A rtist: Mariana Montalvo Title: Piel de Aceituna (Olive-Skinned) Label: World Village (www.worldvillagemusic.com) Like many musicians from Chile, Mariana Montalvo was forced into exile when Augusto Pinochet took power in a military coup. Montalvo moved to Paris but keeps alive the nueva canción tradition—a South American musical movement that emerged in the 1960s and ’70s. Piel de Aceituna, Montalvo’s September 14th release on World Village, mixes havaneras and brass band with adaptations of Chilean poems. Her new CD comes just in time for Putumayo Presents Latinas: Women of Latin America, a 28-city tour with Montalvo, Colombia’s Totó La Momposina, and Brazil’s Belo Vellôso, running from October 8 through November 23, 2004 (see attached tour dates). The tour coincides with the September 21st Putumayo release of Women of Latin America, featuring Montalvo, Momposina, Vellôso and eight other exceptional women artists. Montalvo follows in the footsteps of such great Latin American singers as Mercedes Sosa—an Argentinean who boosted indigenous song forms and gave voice to the marginalized poor—and Victor Jara—a Chilean who was murdered at the hands of the Pinochet regime. These anchors of nueva canción were inspired by the tradition of payadores—itinerant rural poets—composing new songs in their style and using traditional Andean instruments such as the charango, a small guitar often made from the shell of an armadillo; the quena, a notched end-blown flute; and the zampoña, or pan pipes. The lyrical style frequently addressed an emerging Latin American identity, sometimes directly, but often poetically or through allegory. Piel de Aceituna (Olive-Skinned) is based in this tradition but also combines other elements. The opening reggae track, Sud’ Americano, says, “Behind the beautiful jungles / Gorged like the full moon / With all the wisdom of the poor / Etched into his very bones / Sweats the South American sweats, sweats / Sweats the South American sweats, sweats.” Montalvo continues the musical relationship between Chile and France that was born in 1965 in Santiago when the legendary Peña de los Parra modeled itself after a Paris chanson nightclub. You can hear the chanson elements of instrumentation and arrangement on the CD, and even an adaptation of Jacques Brel’s “La Canción de los Amantes (The Lover’s Song).” This French connection is rooted in Paris’ adoption of nueva canción predecessors Atahualpa Yupanqui and Violetta Parra. On “Encuentro (The Meeting),” Montalvo is joined by Congolese singer Lokua Kanza for a cross-cultural encounter that says, “Black you / Like a moonless night/ White me / Like this same moon.” Throughout the album, the soul of the continent is exposed and a sense of humor represents the sweat and gold of South America. Montalvo’s singing—sometimes personal and often festive—is supported by music that rejects all tropicalisms and claims itself as clearly South American. Mariana Montalvo’s strength lies in the preservation of sounds and spirit, and her mix of modernity and tradition. Montalvo’s Cantos del Alma was released on Putumayo in 2000. She is also featured on the Putumayo compilation Latinas. Back to top

Artist: Jaojoby Title: Malagasy Label: World Village (www.worldvillagemusic.com) “I don’t sing,” proudly proclaims Jaojoby, the “King of Salegy,” upbeat dance music from Madagascar. “I shout! I am very influenced by James Brown.” Jaojoby’s new album, Malagasy, was released on World Village on August 10, 2004, and was accompanied by a month-long North American tour starting July 28 hitting Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland (OR), Chicago, and several other towns. In Madagascar - an island nation east of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean - salegy is very popular and Jaojoby is its acknowledged monarch. Born at the end of the ‘60s around the time the nation became independent from the French, salegy is electric music with no debt to the West. The compelling 6/8 rhythm, which descends from traditional, ancestral Malagasy music forms, entrances dancers. It is said to date back to the 15th century when humans first settled on the “Red Island.” The term salegy, of Indonesian origins, emerged in the 1960s and refers to a new, electric music once Malagasy guitarists transposed popular and traditional music from instruments like the tube-zither called the valiha. “We play folklore music that we have electrified,” says Jaojoby. “If we take away the electricity, it would be like the music of our ancestors. We have only added it to get people to dance; to get moreÖ [wide smile] decibels.” Before Jaojoby and a few others popularized the sound in the 1970s, there were few salegy recordings, and they were only instrumental. Jaojoby, the band, is a family affair with Jaojoby’s wife Claudine on vocals, son Elie Lucas on guitar, and daughters Roseliane and Eusebia singing and dancing. And dancing is a big part of the show. “I used to sing in a hotel,” recalls Jaojoby. “We had cha cha cha, the jerk, and that kind of thing. And then we began to introduce the Malagasy 6/8 folk music into our shows. I remember the French called it the ëcow dance.’ Why? Traditionally the dance is done in a circle, a sort of walking to the beat. So it reminded them of how the cows plow the fields. But now we have updated the dance too.” Ask Eusebia what she and her sister have done to update the dance and she says, “We have choreographed it more, which isn’t easy since the beat doesn’t change that much.” Press her more and she hesitates to answer and looks at her father. Jaojoby’s smile surfaces once again as he says, “They made it sexy!” Back to top

