Negro Color
Libertad's career began when she was a tot of 5. Perhaps this explains why her voice so often sounds like that of an older woman, more knowing and worldly wise than her young, lovely face might lead one to expect. She now resides in Mexico but was born in Peru, and this album explores the latter country's persistently resurgent, richly percussive African heritage. Although more pop-flavored and not so rough-and-ready as some other interpretations, her arrangements make ample use of the African-derived call-and-response vocals, squeezeboxes and percussion. But her touch remains deeply personal. She adds a fugitive taste of honey to a workers' lament and divines the nascent bitterness curled at the heart of an erotic ballad; a whiff of addictive consolation rises from a rural potion seller's sales pitch. Brazilian composer/poet Chico Buarque'sFuneral Del Labradoris a heartbreaking ode to humble lives whose ceaseless labor ends in anonymous futility.  --Christina Roden