Erzulie

Yilian Cañizares’ credentials are impeccable: born in Havana, she mastered violin in Caracas’ El Sistema programme, debuted dashingly at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2008, and has since collaborated with Omar Sosa, Youn Sun Nah, Chucho Valdés, Roberto Fonseca, Ibrahim Maalouf and many others. More important than the CV, she has a uniquely emotive vocal style that is breathy but never merely ‘sensuous,’ that is feminine yet also feminist, and that performs quite breathtaking changes of pitch, pace and texture. Her fourth album builds on the confidence and versatility acquired working with a wide range of artists, and finds her in expressive but refined mode. She emotes but never gushes. Rich arrangements swirl around her voice but never subdue it. Her violin is used sparingly but to powerful effect in delicious harmonies with a small army of African-American and Afro-Caribbean virtuosos. Erzulie is a family of goddesses in the Haitian voodoo pantheon, driven and empowered by desire. From opener ‘Habanera’ to the wildly percussive, scat-filled ‘Cimarrón’, and from ‘Noyé’, a sublime duet with Paul Beaubrun, to the solemn title-track, this is an alchemical and bewitching album.