by Leyla McCalla (Dixie Frog DFG 8752 CD)
Singer and instrumentalist Leyla McCalla – she favours the cello, though banjos and guitars are runners-up – used to sit on milk crates playing Bach in the streets of New Orleans. Then she was being pointed towards Music Maker, a programme supporting the musical folk traditions of the American South. Bach hasn’t much to do with the American South but McCalla, born in New York of Haitian parents, is a musician steeped in multivalent ideas. Relocating – physically and musically – to New Orleans sees her immersed in a tradition that encompasses the city’s zydeco sounds as well as music from black Creole, Cajun and Haitian backgrounds.
