Delicate Paths – Music for Shō
Sarah Peebles; with Evan Parker, Nilan Perera, Suba Sankaran
unsounds 42U (unsounds.com)

For some quarter century the Toronto-based American composer, improviser and installation artist Sarah Peebles has conducted a musical love affair with the shō, the Japanese mouth organ. Ever since studying its foundational repertoire embedded in the music of the antique gagaku, performed by the orchestra of the Japanese court, she has sought to explore the shō’s sonic strengths. She has particularly identified with its ability to produce microtonal and psychoacoustic effects reifying sound, often unfolding leisurely over time.

There is yet another key element on this album. Bees. Peebles’ installation art practice explores the lives of wild bees, pollination ecology and biodiversity, a branch of BioArt. This concern not only explains some of the titles of the works here – i.e. Resinous Fold – but it is also reflected in the synergistic relationships between mouth organs and the resinous production of bees. Tropical stingless bees secrete a resin which has been gathered from wild nests for millennia and applied to many human artifacts, including mouth organs. The shō is no exception. You can view a number of fascinating photos, of both bee habitats and the delicate shō reeds for which their products are an essential ingredient, on the web page for Delicate Paths hosted by the “unsounds” label.

Peebles’ music employs both improvisation and composition, embracing acoustic as well as digitally processed performance. While shō is clearly featured, the album invites other musicians into the music making. On Delicate Paths she has included three star improvisers: a familiar reed instrument, a string, and a voice. Free jazz-rooted saxophonist Evan Parker, prepared electric guitarist Nilan Perera and multi-genre vocalist Suba Sankaran join Peebles. They are canny choices. Each effectively supports, contests and offsets her shō’s melodic long tones and clusters, providing welcome musical tensions, cultural reframings, as well as textural and timbral richness.

Slipping the CD out of its handsome black trifold case I was delighted by its striking, subtly translucent honey-coloured appearance. Repeated listening revealed music of refinement, occasionally graced with a gentle aural sweetness, which in my imagination at least, resonates with a key component of the shō’s inner workings.

Sanata: Stillness
Kiran Ahluwalia
Independent MTM-CD-930 (kiranmusic.com)

The release of Indian-Canadian singer and songwriter Kiran Ahluwalia’s sixth album Sanata: Stillness, provides copious confirmation that her songs are “one of global music’s most interesting adventures.” Ever since Ahluwalia‘s first CD in 2001, it seems each new album marks new regions of personal musical growth, accompanied by evolving instrumentation and stylistic components. Recorded in Toronto, Sanata, as does her touring group, features some of the city’s top world musicians. Among them number percussionist maestro Mark Duggan and bassists extraordinaire Rich Brown and Andrew Downing.

In my September 2014 WholeNote cover feature on Ahluwalia, I observed that her geo-musical expansiveness is a result “of her careful listening to yet another [geo-cultural] zone of our world. She has [further] shown a continued eagerness to contest the borders of her musical comfort zones in live performance.”

Sanata provides ample proof of that process of exploration and synthesis at work. We hear Ahluwalia’s signature masala of her unique interpretation of Indo-Pakistani ghazal and Punjabi folk song, rendered in her expressive yet unstrained vibrato-less voice. It’s hung on a solid backbone of years of classical Hindustani musical training. Her gift for crafting catchy melodies is evidenced in her songs; I’m guessing a key feature in their audience appeal.

Another significant strand is the addition of pungent echoes of Saharan blues guitar, as in her award-winning 2011 CD Aam Zameen: Common Ground. It grounds the title track and also propels “Hayat” with a swaggering groove at just the right tempo. The superbly supple electric guitar accompaniments are provided by her American husband Rez Abbasi, who is also the album’s arranger and producer. Abbasi gets a chance to show his ample jazz guitarist cred in his “Tamana” solo and elsewhere.

While the album is carefully woven together with jazz-forward and sometimes rock-infused arrangements, “Jhoom” and “Lament,” the two songs in the qawwali tradition, return the album’s musical topography and transport the listener – via many transcontinental byways – to the Subcontinent.

Animism
Tanya Tagaq
Six Shooter Records (tanyatagaq.com)

This album is a profound exploration of transcultural confrontation and transformation as expresed through the magical qualities and healing power of sound. Featuring the brilliant vocalism of Inuk avant-garde throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Animism synergistically merges her indigenous rights activism with the expressive force of her art. Not simply a typical “wordless protest album” however, its release promptly caused significant critical acclaim. To cap it off, Tagaq won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize, presented annually for the “best Canadian album regardless of genre or sales,” becoming its first indigenous recipient.

