Lullabies Of Latin America
Gifted with a gracefully pliant midrange soprano, stellar recording artist Maria Del Rey here turns her attention to lullabies and to an immersion of culture and language with Latin American poems adapted and translated for this purpose. Del Rey delivers the first half ofLullabies of Latin Americain the gently fluid tones of Spanish, then follows up in the second half with a repeat of the same songs sung in English. Del Rey's cello, piano, and acoustic guitar figure prominently, and she is also accompanied by a talented group of musicians on percussion, strings, flute, and oboe, as well as on Peruvian harp, panpipes, and other traditional Latin American instrumentation. "Duerme Clave" and its English counterpart, "Sleep Rosie Flower," are particularly engaging, featuring soft piano and elegant lines of Spanish classical guitar. "San Augustine" and its correlation are gorgeously slumber-inducing duets. With their unhindered capacity for linguistics, wee ones will be sweetly singing along with both versions in no time.--Paige La Grone