Susana Baca, Susana Baca (Luaka Bop/WB) 9+
"Is it rhythm, merely rhythm, that moves my heart? Is it merely the rhythm of the words, the cadence of falling notes that floods me with longing, calling to me? Does rhythm have memory, can it travel through time and make the old forever new? Can it tell us of other nights, caress us? Does it have a feeling, to make us dance alive in our skin? All the songs that make up this record carry a life force flowing from the different rhythms comprising the rich and varied world of Peruvian culture. They are the ancestral rhythms of the grandparents who told us their stories, the mestizo rhythms of religious processions, the rhythms of cadence searching for words in poetry, and the eternal rhythm of the heart and celebration. Our greatest challenge is to find the one true rhythm of freedom -- something like the wind that allows a bird to fly, or a new language more powerful than speech, that holds you." -- Susana Baca.
What else is there to say? Baca, the centerpiece of David Byrne's Soul of Black Peru compilation, is a middle-aged diva producing an acoustic set that seems to draw all of Latin America (bossa nova, tango, Cuban son, Afro-Peruvian folk) into one long, sexy embrace. I think I'm in love.