To be sure, the involvement of the polished improv-based musicality of her regular accompanists, Toronto drummer Jean Martin and the B.C.-based violinist, producer and arranger Jesse Zubot, is essential to every track.

Tagaq’s vocal art lives in zones of layered, multiple hybridity, a foundational feature of which is her free improv performance strategy. Paradoxically however, this CD’s first song is a cover of the Pixies’ “Caribou” (1987) sung in a “standard” (that is non-throat singing) voice by Tagaq and masterfully arranged with the addition of synth, horn and string parts by Zubot. Comparing it to the original Pixies’ recording, I prefer this album’s extended version, still rocking in sections yet musically convincing us without strumming a single guitar chord.

The pop-oriented “Caribou” is an exceptional case here, however. Other songs like Rabbit propose an almost cinematic soundscape. Atop field recordings of northern soundscapes by Michael Red, and Zubot’s significant contributions, Tagaq’s vocalise transforms itself effortlessly from human to animal sounds and back.

The music on the innovative Animism, though sonically and emotionally rooted in the arctic, is nevertheless poised to move audiences no matter where they live.

The Humours of Autorickshaw
Autorickshaw
Tala Wallah Records TW 005 (autorickshaw.ca)

The JUNO-nominated world music ensemble Autorickshaw’s delightfully exciting fourth album is a rich record of a particular transcultural Toronto musical masala. Make no mistake; The Humours of Autorickshaw is no parochial product however. Rather its achievement resonates across other communities of musicians forging other new musical hybrids. In its ambitious aspirations—adventurous genre mixings, and in some of its lyrics touching, contentious reaches of the human condition—it will resonate with select global audiences.

The Musical Voyages of Marco Polo
Maria Farantouri; En Chordais; Ensemble Constantinople; Kyriakos Kalaitzidis
World Village WVF 479092

Italy to China in Marco Polo’s footsteps, interpreted stage by stage by local music, inspired Kyriakos Kalaitzidis to coordinate and to compose a virtual journey along the Silk Road.

Early music enthusiasts will get their eye (or ear) drawn in with the well-known Lamento di Tristano which weaves its sedate course by bringing together Western European and Middle-Eastern instruments. This same combination forms Kalaitzidis’ choice for one of his own compositions, the equally sedate Marco’s Dream. What a contrast then with his second composition, Gallop, which conjures up Marco Polo confidently and swiftly crossing the Silk Road on his mission.

As Marco Polo moves eastward the music escorts him, as its style changes. In Migrants Circles lyrics by the 14th century Iranian poet Hafez are inspired by a Chinese melody. Kiya Tabassian (sitar and voice) brilliantly conveys the winding and demanding nature of Marco Polo’s journeyings.

 Then the traveller reaches Uzbekistan for perhaps the most impassioned song on the CD: Ey Dilbari Jonomin (Oh, my heart-stealing beauty) where the voices of Kalaitzidis and Nodira Permatova are allowed to express the song’s haunting quality, accompanied only by oud, viola and violin. All too soon we are back on the road east with Five steps, a piece played on Nepalese sarangi to guide us to Mongolia, where Chandmani nutag evokes the latter’s grasslands and streams.

Finally, China. Yi Zu Wu Qu (dance of the Yi nation) is a thoughtful piece for solo pipa, contrasting with the complex seven-part Musical Voyages of Marco Polo. And then a final inspiration. Greek legend Maria Farantouri sings Xenos (the stranger), conveying Marco Polo’s feelings of being a stranger in a new life. Farantouri, long considered one of the foremost interpreters of Greek music, has lost none of her touch. Enjoy this expressive journey.

Mañana
Amanda Martinez
Independent (amandamartinez.ca)

Latina songstress, broadcaster, actor and composer/lyricist, Amanda Martinez’ latest CD, Mañana is a zesty musical “Caldo” – brilliantly and authentically produced by Javier Limon and George Seara. The 12 tracks provide a tasty banquet of original, Mexican and Tejano-inspired compositions, served up with healthy doses of a tropically infused blend of the tart and the sweet. On Mañana, Martinez wears several hats – as artist, composer and lyricist, and the recording itself is a tribute to the musical influences of her beloved Mexico, imbued with contemporary and traditional motifs as well as stylish arrangements and superb musicianship and vocals from her fine ensemble.

