Three Voices, Three Languages, One Composer
John Finbury’s music has long crossed geographical and stylistic lines. But in the last five years, his collaborations with three distinctive vocalists — Camille Bertault (France), Magos Herrera (Mexico/US), and Bruna Black (Brazil) — have taken that boundaryless spirit even further.
Each singer brings a unique language, tradition, and interpretive approach to Finbury’s compositions. Together, they represent a kind of jazz diplomacy: conversational, collaborative, and deeply human.
Camille Bertault: Playfulness Meets Precision
French jazz singer Camille Bertault is known for her virtuosity and humor — someone who can write lyrics to John Coltrane solos and perform them flawlessly, yet never without a wink. Her collaboration with John Finbury began during the pandemic, with two transatlantic tracks: “Look At What a Mess You Made of Me” and “Boulevard.”
The first is a duet for voice and bass featuring Christian McBride. The second adds organist Larry Goldings and drummer Billy Martin, offering a looser groove beneath Camille’s French lyrics.
What binds both tracks is Camille’s ability to inhabit the lyric — to phrase and reinterpret it as if speaking. Even across languages and continents, she finds the emotional thread, blending vaudeville energy with a clear jazz lineage.
Magos Herrera: The Architect of Intimacy
Magos Herrera’s voice is often described as haunting, but that undersells her control and clarity. A longtime figure in Latin jazz, she joined Finbury’s world with Quatro, contributing vocals and lyrics to several tracks. Her phrasing is architectural — built from small gestures that hold a great deal of emotional weight.
On “All The Way To The End,” she sings lyrics by Patty Brayden, weaving Spanish inflections into an English-language bolero. In “Comenzar,” she delivers her own lyric with gentle force, supported by a trio that includes Chano Domínguez, John Patitucci, and Antonio Sánchez.
Later, in 2022, she and Finbury reunited for “That Was Then,” “¡Por Ennio!” and “Bastille Day.” These songs stretch her range further — from chamber textures with PUBLIQuartet to jazz minimalism with harp, cello, and bandoneón.
Across each of these recordings, Magos remains centered — emotionally fluent, texturally precise, and collaborative in spirit.
Bruna Black: A Rising Star from São Paulo
Bruna Black may be the newest voice in Finbury’s catalog, but she enters with deep roots. A vocalist, composer, and actress from São Paulo, her range includes samba, forró, baião, and Afoxê — styles that echo through the album Vã Revelação, released in May 2024.
Bruna co-wrote the lyrics with John’s musical collaborator Emilio D. Miler and sings with a command that’s both rooted and exploratory. The studio sessions at Power Station NYC included familiar names: Vitor Gonçalves, Chico Pinheiro, John Patitucci, Rogerio Boccato, and Duduka de Fonseca. Together, they built a sound that’s vibrant yet measured — allowing Bruna’s voice to lead without needing to push.
Her performance on songs like “Será” and “Chão De Nuvem” highlight her interpretive maturity. She navigates dense lyricism with grace, shifting tone and timbre without ever losing musical center.
What Brings These Voices Together?
Though separated by geography, language, and style, Camille, Magos, and Bruna share key qualities: musical clarity, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to interpret rather than simply deliver.
In John Finbury’s music, these qualities matter. His compositions are lyrical and structured, but they leave room — for phrasing, inflection, space. He writes with voices in mind, and these three artists return that trust with subtlety and depth.
Whether it’s the quiet swing of Camille’s French lyrics, the chamber jazz precision of Magos’s delivery, or the grounded flow of Bruna’s Brazilian phrasing, each performance feels like a conversation — not only with the composer, but with the music itself.
Cross-Cultural Music, Not Fusion
It’s tempting to describe Finbury’s work as fusion, but that word can suggest blending for the sake of novelty. What happens in these collaborations is something different — a respectful exchange.
Each vocalist brings their own vocabulary and musical lineage. Finbury’s role is to provide the setting — a melody, a harmonic frame, a rhythm that supports without dictating.
The results are multilingual, but never scattered. They reflect what happens when cultural specificity is treated not as an obstacle, but as an asset.
Looking Forward
As global musical conversations continue to evolve, these collaborations offer a model. Not of genre-hopping, but of listening: across languages, borders, and traditions.
In Camille, Magos, and Bruna, we see how vocalists can shape not just the sound of a song, but its intention. And in John Finbury’s work, we see how a composer can open the door without losing his own voice.
Listen
To explore these artists and their work with John Finbury, visit Green Flash Music and listen to the albums Quatro and Vã Revelação, and singles like “Boulevard” and “That Was Then” on all major platforms.