Jazzy Olivo: CLC Performer

The season of summer is beloved for the vibrancy, warmth and fruitfulness of our surroundings. On Aug. 9–11, Salt Lake City will celebrate summertime, along with the best of our state’s DIY engineers, craft foodies, performers and craftspeople at the 11th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons at the Utah State Fairpark. Every year, Craft Lake City commemorates the best of Utah’s creators, this year being CLC’s first at the Utah State Fairpark—there is much to celebrate! Visit craftlakecity.com to learn more about the 11th DIY Festival.

“Music was my first language. Singing was my accent,” says the vocal artist Jazzy Olivo (facebook.com/jazzyolivomusic) in reference to her lack of memory of a life before music. After years of commercial performance in TV and theatre, Olivo took up her nickname of “Jazzy” as a stage name and began her career proper. “I wanted to create music regardless of the language. Music that reflected me, my culture, my spirit,” she says. “I needed the freedom of mixing ideas and genres—music that didn’t have a name, just a feeling.”

Following this desire to carve out a unique musical path, Olivo’s music is a mixture of reverence for tradition and an exploration of new combinations. “I’m always seeking to express new musical ideas with sounds that have always been there but are rarely thought of as being used in different ways than what is considered normal,” she says, citing mixtures of bolero music and contemporary pop or the use of household objects in her performances as examples of this. Her musically omnivorous approach is reflected in her live group, which Olivo describes as a “Latin jazz trio with keys providing the bass. Stylistically, we’re a little vibey, a little emo, what you could call [a] fusion of styles and tastes.” In order to pull off this feat of musical mixing, Olivo surrounds herself with versatile and talented musicians who can follow her down whichever path she chooses.

Follow Olivo on Instagram (@jazzyolivo) for all information on upcoming shows and music, including the artist’s upcoming debut EP, due out this winter. Olivo says that she hopes all of Salt Lake will “support live music and the musicians who make it,” so make sure to be at the 90.0FM KRCL Stage on the CLC DIY Festival’s first day, Friday, Aug. 9, for “a set that represents the ups and downs of life, of feelings, of emotions, of relationships—from wacky, to happy, to sad, to rage, to love and life.” –Audrey Lockie

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