Palabras Urgentes

Album review

The Peruvian Susana Baca appeared on the international scene at the end of the 1990s, during that golden age for world music when Cesária Evora and the Buena Vista Social Club were also making waves. With her repertoire drawn from Afro-Latin culture, she was of the same calibre, already in her fifties at the time, but with the promise of a young girl in her voice. The first two have left, but Baca is still there, still singing as just starting out. That's the enchanting thing about this album: that clear and cooing diction, the youthful voice that transforms ancient songs into glasses of champagne for the ears.

Although an ethnomusicologist by training, Susana Baca is not interested in museum pieces. Palabras Urgentes is all about sharing pleasure and emotions. Around this voice, violins, piano, guitars and percussions dance like a ballet of birds in a cloudless sky. Produced by American Michael League of Snarky Puppy, Palabras Urgentes has the elegant, timeless and nostalgia-free class of a great Cuban or Argentinean vintage. The beginnings of this double-act between Michael League and Susana Baca date back to 2016, with two songs on Snarky Puppy's album Family Dinner - volume II. The collaboration was successful, and here it reaches graceful heights. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz