<<Subject: Susana Baca
Hi everyone! when we talk about
"Great Black Music",
we just don't talk about Aretha
Franklin, Nina Simone,
Ma Rainey, or India Arie. We talk
about Susana Baca,
Celia Cruz, Ceasara Evora, Miriam
Makeeba, and
Virginia Rodreguez as well.
This is a story from the web.
Susana Baca's Roots Are in Peru
CHORRILLOS, Peru - Susana Baca has
traveled the world as one of her country's most famous musicians, but her inspirations
are still rooted at home in Peru's little-celebrated black culture.
Baca is arguably Peru's most recognized
musician in Europe and North America, where critics hail her as "the voice of
black Peru" and "Peru's musical ambassador to the world."
Though she hasn't generated a large
following in her own country, Baca, 55, is among the nominees at the Latin Grammy
Awards, which will be presented Sept. 18 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood,
Calif.
"There used to be a distortion of
our true history. It was as if a group of humans had been left out of reality,
or at least out of official history," she said at her home in this seaside Lima
district where she grew up.
"Our story wasn't known. We didn't
even know our own story . I didn't know about it until college, because the
books I read in high school mentioned nothing about it!"
Afro-Peruvian music is a relatively
obscure genre compared with other African-influenced music from Latin America
such as the Caribbean's salsa and Brazil's samba.
Pop star David Byrne gave Baca an
invaluable boost when he sought her out after hearing a recording of her seductive
voice. Her rendition of Peruvian classic "Maria Lando" piqued listener interest
on his record label's 1995 compilation of Afro-Peruvian music.
Baca's latest album on Byrne's Luaka
Bop label, "Espiritu Vivo," was recorded before a small audience in downtown
Manhattan in the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
She'll open a 22-date tour of the
United States and Canada on Sept. 13, with performances scheduled in New York
City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Edmonton and Calgary.
"David Byrne opened the doors of
the world for me," she said, flashing her trademark smile. "But he doesn't go
onstage with me. I have to fill my own space there."
Baca's captivating voice can handle
that by itself.
Dressed in flowing shawls and dangling
earrings, her hair cropped short and feet bare, she's enchanting onstage. Most
of her pieces are traditional Afro-Peruvian songs rearranged into jazzier, slow-tempo
versions.
"It is a very sublime form of singing,"
said Mabela Martinez, host and producer of the local radio and cable show "Sonidos
del Mundo (Sounds of the World)."
"While many singers may be more
expressive with the eyes, the face, with facial muscles, she gestures with the
soul," Martinez said.
The Spaniards first brought African
slaves to Peru in the 16th century to work gold and silver mines in the Andes
Mountains. The Africans couldn't adapt to the cold, high altitudes, so they
were moved to the coast to work cotton and sugarcane plantations. It was there,
forbidden their traditional drums and percussion instruments, that generations
of Afro-Peruvians created a musical genre by mixing old-country rhythms with
Spanish and native Indian influences.
A percussion-driven, danceable sound
emerged. The lyrics range from flirtatious love songs to beck-and-call chants
sung to confront the brutality of slavery. The ban on drums sparked an ingenuity
in creating sound. The slaves turned fruit crates on their side, sat on one
end and slapped out a beat.
The instrument's modern-day descendent,
the "cajon" or box, anchors the rhythm of Afro-Peruvian music. A donkey jaw
serves as a shaker, the teeth loosened slightly to rattle when the jawbone is
hit.
Baca , whose lifelong dedication
to Afro-Peruvian music has included treks to remote towns to learn near-extinct
rhythms and instruments , discovered another percussion instrument after accompanying
a historian to Sana, a rice-farming town on Peru's northern coast. There, she
was introduced to a 94-year-old man who played a pumpkinlike gourd as an instrument.
Baca recorded his songs and her percussionist learned the rhythms.
A song based on the old man's tunes
called "Golpe e' Tierra" or "Stomping the Ground," is included on her second
Luaka Bop album, "Eco de Sombras (Echo of Shadows)." And the gourd is now a
fixture in her stage shows.
Baca's repertoire also draws on family
traditions that she said were kept secret from the outside world for decades.
Her mother, who worked as a household servant, told her the story of the zamacueca
rhythm, which was danced around 3 a.m. after a town festival or family party.
At the end of the night, the older women who had cooked and served food all
night would gather to dance the zamacueca. "Those customs were practiced within
the family," she said. "It wasn't something you saw on television or heard on
the radio."
Baca is still largely unknown in
Peru, where her United States-produced albums are imported and cost at least
$20 , almost the weekly minimum wage in this impoverished nation. She has developed
a mostly elite following in Lima, Peru's capital,where she sings at diplomatic
parties and small nightclubs in upscale neighborhoods. "Not singing in Peru
more frustrates me very much, because I like to. It's my natural audience,"
she said.
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On the Net:
Luaka Bop's Susana Baca Web page:
http://www.luakabop.com/susana_baca/
from tha Funkoverlord files
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Kevin Amos>>