Martinez’ co-creators include the talented bassist Drew Birston, singer Fernando Osorio, skilled guitarist Kevin Laliberte, Javier Limón (arranger and co-producer) and writers Elsten Torres, Daniel Martinez Velasco, Claudia Brant and Nana Maluca. All songs on Mañana are sung in Spanish, with the exception of three: “Frozen” – featuring Martinez’ intriguing narrative lyric, “Le Chemin,” rendered in flawless French, and the youthfully romantic and salsa-rific, “Let’s Dance,” sung in English. Martinez’ clairent, musical tone melded with her sibilant, colonial Spanish is a delightful treat for the ear, the heart and the soul. Her pure and supple voice is capable of communicating a range of potent emotions – from the deeply sensual to heartbreaking innocence.

Superb tracks include the optimistic and traditionally arranged “Esperanza Viva” – a fine composition by Brant and Maluca; the lilting Dias Invisibles, which is an inspired collaboration between Martinez and guitarist Laliberte replete with some delightful Burt Bacharach-ish horn lines. Also of particular beauty is Martinez and Limón’s “Ahora si te Canto” – a tender and evocative ballad, laden with lush and almost mystical, Iberian modalities as well as thoroughly stunning violin work by Osvaldo Rodriguez.

Concert note: Amanda Martinez launches Mañana with a concert at the Winter Garden Theatre on April 5. 

Sgt. Pepper
Art of Time Ensemble
Art of Time Recordings ATR 001 (artoftimeensemble.com)

It was 47 years ago that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was unleashed on the planet. It was a major departure, not only for the Beatles but for the pop/rock world in general, because of its complex arrangements, overdubs and use of an orchestra. The Beatles had recently declared they were fed up with touring, so with Sgt. Pepper they were free to record whatever they wanted without the constraint of having to recreate it live later on. So the fact that Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble has not only recreated it, but also released a live recording, is a major feat. But this is no mere copy of the iconic album. The arrangers – all 11 of them from across the spectrum of pop, jazz and classical music – have written inventive treatments of the songs, building on the great songwriting and ideas of the Lennon/McCartney/Martin team.

Andrew Burashko, the force behind Art of Time, has gathered together a dozen of the best musicians in the land from a variety of disciplines including singers from some well-known Canadian bands. Steven Page (Bare Naked Ladies), Andy Maize (Skydiggers), John Mann (Spirit of the West) and Craig Northey (Odds) all bring their individual styles to the lead parts. Covering a much-loved work such as this is a delicate balancing act – needing to be different enough to be fresh, but not too far off to be unrecognizable – and they’ve done it admirably. Anyone who is a Beatles fan – or a music fan – should enjoy revisiting this great work through this CD.

Timeless
Ault Sisters
Independent AAA13001 (aultsisters.com)

The Ault Sisters are a fresh and vibrant vocal trio, featuring three youthful and charming vocalists – Amanda, Alicia and Alanna Ault. On their second outing as recording artists, longtime producer Greg Kavanagh has assembled a stellar band, including the thrilling Robi Botos on piano, George Koller on bass, Ben Riley on drums, John Johnson on saxophones, Ted Quinlan on guitar and the dynamic William Sperandei on trumpet. In addition, well-respected vocalist Debbie Fleming is responsible for all of the clever vocal arrangements (aside from a wonderful contribution by Dylan Bell on Van Morrison’s perennial Moondance).

The Ault sisters have an almost supernatural vocal blend that can only be achieved when genetics are involved – and the sisters freely and effortlessly adopt different vocal parts depending on the material. Although the repertoire on Timeless tends to travel safely down the middle of the road, the Ault Sisters’ purity of sound and musicianship easily make the most out of each neo-standard.

The peppy opener, Back to You, an original by Chris Smith and Kavanagh, sets the tone for this up-beat and entertaining recording. Other standouts include a stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s River, featuring the great John Johnson on soprano saxophone; a lush, romantic arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s gorgeous (and rarely performed) ballad Ribbon in the Sky and a crisp contemporary take on the Gershwins’ immortal They Can’t Take That Away From Me. These talented young artists have a tremendous future ahead of them and we should all look forward to what’s next on their mutual dance card!

Concert Note:The CD release for the Ault Sisters Timeless is March 11 at the Jazz Bistro.

