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Susana Baca (Peru)
Song : La noche y el dΓa
Album : EspΓritu Vivo (Luaka Bop, UK)
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As world music divas go, Susana Baca is rivalled only by Omara Portuondo and Cesaria Evora. But perhaps that label is misleading, since Baca is given to neither Shirley Bassey-style bravura nor blithely theatrical mid-show cigarette breaks. Hers is a gentle but still passionate art. She cuts a graceful figure on stage in her trademark flowing robes. A smile is rarely far from her lips when not singing, and when she is, her eyes are clamped shut as she traces slow abstract arcs with bare feet.
The world knew little of Susana or her Afro-Peruvian heritage before 1995, when she was brought to wider attention by the enthusiastic patronage of David Byrne through his Luaka Bop label. It's partly to his credit that she has been able to perpetuate these traditions, both locally and internationally, taking unique musical forms like the halting landΓ³ and lively festejo into the twenty first century without diluting their essence.
She's also had the advantage of a stable partnership with her musical director and double bass player David Pinto for the last seven years. With one proverbial eye on tradition and the other wandering inquisitively into vaguely experimental territory, they keep their music vibrant and engaging. Alongside distinctively ornate but never overwrought acoustic guitar, the band play a variety of oddly beautiful Peruvian percussion instruments like the cahΓ³n (box-drum), the checo, a hollowed-out pumpkin skin and the extraordinary quijada, which is a rattle made from a donkey's jaw bone. Complete with teeth.
It's twenty years since Susana independently released her first cassette of poetry set to music, having been knocked back many times by Lima's established record companies. The city's tiny Afro-Peruvian community has long had a disproportionate influence on the national musical psyche, yet Susana grew up learning little of her own culture from the institutions she passed through. So she decided to set up her own Instituto Negro Continuo in part of her home, inspiring young Afro-Peruvians to rediscover their roots through music.
She also recorded her second internationally released album in the same house in 1999. Further contributions were added later by a number of New York based musicians including Latinophile electric guitar wizard Marc Ribot and chameleonesque keyboardist John Medeski. This collaboration was achieved in person on Susana's recent quasi-live album EspΓritu Vivo. It was recorded with the same musicians just down the road from Ground Zero, some of it the day after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, which nearly scuppered the project.
'I was afraid I wouldn't have the voice to sing,' Susana recalls. 'But after I started singing, I realised again the power of song to heal. And in the end, love is the thing that succeeds.'
Jon Lusk 2002
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