| Slantmagazine |
 Aquiet, unobtrusive album offering subtle but substantial rewards, Susana Baca's Seis Poemas presents summery South American pop stripped down to its elements, its instrumental starkness and lyrical introspection peeling most of the familiar tropical sheen off of this pleasant sound. Baca plays Afro-Peruvian music, which for the uninitiated is like bossa nova cut down to its core, leaving her voice—sometimes plaintive, sometimes celebratory—nearly alone against a bare patina of acoustic guitar and cajon. The latter instrument, a hand drum shaped like a tall box, stems from Peru's history of musical repression of its African population, which resulted in drummers making impromptu instruments out of upturned crates. This sense of loss and economy is clearly present in Baca's music, especially on Seis Poemas, which acts as a specific elegy expanded to encompass other losses. The memorial is to Peruvian singer Chabuca Granda, who died in 1983 and reminded Baca, "Don't forget, sing me" on her deathbed. But Granda is not the only one to whom Baca sings. Opening track "El Bosque Armado" remembers slain poet Javier Heraud, adopting a subdued shuffle that almost disappears under the force of Baca's voice. "Vendadito de Los Montes" has a beautiful crystal guitar line and neat vocal melodies that recall Vashti Bunyan with a unique flavor, provided by eclectic instruments like the quijada, made from the weathered jawbone of a donkey, its music the eerie rattle of the animal's teeth. Lyrics on "Los Lagartos" are borrowed from Federico Garcia Lorca, another writer killed before his time, furthering the theme of an album that honors the contributions of so many silenced voices....full text |
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| Crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault |
For most of the world, Susana Baca is the face and voice of Afro-Peru. David Byrne “discovered” her when his Spanish teacher showed him a video of Baca singing “María Landó.” The success of that track on the compilation CD The Soul of Black Peru, the first Afro-Peruvian music widely available in the States, generated enough interest to convince Byrne to sign Baca to Luaka Bop. Baca’s subtly passionate vocals, and the Afro-Peruvian groove of her band, introduced the music of Afro-Peru to the United States and Europe.
In Peru, Afro-Peruvian music is known as Música Criolla (Creole Music) and is popular in two forms: The polished, commercial style of singers like Eva Ayllon and the more folkloric style typified by the traditional dance group Perú Negro and Baca. Afro-Peruvian music’s unique character is due to the attempt of the Spanish colonial government to ban drumming in Peru’s slave communities starting in the 1700s. They hoped to squash the memories of African culture that slaves carried with them. Instead, the slaves pounded out rhythms on packing crates, which evolved into today’s cajón, cajitas (lidded boxes used in Catholic churches for making collections), and the quijada de burro, a donkey jawbone with the teeth loosened to produce a sound that’s a cross between a shakere and a güiro. They also adopted the guitar, but played it in a melodic way to provide a response to the lead singer’s vocals. The rhythms the community developed, including the landó, festejo, and vals, blend African, European, and Latin elements in unique, but strangely familiar ways. In the late ’60s, the style almost died out due to the racism of mainstream Peruvian culture and the Afro-Peruvian desire to assimilate. When people started putting the poems of Afro-Peruvian poets to music, it helped lead to a rebirth of interest in the form. The success of Perú Negro in 1969 made Afro-Peruvian music a viable sub-genre of Peruvian pop and got young people interested in carrying on traditional forms....full text |
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| Blurt-online |
Spanish non-speakers are at something of a disadvantage with Susana Baca's new EP, which interprets the songs of Peru's Chabuca Granda and (on one track) adapts the verse of Spain's Federico Garcia Lorca. The lyrics of all six songs are translated on the CD's inside cover, but it's easier to appreciate the poetry of Baca's voice when not following along with the cheat sheet.
Granda, who died in 1983, was one of the first Peruvian poet-songwriters to integrate the various strains of her country's culture, African and Andean as well as European. Baca is Afro-Peruvian, and her music often suggests Brazil, the continent's best-known exporter of musical styles. For Seis Poemas, the singer has chosen spare arrangements, without the chattering polyrhythms of her previous work. Yet these hushed songs have plenty of drive, even when Baca is accompanied by only flute and drum on "Los Lagartes" (which sets a Lorca poem about anthropomorphic lizards)....full text |
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