Lila Downs Voice of Mexican Tradition and Soul
Published in Vallarta Tribune
By Christie Seeley
vallartasounds.com
My first exposure to Mexican American singer Lila Downs was back in 2010, on my first visit to the City of Oaxaca. In the bar of Casa Oaxaca, a wonderful restaurant near the beautiful Santo Domingo de Guzman temple, I enjoyed my very first mezcal before being seated for dinner. They were playing some incredible music in the bar and I asked the waiter who was singing. “Lila Downs!” he exclaimed with obvious pride as Oaxaca was very proud of her and with good reason. On that trip I bought her latest CD called La Sandunga and played it non stop for a long time afterward. My family also loves her music and we have made a point of seeing her concerts each time she visits our area. I visited Oakland last week to attend her concert for the 2019 San Francisco Jazz Festival with them.
San Francisco has an impressive Jazz Foundation with devoted supporters and followers. Seven years ago they funded and built the first free standing auditorium in America exclusively dedicated to Jazz and due to my absences this would be my first visit to the wonderfully thought out hall. The design created by Mark Cavagnero feels intimate while accommodating a large audience of up to 700 people and the acoustics provided by the sound system designed by Meyer Sound Laboratories are fabulous. This was the best Lila Downs performance I have attended. The band was made up of a wonderful selection of musicians on guitar, bass, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, drums, cajón and African percussion representing areas as distant as New York, Seattle, Jamaica, Chile and of course Mexico. Lila’s presentation was outstanding in costume, expression and style and her operatically trained voice was clear and forceful. She radiates her Mexican heritage and pride and transmitted that feeling to her fully engaged international fans.
Beginning with favorites from her new CD, her spirited version of the Peruvian Cumbia by Anibal Rosado Cariñito, and the moving Las Marmotas that pays tribute to a music director who was victim of violence in which she asked us to rise above adversity putting vengeance aside and soar like the eagle. She moved on to inspired versions of traditional pieces like the Jarocho favorite La Iguana with all the traditional instruments including accompaniment on the jawbone of burro, jaranas and, of course, the inspired zapateado dance. She brought the audience to tears with her moving rendition of Oaxacan La Sandunga singing “daughter, when I die, don’t cry, sing to me a Sandunga and I will live on forever”. When she presented the all time classic La Llorona, I truly understood the cultural nuances from the Spanish and indigenous peoples fully for the first time. Her inspired pleas for respect and justice for her brave people in her poignant cover of Manu Chao’s Clandestino urging us to save the children at the border and the song of resignation to life much of which she sings in her native indgenious language Los Caminos de la Vida by Vicentico, were moving and full of love. Lila is definitely a great ambassador for her native land spreading a poignant message filled with joy and pride.
The pieces from her new CD are fun filled and representative of her roots. Her native Oaxaca with its Chile and mezcal were celebrated with El Son del Chile Frito and Dos Botellas de Mezcal giving rise to spirited dancing and participation from an ecstatic crowd. An extended encore brought the audience and performers even closer, creating a truely celebratory atmosphere.
Lila will return to Oakland, California on October 12, 2019 for a Day of the Dead celebration. Watch for her performances in Mexico and elsewhere as she is absolutely in a class of her own. She purposely avoids a “mainstream” image preferring to spread her message her own way. Her new CD Al Chile is available on iTunes as well as other sources.
For further details visit my website vallartasounds.com
Published in Vallarta Tribune
By Christie Seeley
vallartasounds.com
My first exposure to Mexican American singer Lila Downs was back in 2010, on my first visit to the City of Oaxaca. In the bar of Casa Oaxaca, a wonderful restaurant near the beautiful Santo Domingo de Guzman temple, I enjoyed my very first mezcal before being seated for dinner. They were playing some incredible music in the bar and I asked the waiter who was singing. “Lila Downs!” he exclaimed with obvious pride as Oaxaca was very proud of her and with good reason. On that trip I bought her latest CD called La Sandunga and played it non stop for a long time afterward. My family also loves her music and we have made a point of seeing her concerts each time she visits our area. I visited Oakland last week to attend her concert for the 2019 San Francisco Jazz Festival with them.
San Francisco has an impressive Jazz Foundation with devoted supporters and followers. Seven years ago they funded and built the first free standing auditorium in America exclusively dedicated to Jazz and due to my absences this would be my first visit to the wonderfully thought out hall. The design created by Mark Cavagnero feels intimate while accommodating a large audience of up to 700 people and the acoustics provided by the sound system designed by Meyer Sound Laboratories are fabulous. This was the best Lila Downs performance I have attended. The band was made up of a wonderful selection of musicians on guitar, bass, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, drums, cajón and African percussion representing areas as distant as New York, Seattle, Jamaica, Chile and of course Mexico. Lila’s presentation was outstanding in costume, expression and style and her operatically trained voice was clear and forceful. She radiates her Mexican heritage and pride and transmitted that feeling to her fully engaged international fans.
Beginning with favorites from her new CD, her spirited version of the Peruvian Cumbia by Anibal Rosado Cariñito, and the moving Las Marmotas that pays tribute to a music director who was victim of violence in which she asked us to rise above adversity putting vengeance aside and soar like the eagle. She moved on to inspired versions of traditional pieces like the Jarocho favorite La Iguana with all the traditional instruments including accompaniment on the jawbone of burro, jaranas and, of course, the inspired zapateado dance. She brought the audience to tears with her moving rendition of Oaxacan La Sandunga singing “daughter, when I die, don’t cry, sing to me a Sandunga and I will live on forever”. When she presented the all time classic La Llorona, I truly understood the cultural nuances from the Spanish and indigenous peoples fully for the first time. Her inspired pleas for respect and justice for her brave people in her poignant cover of Manu Chao’s Clandestino urging us to save the children at the border and the song of resignation to life much of which she sings in her native indgenious language Los Caminos de la Vida by Vicentico, were moving and full of love. Lila is definitely a great ambassador for her native land spreading a poignant message filled with joy and pride.
The pieces from her new CD are fun filled and representative of her roots. Her native Oaxaca with its Chile and mezcal were celebrated with El Son del Chile Frito and Dos Botellas de Mezcal giving rise to spirited dancing and participation from an ecstatic crowd. An extended encore brought the audience and performers even closer, creating a truely celebratory atmosphere.
Lila will return to Oakland, California on October 12, 2019 for a Day of the Dead celebration. Watch for her performances in Mexico and elsewhere as she is absolutely in a class of her own. She purposely avoids a “mainstream” image preferring to spread her message her own way. Her new CD Al Chile is available on iTunes as well as other sources.
For further details visit my website vallartasounds.com
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