Habana-Bahia

The cities of Havana and Salvador are widely regarded as epicentres of Afro-Latin musical culture – at the head of a shortlist that would include Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Cuba. As port cities with a powerful slave heritage and as political capitals (Salvador was the first capital of colonial Brazil), they have the large populations, diverse talent pool and sheer self-confidence to create new musics and form cultural bridges.

Canny Cuban-Swiss singer, violinist and educator (and environmentalist and UN spokesperson) Yilian Cañizares is perhaps particularly well placed to explore these connections and create new ones, with ten years of live shows and four well-received studio albums behind her. Habana-Bahia’s opener ‘Oxum’ begins with spoken word and almost sidles into life, weaving layers of ethereal voice around a loose, speculative melody and drifting drumbeat. The pace picks up, with the sassy sway of ‘Lo Que Tiene Que Llegar’ and the uber-cool title-track, on which her taut five-piece band are helped by guest Rolando Luna’s jamming piano and Udi Santos’ slick rap. The arrangements and Cañizares’ vocals take from Afro-Cuban, tropicália, funk, Latin jazz and the Yoruba religious repertoire that binds coastal Brazil to Cuba. Her many collaborations with stellar artists such as Chucho Valdés, Omar Sosa and Michael League are paying off handsomely – but she always imposes her own style and attitude on the material and conjures up something new and full of sparkling energy.