I would not want to be the guy who tells Magdalena Montañéz Salazar, ‘La Marelu’, that he doesn’t love her anymore; even her heartbroken desperation sounds like there might be a dagger hidden in her decolletage. Or maybe I would want to be that guy (or girl), because then, before I died, she would sing to me like she does here.
Read MoreIt is hard for me to think of a performer whose life and art covered more ground in a shorter time than Lupe Victoria Yolí Raymond, La yiyiyí, La Lupe, the Queen of Latin Soul. Let’s put it this way: when they retire a fairly common Hispanic name like Lupe in the world of Latin American popular music, it’s like retiring a player’s number in the NBA. You get my point.
Read MoreChavela Vargas died in 2012, leaving the world without that voice that Pedro Almodóvar, who featured her in his film La flor de mi secreto (My secret’s flower), called la voz áspera de la ternura (the rough voice of tenderness). She was born in Costa Rica, where she worked as a street musician, singing and accompanying herself on the acoustic guitar; only in her thirties did she begin to sing in clubs and, finally, to record.
Read MoreFado is a sort of Portuguese blues that contains elements from traditional Cape Verdean music, and the songs nearly always mournfully contemplate lost love, death and the full range of dark emotions. The elegant Ana Moura is one of its primary exponents in the world today and, in addition to having caught the attention of Prince, she also recorded with The Rolling Stones. But her popularity with rockstars is not why she’s on my list of favorites.
Read MoreAll through Andalusia, from the rock of Jaén to the snail’s-shell of Cadiz, people constantly talk about the duende and recognize it wherever it appears with a fine instinct. That wonderful singer El Lebrijano, creator of the Debla, said: ‘On days when I sing with duende no one can touch me.’
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