Lila Downs - Shake Away (2008) Re-up

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Lila Downs - Shake Away (2008) Re-up

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Lila Downs' Shake Away is easily the most polished and refined release since she released Ofrenda in 1994. By turns, it is also the most ambitious. Co-produced by Downs, longtime collaborators Paul Cohen, Brian Lynch, and Aneiro Taño, these 16 songs (13 plus three bonus cuts) are a wild mix of cumbias, folks songs, rancheras, blues, and rock tunes that are originals and covers. The latter include an excellent and wildly unusual reading of "Black Magic Woman" with songwriter/guitarist Raul Midón. There is a fine version of Paul Buchanan's (of Blue Nile fame) "I Would Never," and a stunning version of Lucinda Williams' "I Envy the Wind" (offered twice – in Spanish and in English) with a fine muted trumpet solo by Brian Lynch. Her jumping take on the traditional "Los Pollos" is sung with Mono Blanco's Gilberto Guiterrez, and on "Justicia," Downs is joined by Spanish rocker Enrique Bunbury. The great Israeli-American jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen also helps out on three cuts. Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega (also known as "Ixaya Mazatzin Tleytól" of Café Tacuba) helps out on her original "Perro Negro" ("Black Dog"), a mystical, folk-drenched polka that references corrupt leaders in Latin America – but could stand in for them anywhere. That said, the most rewarding collaborative effort on the set is the duet between Downs and the great Mercedes Sosa on Downs' "Tierra de Luz." But duets and collaboration aren't the only focus of this album; in fact, it's a sprawling set of tunes whose reach is almost limitless: "Silent Thunder" employs both reggae and funk but combines them with traditionally informed Mixtec chants. The skittering, scattershot blues of "Minimum Wage" offers a new element in Downs' recorded vocabulary – with great guitar work by Ken Basman and Juancho Herrera. Downs' band, a sextet that includes Paul Cohen on saxophones and clarinet, the great Mexican multi-instrumentalist Celso Duarte, Rob Curto on accordion, Herrera on guitars, bassist Booker King, Chilean drummer/percussionist Yayo, and Columbian percussionist Samuel Torres prove an international cast of players who all speak Downs' ambitious multi-textural, trans-genre brand of music that, at this messy juncture in history, blurs all the lines to offer a massively appealing aural entity. Despite her wide-reaching compositions, and the referencing of American and British pop artists, Downs is no less political, and makes no compromises. One listen to her originals confirms and underscores this. This is the record we've been waiting for from Downs; it succeeds on all fronts and deepens her canon immeasurably.

by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

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Lila Downs Biography:

Singer Lila Downs grew up with the culture of her father, a professor from the United States, but eventually turned her back on it to explore the tradition of her mother, a Mixteca Indian from Mexico. In doing so, she has created a very individual strain of song that has indigenous Mexican roots and North American sonorities. Born in 1968, she spent her early years in Mexico, but after her parents split up, she was shuffled off to live with a relative in California. She grew to love music, specifically classical and opera, and began studying those in college. After two years, however, she experienced a crisis, questioning why she was singing and dropping out to become a Deadhead, following the Grateful Dead around the country in a VW bus and earning money by making and selling jewelry, and not singing at all.

Although not particularly moved by the Dead's music, she enjoyed the lifestyle for a short time, before heading back to college in Minnesota, where her father lived. When she finally graduated, it was with a double degree, in anthropology and voice, and a renewed enthusiasm for both her Mexican heritage and singing. Settling in her mother's hometown of Oaxaca, she began vocalizing again, and exploring her roots, while realizing that she was still half Yankee. She met up with Philadelphia-based jazz pianist Paul Cohen, and the pair began a professional and personal relationship whose first fruit was the self-released, cassette-only Ofrenda in 1994. That was followed two years later by another cassette, the live Azuláo: En Vivo con Lida Downs, one of whose songs won Best Original Latin Jazz Composition in a Philadelphia poll.

Along with jazz, she was slowly developing a more intense, folkloric style that began to rear its head on 1997's La Sandunga (released in the U.S. on BMG in 1999), whose title track and "La Llorana" offered a hearty passion not to be heard on her jazzier efforts. That vocal promise was fulfilled in 2000 with the release of Tree of Life, the lyrics of which were largely derived from the religious codices of the Mixteca and Zapotec people. The album was recorded in Oaxaca, where Downs and Cohen were sustained by a foundation grant, although their home base remains Mexico City. Tree of Life was also her first recording for the the Narada label, where she would remain for eight years. The next year, Downs issued Border (La Linea). In 2004 Una Sangre (One Blood) was released, followed by 2006's La Cantina, whose song "La Cumbia del Mole" presented the singer with the opportunity to make her first-ever music video. Downs and her band released her final album for the Narada imprint, Ojo de Culebra, in 2008, and followed it up with Lila Downs y la Misteriosa en Paris - Live à FIP on World Village in 2010.

by Chris Nickson, All Music Guide

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Мексиканская фолк-певица. Родилась в 1968г. в шт. Оахака (Мексика). Отец - американец, мать - представительница одного из индейских племен Мексики. После развода родителей Lila переехала в штат Калифорния (США). В детстве изучала классическую музыку и оперный вокал. В юности примкнула к группе поклонников амер. психоделик-рок-группы «GRATEFUL DEAD, The» - «Deadheads» - и вместе с ней ездила по стране. Затем изучала вокал и антропологию в одном из колледжей шт. Миннесота, США, где работал ее отец. После окончания обучения поселилась вместе с матерью в Оахаке, где начала карьеру певицы в сотрудничестве с амер. джазовым пианистом и композитором Paul Cohen из Филадельфии. В 1994г. самостоятельно выпустила свою первую запись - кассету «Ofrenda». В 2000г. вышел первый альбом певицы «Tree of Life», записанный в Оахаке в сотрудничестве с Paul Cohen. Материал альбома был написан на основе религиозных преданий мексиканских индейских племен миштеки и сапотеки.

~ Last Fm

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Lila Downs - Shake Away (2008) Re-up

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