5 extraordinary Afro-Latinas musicians
Afro-Latin musicians have taken up traditions and created the music with which we identify. This is a list of five extraordinary Afro-Latinas musicians.
The Spanish Concha Buika is surprising for the power and range of her voice, the ease with which she goes from flamenco to sing boleros or jazz and her beautiful, sharp lyrics that leave the clean cut on the open flesh. She has been nominated twice for a Grammy, five times for a Latin Grammy and in 2010 won a Latin Grammy for "Best Traditional Tropical Album" for the album: "El último trago", a homage to Chavela Várgas in collaboration with pianist Chucho Valdés.
Singer, composer and virtuoso double bassist, Esperanza Spalding, has won the Grammy for best vocal jazz album twice, in 2013 for Radio Music Society and in 2020 for 12 Little Spells. At age 20, she began teaching at Berklee College of Music, the youngest instructor they have ever had.Her records show a playful style, which explores all the possibilities the voice and the double bass have and the multiple cultures she is heir to, including Brazilian music
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These two Franco-Cuban sisters took the name of their group from the Yoruba word for "twins". They sing in Yoruba, English and Spanish. Thanks to the influence of Santeria, their music is imbued with a hypnotic spirituality, regardless of the language in which they are singing, which is made more intense by the electronic percussion that accompanies their lyrics.
Nidia Góngora became known, initially singing with Quantic, in a mixture of Afro-Colombian songs and electronic sounds. She has since concentrated more on traditional Afro-Colombian instrumentation and has led the process of preserving Colombia's musical heritage through education and the creation of new music.In 2019 she was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Folk Album" with her group Canalón de Timbiquí. Góngora is one of the great matriarchs of Colombian music nowadays.
During her 89 years of life, Omara Portuondo has shared the stage with some of the most outstanding musicians of the last century, from Edith Piaf to Nat King Cole and Buenavista Social Club, the group thanks to which many of us met her. With thirty albums to her credit, the diva of Buenavista Social Club has earned her rightful place in the history of music.
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