Weather to Fly
Swingle Singers
World Village 450025

The Swingle Singers have been around since before the cast members of Glee were a gleam in their parents’ eyes, but they are surely rejoicing in the renewed interest in group singing the TV show has brought about. The a cappella group was formed in 1962 in Paris by Ward Swingle and came to notoriety for their renditions of Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier. Having gone through many incarnations and currently based in England, the seven-voice group now even includes a Canadian, baritone Kevin Fox.

A cappella singing presents many challenges and while the ability to blend is a coveted skill, it can sometimes result in a homogenous sound that can become tedious. So the vocal percussion on many of the cuts on Weather to Fly adds a welcome dimension. The eclectic repertoire includes a Turkish traditional song, a Piazzola tango and a cute play on a Beyoncé hit – Swingle Ladies. The 80s are represented with the Tears for Fears’ tune Woman in Chains, complete with vocally recreated synth parts, and Chick Corea’s much-covered Spain, here given an oddly antiseptic treatment that I found unappealing (and a little reminiscent of Alvin and The Chipmunks). The title track on the other hand is an example of the best an a cappella group can be – the arrangement makes the most of the voices (especially the beautiful bass of Edward Randell). The soloists Clare Wheeler, Sara Brimer and Oliver Griffiths give impeccable performances. 

Ladom Ensemble
Ladom Ensemble
Independent 67-0295-1 (ladomensemble.com)

Ladom Ensemble’s first self-titled album is an enjoyable listening experience. The members are four University of Toronto music graduates of exceptional musical prowess. Pianist-composer Pouya Hamidi plays a sparkling piano while incorporating traditional Persian musical elements to his excellent compositions. Accordionist-composer Nemanja Pjanić’s colourful runs and rhythms add spice to the music while his Balkan flavoured compositions add a contrasting element to the ensemble’s sound. The equally soulful performers, cellist Marie-Cristine Pelchat St-Jacques and percussionist Adam Campbell, complete the ensemble.

There is a wide-ranging original sound to Ladom. Their tight chamber sensibilities are well-suited to the Piazzolla cover Fugata. The rousing Pjanić composition The Flying Balkan Dance is a short yet toe-tapping Balkan selection which features each member in a lead role and a satisfying mournful, slow, brief cello solo in the middle. Hamidi’s Goriz utilizes his Persian roots especially in the driving rhythmic sections. In contrast his Noor (meaning “light” in Farsi) is an exceptional track in that the performers seem to remove their more “classical” performance sensibilities to create a more spontaneous-sounding slower soundscape ending with Hamidi’s perfect, subtle piano tinkling. Here’s hoping the group will explore more of this aspect.

Production values are high with the live quality captured adding an additional listening dimension.  Thanks, too, for not removing the clicks from register/switch changes on the accordion! Ladom Ensemble is a great group performing great music in a new world music direction.

Concert Note: Ladom performs a matinée concert at Hugh’s Room on Sunday February 16.

As You Near Me
James Campbell; Graham Campbell;
Afiara Quartet
Marquis MAR 451

Throughout musical history, how many eminent musicians have produced musical offspring? The number may seem surprisingly low — Leopold Mozart certainly did, as did J.S. Bach. But as for musicians like Haydn, Debussy and Dvořák, there was nobody to carry on the family tradition. Closer to home, this is clearly not the case with clarinettist James Campbell, whose son Graham is a fine guitarist and pedagogue; the two have happily joined forces on this Marquis Classics disc titled As You Near Me.

Long referred to as “Canada’s pre-eminent clarinetist and wind soloist,” James Campbell has enjoyed an international career as soloist and chamber musician for more than 35 years. His son Graham earned his music degree at Humber College and has since made a name for himself as a gifted guitarist and composer in Toronto’s music community.

This is actually the second recording father and son have produced (the first was Homemade Jam in 2003). Nevertheless, with this release, Graham’s talents as a composer are also showcased, for eight of the 16 tracks bear his name. There are many things to like about this recording, not the least of which is the eclecticism; it draws from several sources, including jazz, Latin and central European. The two Campbells are joined on certain tracks by other performers such as the Afiara String Quartet and bassists Sam McLellan and Bob Mills. James Campbell’s lyrical tone combined with the skilful guitar work (either as a solo or as accompaniment) produces an appealing sound, with the younger Campbell’s own compositions proving particularly engaging.

As You Near Me is the perfect disc for relaxing to on an autumn weekend — or for that matter, any day of the week, during any season. Recommended.

