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In Colonial Days
The music of this (supposed) post-imperialist age.
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Philadelphia Weekly, In Colonial Days
The music of this (supposed) post-imperialist age. >>
by Liz Spikol
Americans do not traffic in subtlety. Any music that doesn't come from us is called "world music," sometimes with a capital "W" (the world is large, after all). This will always be ridiculous, no matter how many record bins bear those words, or how many publicists call me and say, "Do you do world?" (Baby, do I.) My favorite anti-colonialist of those bygone grad-school days wrote something about the U.S. I'll never forget: "We talk to ourselves about ourselves, believing in a grand hallucination that we are talking with others." Well, at least the releases below hold out hope for the permeability of borders, musical and otherwise.
YUSA
Tumi
Yusa is being positioned by her label as the "new voice" of Cuba, "proof that not everyone in Cuba is making music like their grandaddy!" Proof to whom? Ry Cooder? Yusa is "a young black woman," as her press says, which implies that she's young--and also black. And female, besides. Beyond that, she possesses a smooth, deep voice with a nervous vibrato--perfect for a heartbreaking rendition of "God Bless the Child," but not for belting out hits. This girl is quiet, and so are the songs she writes, which move from shades of Antonio Carlos Jobim's soundtracks to midtempo arrangements that could have come straight out of Chick Corea's playbook. Piano, guitar, bass (she plays 'em all) and brushed drums surround her spare compositions, with lyrics that have beautiful turns of phrase that simply don't translate ("watch out--modernity will use you like a garment"). At her worst, Yusa sounds like she's Bobby McFerrin with Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles band playing backup--and that is bad, I know. But most of the tracks on this debut CD shimmer. Which means, to us Americans, she may be just about ready to cross over. 10/16/02 >> go there
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