Artist: Kitka Title: Wintersongs Label: Diaphonica Recordings Kitka is a women’s vocal ensemble unlike any other. These eight sophisticated singers blend a contemporary sensibility with specialized vocal techniques from Eastern Europe that have been distilled over centuries. This December they launch a nine-city Wintersongs tour along with their latest CD and companion songbook also called Wintersongs (Diaphonica Recordings) featuring repertoire ranging from Bulgaria to Belarus, from Georgia to Greece. Photo: Mark Kane While many of the songs that Kitka will perform on the tour have a holiday theme, many are also thought to have pre-Christian origins celebrating the solstice. Just as cultures outside of Europe have integrated newer Christian beliefs with existing older nature-centered traditions, the same is true in Eastern Europe, giving the repertoire an earthy and exotic feel, offering a broader appeal than if it were simply liturgical music. As Andrew Gilbert wrote in the Mercury News (San Jose, CA), “While the themes running through ‘Wintersongs’ are largely universal, the lush haunting harmonies, hints of dissonance and unusual time signatures serves as a vivid reminder that we inhabit a big, wondrous world, one in which holiday music needn’t consist of numbing Christmas Muzak.” For example the song “Alilo,” from the Racha region of Georgia is traditionally sung on Christmas Eve by roaming masked carolers who are rewarded with drink and treats. Alilo is related to the Hebrew word allelujah, but some ethnomusicologists believe this song and caroling ritual are rooted in more ancient seasonal customs that predate Georgia’s conversion to Christianity in the fourth century. Similarly, the Bulgarian word for Christmas or Koleda—which is referred to in the song “Zamuchi Se Bozha Majka”—has origins in the ancient Roman winter Kolendae festival, dedicated to the beginning of the solar year. Koljada was also the name of the old Slavic winter-god. This song makes reference to the day of the Christ child’s baptism. Traditionally in the Balkans, young men would toss wooden crosses into icy rivers, and then dive in to retrieve them, while their elders collected bottles of sanctified healing water on the riverbanks. “The music taps into something really essential and ancient,” says Kitka vocalist and executive director Shira Cion. “You think about the solstice and the nights, which are dark and cold and long. A lot of our songs either encapsulate that winter mood or bring a contrasting spirit of warmth, light, and jubilation to it.” Using only the pure unaccompanied voice, Kitka—which is also a Bulgarian and Macedonian word for “bouquet” that is frequently used in Balkan women’s songs—creates a constantly shifting landscape of sound, pulsing with angular rhythms, where dramatic dynamics leap from delicate stillness to shattering resonance, and seamless unisons explode into lush incomprehensible chords. The origins of these vocal techniques are in the fields and hillsides of the Balkans, Caucasus, Baltics, and Slavic lands, where the songs had to alternately carry across great distances or be used in intimate community settings. “Much of Kitka’s repertoire utilizes an ‘open voice’ technique that contrasts markedly from Western classical ‘Bel Canto’ style and more familiar folk style,” Cion explains. “The open voice has a very forward placement, with lots of vibration in the mask of the face. The entire human body acts as a chamber for resonance producing a very big sound, rich with overtones. The sound is something like a ‘belt’ but more focused, penetrating, and shimmering. It is actually a style of vocalization that is much closer to speech than to what we typically think of as singing. Vibrato is less a part of the tone and more used as ornamentation. And there is a huge vocabulary of intricate ornamentation in each regional style.” Kitka’s material ranges from ancient village chants to complex contemporary works. The sound of their voices is exotic, both elegant and eerie. The melodies are hauntingly beautiful and the ensemble’s seamless blend of eight very unique voices is extraordinary. As a review in The Oregonian put it, “Only a Slavic folk tune, after all, can express bliss in a minor key, agony in jaunty dance rhythms. The languages in which they sing are largely unfamiliar to American ears. It is exactly this unfamiliarity that is so riveting, as Kitka’s sensitive precision lifts their work out of the merely musical into a universe beyond words, an experience that is primal and elemental.” Back to top   This website: Copyright © 2004 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.