093074024126
093074024119

Vari-colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes

Leyla McCalla

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Format: LP

Cat No: SFW40241LP

Release Date:  16 October 2020

Label:  Smithsonian Folkways

Packaging Type:  Digipak

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  093074024126

Genres:  Americana  American Folk  

Release Date:  16 October 2020

Label:  Smithsonian Folkways

Packaging Type:  Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  093074024119

Genres:  Americana  American Folk  

  • Description

    Leyla McCalla's 'Vari-Colored Songs' is a celebration of the complexity of Black culture and identity, and a tribute to the legacy of poet and thinker Langston Hughes. A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, McCalla sets Hughes' poems to her own spare yet profound compositions. She juxtaposes these with arrangements of folk songs from Haiti, the first independent Black nation and the homeland of her parents, tapping into the nuances of Black experience. McCalla's music elegantly weaves Haitian influences together with American folk music, just as Hughes incorporated Black vernacular into his remarkable poetry, and the way the Haitian Kreyòl is a beacon for the survival of African identity through the brutal legacy of colonialism. This is music of reclamation, imbued with a quiet power that grapples with the immense weight of history.

    Description

    Leyla McCalla's 'Vari-Colored Songs' is a celebration of the complexity of Black culture and identity, and a tribute to the legacy of poet and thinker Langston Hughes. A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, McCalla sets Hughes' poems to her own spare yet profound compositions. She juxtaposes these with arrangements of folk songs from Haiti, the first independent Black nation and the homeland of her parents, tapping into the nuances of Black experience. McCalla's music elegantly weaves Haitian influences together with American folk music, just as Hughes incorporated Black vernacular into his remarkable poetry, and the way the Haitian Kreyòl is a beacon for the survival of African identity through the brutal legacy of colonialism. This is music of reclamation, imbued with a quiet power that grapples with the immense weight of history.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Heart Of Gold
      • 2. When I Can See The Valley
      • 3. Mèsi Bondye
      • 4. Girl
      • 5. Kamèn Sa W Fè?
      • 6. Too Blue
      • 7. Manman Mwen
      • 8. Song For A Dark Girl
      • 9. As I Grew Older / Dreamer
      • 10. Love Again Blues
      • 11. Rose Marie
      • 12. Latibonit
      • 13. Search
      • 14. Lonely House
      • 15. Changing Tide

    Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Heart Of Gold
      • 2. When I Can See The Valley
      • 3. Mèsi Bondye
      • 4. Girl
      • 5. Kamèn Sa W Fè?
      • 6. Too Blue
      • 7. Manman Mwen

      Side 2

      • 1. Song For A Dark Girl
      • 2. Love Again Blues
      • 3. Rose Marie
      • 4. Latibonit
      • 5. Search
      • 6. Lonely House
      • 7. Changing Tide