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Dates Appearing: August 15 - 17 Current Release: Lhasa |
I was born in 1972 in Big Indian, a small village in the Catskill mountains in upstate New York. My father, Alejandro Sela is Mexican but he spent the better part of his life in the US. My mother, Alexandra Karam is American but she spent half her life in Mexico.
I have three sisters, three half-sisters and three half-brothers. When she was my age my mother was an actress, today she is a photographer. My father is a professor of Spanish and literature, and is also a writer. My three sisters all work in the circus in Europe.
For seven years my parents, three sisters and I travelled throughout America and Mexico in a bus. My mother was our teacher, we had no television and we read a lot. My father listened to the American “oldies” and Mexican music, and my mother preferred world music - such as Arabic, gypsy, Latin and Japanese. Her love of dramatic music was an important influence for me.
We lived in Mexico for eight years and later moved to San Francisco where I stayed for seven years. At 13 I started singing and took lessons with a jazz singer who taught me to interpret and respect the lyrics. I sang Billie Holliday and some Mexican songs (a capella because I didn't know any musicians) in a little Greek cafe near our house. Around this time I also began to paint and sculpt. My musical influences include Billie Holliday, of course, to Chavela Vargas, Tom Waits, Cuco Sanchez, Maria Callas, Victor Jara and Jacques Brel.
During a visit to Montreal in 1991 I met Yves Desrosiers who, at that time was playing with Jean Leloup. Yves and I began playing together, focusing on the Jazz of the 1930s. In time, I returned to my roots, interpreting popular ballads from ancient Mexico, and then bassist Mario Legare joined us. We started writing together, and the results of this can be heard on the album La Llorona.
La Llorona is a legendary Mexican figure rooted in Aztec mythology. Also called Cihuacoalt, she is the wife of Quetzalcoalt (the feathered serpent that symbolizes the unification of the earth and sky). La Llorona is the wind that glides between the earth and sky, sighing and crying. Legend has it that La Llorona seduces men with her sad melodies, bewitches and lures them to the river's edge where her kiss turns them to stone. She seeks vengeance for the death of her children - children who died in wars fought by men. Even today, in Mexico, she causes fear - mothers threaten their disobedient children, that if they don't behave La Llorona will come and eat them!
This legend was a great source of inspiration for the album.
- Lhasa
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A small, smoky and crowded bar in Montreal is the stage, the lights dim and so does the talking as the bewitching voice of Lhasa de Sela casts its spell. Her inate sense of theatre grabs a hold of the audience - now caressing, now achingly sad. Lhasa's dramatic performances bring her audience to its collective feet - demanding more and more songs, each time she appears anywhere.
Lhasa first appeared on a Canadian stage in 1992, and with eyes closed and hands in pockets, she performed jazz standards accompanied by Yves Desrosiers on guitar. Now it’s 1997 - the eyes are wide open, the hands and voice embrace the emotional and savage music of Mexico and she has brought her audience along for the roller coaster ride. Lhasa and Yves have added bass and percussion to more fully compliment the music, and they work their magic wherever they play. The group’s performance on the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival captivated the large crowd.
In the spring of 1996 Lhasa, Yves and Mario began recording - but not in the traditional studio. They used a friend’s kitchen to record most of the tracks, and Lhasa's kitchen proved to have perfect acoustics for several vocal tracks. Yves, who is something of an inventor made several instruments, including a slide bass from a strip of wood and strings! This instrument is particularly striking on the last track of the album. And on De cara a la pared, the rain is used as a percussive instrument. This album is a wonderful amalgum of styles and emotions - and the meanings come through loud and clear, whether or not one understands Spanish.
France already booked Lhasa, with a five-piece band, for the prestigious Bourges Festival.
There is no-one quite like her and the word is spreading fast - Lhasa de Sela.
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