Nala Sinephro Subverts Jazz One Immaculate Note at a Time
In this Rising interview, the composer talks about mystical synth frequencies, the racist undertones of certain jazz institutions, and why she doesn’t want to be known as “the harp lady.”
By Jazz Monroe
Photography by BLACKKSOCKS
Nala Sinephro is seated in a north London café, already quite caffeinated but determined to pour every drop of hot water into her cage of loose-leaf green tea. Although her hushed voice barely competes with the café’s blaring pop-house, she radiates a meditative energy, eyes widening and shrinking behind her round-rimmed glasses. She pretends to yell while imitating people who tell her, “I can’t hear you!” but even this outburst scarcely rises above a whisper. “In my head, I’m really loud,” she says, grinning. “I’ll be speaking out of my belly with all of my abs, trying to scream.” A houseplant with cobwebbed fronds peers over her shoulder, as if craning to listen in.
The shop’s floristry reminds Sinephro of her green-fingered aunties in Martinique, who would dispense botanical wisdom when her family visited the Caribbean island every Christmas. She spent the rest of her childhood on the outskirts of Brussels, in an abandoned house renovated by her classical-piano teacher mom and jazz saxophonist dad. In rare quiet moments, birdsong drifted over from an adjoining forest. “We were the only people of color for a 20-minute drive, safe and secluded but also isolated,” she remembers. “The woodland felt like part of my garden.”
Natural wonder is a cornerstone of the jazz composer’s philosophy. In two month-long bursts during the pandemic, she returned to Martinique to pursue a mountain bird across the island’s tropical woods, trampling twigs in winter and dirtying up her slippers in spring. It would “pop out” around 5 p.m., at which time—armed with headphones, a recorder, and a noise filter—she began hunting the elusive bird’s song. The assignment is ongoing. Once the recording is captured, she plans to feed it through synths and patch it into a secret project. For now, she is preparing another stint in Martinique, where the bird will draw her ever deeper into the mountains.
