut as leader and composer, and the manifestation of a profoundly personal undertaking of significant aesthetic and emotional commitment. The sextet was born out of the need to give a voice to what is often overlooked. With an unconventional lineup of voice, transverse flute, clarinet, tenor sax, piano, double bass, and drums, the group explores a language of its own that combines contemporary jazz with elements of classical music, free jazz, and pop. The original compositions that breathe life into this project are inspired by characters who have been driven to the limits of existence; everyday people who dwell on the fringes of society, such as the woman who feeds pigeons while passers-by look on uneasily, or the man who asks for coins in the underground while being systematically ignored by the other passengers. With its free yet deeply structured music, this project seeks to embrace the foreign, the different, the unsettling, yet human: what bothers us not because it is violent, but because it reminds us of what we would rather not see. This music is a space for those silenced voices; a gesture of listening to what surrounds us and is often ignored.