Tango Dreams
Alexander Sevastian
Analekta AN 28767

Tangos Brasileiros –
The music of Ernesto Nazareth
Christina Petrowska Quilico
Marquis MAR 519

When you start pulling out your winter boots for another snowy march, take out your dancing shoes too, and warm up the Canadian winter with these two new releases of hot and sultry tango music played by two of Canada’s finest performers.

Accordionist Alexander Sevastian is a world-class awarding-winning performer. Many readers will recognize his fabulous work with Quartetto Gelato. In Tango Dreams, Sevastian is brilliant as he takes on the tango style. The five tangos by the late “tango nuevo” Argentinean composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla are performed with sensitivity and nuance. From Uruguay, the more traditional La Cumparsita, by Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodriguez (arranged by Dmitriy Varelas) opens with a quasi-improvisational florid section which leads to a colourful harmonic and rhythmically robust performance true to the traditional tango genre. The contrasting middle section with its rubato and melodic chromaticisms makes this more of a concert work until it’s time to dance again as Sevastian shows his artistic musicianship both in melody and rhythm. The title track Tango Dreams by Raymond Luedeke is a performance of a 2002 work commissioned by fellow accordionist Joseph Petric for accordion and string trio which has been featured in various concert settings, and as a dance piece choreographed by David Earle. As the composer notes, no tango lines have been lifted from traditional tangos, yet the work oozes with the tango spirit and drive. Sevastian and Atis Bankas (violin), Anna Antropova (viola) and Jonathan Tortolano (cello) achieve a tight ensemble unit through changing stylistic motives and moods.

Equally world-renowned and the 2007 winner of the Friends of Canadian Music Award, pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico performs the tangos of Brazilian composer/pianist Ernesto Júlio de Nazareth (1863–1934) in the two-CD release Tangos Brasileiros. Touches of salon music and the romanticism of Chopin are evident in these tangos, which are quicker in tempo than their Argentinean relatives. There is so much heartfelt joy in the pianist’s performances of 24 of the composers’ piano works. In her liner notes titled “My Personal Tango Journey,” she attributes her agility in style, musicality and placement of downbeat to her years in the dance studio learning how to dance the tango. I agree completely. The famous Fon-Fon is driven by a zippy right hand melody which is partnered by a two-feet-grounded-on-the-floor pulse. The more traditional Perigoso – Tango Brasileiro is a swaying, sultry and steady performance with intriguing brief yet breathtaking silences. Most fun are the left hand low-pitched lines in Myosotis. Deep and rich in tone, they act as a perfect mate to the jovial salon music-like right hand melodies. Throughout, Petrowska Quilico’s well-contemplated rhythmic placements and gentler finger attacks create the sense of melodic spontaneity so important to tango music.

Sevastian and Petrowska Quilico are so very different in their musical instruments, attitudes and approaches to tangos yet both are worthy of an enjoyable twirl across the listening dance floor.

Broadsway – Old Friends
Heather Bambrick; Julie Michels;
Diane Leah
Broadsway BWCD001
thebroadswayshow.com

Three broads sing it their way: meet Broadsway, an explosively talented trio. The versatile voices of Heather Bambrick and Julie Michels are paired with acclaimed pianist/musical director Diane Leah, who in this context sings, plays and arranges exquisitely. Charmingly, the project started out by accident, when Michels, accompanied by Leah, invited Bambrick to sit in on what turned out to be a fantabulous version of Moondance (find it on YouTube!) in November of 2008. Turns out these three women have more in common than curly hair: incredible musicality, electric stage presence and, central to the group, a mutual respect and admiration for one another. Nearly five years after that first “Moondance,” they’ve turned their innate musical sisterhood into a sublime, polished cabaret act.

Likely the only group in the world to perform Puccini, Lady Gaga and Thelonious Monk in the same set, Broadsway can do seemingly anything, but most of their material comes from musical theatre and film. Highlights of this recording include Take Me or Leave Me from Rent, I Know Him So Well from Chess, a testament to songwriting genius in the Broadsway Bacharach medley and a contagiously joyous romp through the challenging Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vehicle Cloudburst. Balancing the wild spontaneity of a given moment with years of friendship, there will never be another Broadsway. And while there is no substitute to seeing these ladies in concert, this CD comes highly recommended.

—Ori Dagan

Concert Note:Broadsway performs on September 6 and 7 at the Flying Beaver Pubaret at 488 Parliament St.

