Claudia Acuña

Though she always wanted to be a singer, Chilean jazz vocalist Claudia Acuña didn't discover jazz music until she was 15. Instead the Santiago native grew up singing traditional folk songs and current pop hits, but once some of the city's jazz fans heard her perform, they told her she had a natural gift for the style. Acuña frequented Santiago's major jazz club as a performer as well as an audience member, sitting in on sets with local musicians and meeting luminaries like Wynton Marsalis, Michel Petrucciani and Danilo Perez. In 1995, Acuña moved to New York to pursue her ca...