Embrace
Lenka Lichtenberg with Fray
Sunflower Records

Bridges - Live at Lula Lounge
Lenka Lichtenberg and Roula Said
SR CD 005

Songs for the Breathing Walls
Lenka Lichtenberg
(lenkalichtenberg.com)

Fray (Free), the Czech born Toronto-based singer-songwriter Lenka Lichtenberg’s breakout 2011 album, embraced the city’s world music aesthetic and its musicians. Embrace, her outstanding new production, continues to explore and expand that artistic direction.

The title lyric of the Lichtenberg song Peace Is the Only Way is a central theme of Embrace. Its refrain is the personal motto of the Israeli violinist, oud player, songwriter and peace activist Yair Dalal. A leading musician on the global world music scene his ideals and spirit, bridging Arabic and Israeli – and other – divides, permeates this album. The spirit of peaceful coexistence among loss and struggle is also present as well in the earlier CDs, the live-off-the-floor Bridges: Live at Lula Lounge and the Songs for the Breathing Walls recorded on site in the Czech Republic.

The main directions on Embrace are multifold: world music blendings, songs in the Yiddish theatrical tradition, klezmer instrumental touches and Jewish liturgy. It’s all skilfully linked by Lichtenberg’s effective song writing and unaffected vocals, as well as very effective yet unfussy, lush-sounding, instrumentation. Yair Dalal shares co-composition credits with Lichtenberg on the atmospheric track Perfume Road which begins with an environmental recording of birds outside the recording studio backing Dalal’s free-metre Middle Eastern-inflected oud introduction, segueing seamlessly to Lichtenberg’s crystalline singing of her own Yiddish lyrics. Also to savour: the superb performances by Lichtenberg’s band, Fray, and guest musicians comprising Toronto’s world music and jazz scene A-listers, as well as those from beyond the GTA. Album guests include the well-known Hindustani sarangi player Druba Ghosh, violinist Hugh Marsh and Kevin Turcotte on trumpet.

Some of the same material is assayed in Lichtenberg and Roula Said’s 2012 release Bridges, with many of the same musicians. The major difference here is Said’s authoritative Arabic language vocal contributions and the inclusion of songs in the Arabic lineage. I moreover enjoyed the freedom and straightforward arrangements in this live concert recorded at Toronto’s Lula Lounge, as compared with the tightly sculpted Embrace studio magic. This contrast is particularly clear in the extended open-feel instrumental solos in Bridges, giving the virtuoso musicians a change to groove and express themselves.

The deeply affecting album Songs for the Breathing Walls refers to the 12 historic synagogues scattered throughout the Czech Republic whose Jewish populations were decimated by the mid-20th century Holocaust. These settings of Jewish liturgical songs reflect the varying onsite interior acoustics of the synagogues, their outside soundscapes (on track 18 Lichtenberg remarks “…birds, cars, bells…everything…”) as well as their history, intimately connected to their congregations. For instance, accompanied by a sole violin, El Maley Rachamim was recorded in a synagogue hidden within the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The personal connections are palpable in her voice: this is the place Lichtenberg’s mother and grandmothers were interned during the Second World War. The exemplary liner notes with translations of the lyrics, photos of the synagogues and notes about their history add immensely to savouring this musical experience. It’s an achievement for which Lichtenberg was honoured as Traditional Singer of the Year at the November 2012 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Espejo
Eliana Cuevas
Independent EC003
www.elianacuevas.com

In continuing her stellar trajectory as an award-winning songwriter and vocalist (2007 — Toronto Independent Music Award for World Music Artist of the Year, 2008 — nominated Canadian Folk Music Awards for Best World Music Solo, 2009 — National Jazz Award for Latin Jazz Artist of the Year), Eliana Cuevas spent the past three years creating this dynamic and soulful fourth CD release. Her partnership with producer/pianist Jeremy Ledbetter, along with a great line-up of Latin and jazz musicians including George Koller and Mark Kelso, makes for an eclectic mix of styles performed with artistry and heart.

The vocals are rich with new experience, the musical arrangements sophisticated and savvy. From the sultry blues/torch song Lamento to the quirky, playful and humourous El Tucusito with its traditional Venezuelan joropo rhythm performed at lightning speed, she and her collaborators move deftly through a great variety of moods and tempi. The first track Estrellita is most danceable — full of joy and exuberance — and the penultimate track, Melancolía, is the jewel in the crown, evoking a wistful yet deeply powerful longing in its portrayal of the hardships of immigration. All in all, a collection of songs fairly bursting with life and energy. I can’t wait for the live show.

Concert Note: Eliana Cuevas will launch Espejo at Lula Lounge on May 15.