July 19, Monday, 9.30 pm
Çeþme Castle
SONGS EMBRACING MELANCHOLY
BUIKA
"EL ULTIMO TRAGO" TOUR
Buika, vocal
Ivan “Melon” Lewis, piano
Fernando Favier, percussion
Danny Noel, double bass
“An artist is not a person who sings or paints, but someone who turns their life into art” Buika
She was born in 1972 in Palma de Mallorca, the city where her family lives, after coming from Guinea Ecuatorial. Her mother taught her to listen to the great voices of jazz, but through the window she could hear traditional coplas and on the streets she got to know the cry of flamenco, which will definitely mark her skin.
She sings in bars and clubs in Mallorca, she records some house tracks and collaborates with La Fura del Baus in “Ombra“. In 2000, she can’t remember why nor how, she comes to Las Vegas, where she works as a double for Tina Turner and The Supremes. Rachelle Ferrell, the great lady of jazz, invites her to sing in the Blue Note Club.
She moves to Madrid and her debut album proves her infinite skills and talent. In the studio, she dares to face four producers who insisted in impose a recognisable style on her. Now we know that it is not possible to sum up her career in one sentence, but, when she opens her mouth, you know there is no singer like her.
With her second album, “MI NIÑA LOLA”, produced by Javier Limón, she receives praise, recognition and awards (Best Production and Best Spanish Song Album in the Spanish Music Awards; German Phonographic Critics Award, etc); she stars great festivals and she receives passionate reviews; critics don’t have enough adjectives to describe her and people leave her shows breathless.
BUIKA’s third album is "Niña de Fuego"; Javier Limón is again on charge. BUIKA re-visits copla once more, includes rancheras for the first time and sings previously unreleased songs written by herself and Javier Limón. Love songs, but above all songs about lost love. BUIKA sings about her own experiences, sometimes with lyrics written by Javier Limón specially for her and sometimes her own. These lyrics were written in those long, lonely, insomniac nights that she spent on tour last year.
They usually say that BUIKA sing coplas, but that’s not true; BUIKA lives into coplas, she experiences them, she squeezes words, she drinks emotions and shouts them in a whisper.
“Niña de Fuego” receives two nominations to the Latin Grammys: Best Album of the Year and Best Production of the Year. She didn’t got the awards, but she enchanted the audience singing a capella a versión of Volver, Volver. On her last tour she was for the first time at Montreux Jazz Festival, at North Sea Festival, and she visits also Argentina, Helsinki, Oslo, Zurich, etc… she comes back to the USA, to Mexico and to Roma’s Auditorio.
Last year she sang a duet with Mariza, a song included in her album Terra (Pequeñas Verdades) and she sings also on Mírame with Elefteria Arvanitakis.
In September 2009 she releases collaboration with Nelly Furtado, they sing together “Fuerte”, an hymn to women’s strength.
Her latest album, “El último trago” is released worldwide on October 20th. This album pays homage to Chavela Vargas and Bebo Valdés, who will turn 90 this year, and was recorded live at Estudios Abdala with Chucho Valdés and his quartet.
Buika - El Último Trago
Immense talent, privileged hands, fingers a bit longer than those of the majority of pianists, famous venues (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center at the US, British Ronnie Scott or Cuban theatres Carlos Marx and Amadeo Roldan) 14 nominations and five Grammy Awards… those are some of the factors that make Chucho Valdés both a jazz and a music legend.
Buika is one of the most peculiar Spanish artists in the moment. This singer who was born in Majorca of Ecuato-Guinean ancestors has become a real revelation for those who considered that flamenco had no much left to give to Spanish music and jazz. Her evident African roots and her cosmopolitism, which grew in clubs at New York and Las Vegas, add up to Buika’s major savoir faire.
Her debut album, Buika, was released in 2005. After that she released Mi niña Lola, one year later (it was awarded Best Album and Best Production in the Spanish Music Awards). Her third recording project, Niña de fuego, produced, arranged and directed by Javier Limón, helped to introduce her into the universe of the best contemporary fusion music, and she was nominated to Best Album and Best Production in the last edition of the Latin Grammy Awards.
Chucho and Buika have achieved excellence using different paths, but they are both marked by the African origins of their ancestors and by their passion, spontaneity and impeccable performance. Last April they met in Abdala studio in Cuba and, and thanks again to Javier Limón, they recorded a new album which will be released on October.
This album, “El Ultimo Trago”, pays homage to Chavela Vargas on her 90th anniversary, covering the repertoire that she has built during her entire career. “Las ciudades”; “Las simples cosas”; “Sombras”; “Luz de Luna”, these are some of the songs that Chavela delivered at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Buenos Aires’ Luna Park, Paris’ Olympia, Pedro Pedro Almodóvar’s and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s films.
“El Ultimo Trago” will be served live, for the first time in Europe at Perelada Castle on August 1st and at La Granja’s Patio de Armas on August 5th. By the end of October they will start touring Spain and France and by December they will visit Mexico, Argentina and Chile.
Concha Buika by Pedro Almodóvar
Since the very first time, listening to Buika awakened a commotion within me, a mixture of intensity, emotion and wetness; a reaction close to the one Chavela Vargas inspires me.
Chavela Vargas and Concha Buika belong to a lineage of singers that is now extinct. Buika is what flamencos use to call a “long” singer. She can tackle any style while still be unique and moving. As a devotee of Chavela I will always be grateful to Buika for adding to her repertoire some of the staple songs of the woman who best performed José Alfredo Jimenez’s music.
Chavela used her voice and vitality to pay homage to passion unleashed, sorrow, dark solitude and the lost loved one, all bathed in seas of alcohol. Her performances turned into the likes of intense religious ceremonies, in which God was replaced by the beloved one.
Buika has become the effortless new priestess of this mystic. I cannot think of a more sound way to pay tribute to Chavela than that of this Afro-Majorcan singer and her “El Último Trago” -“The Last Drink”-, which is in fact the last breath.
Buika may sing to Chavela, but looks nothing like her. She makes a point of not imitating the Mexican’s unparalleled enunciation. It is almost as if she consciously avoided it. The truth is Buika has no need to emulate Chavela because both women share the same spirit and sing from the same intimate place, one that lies deep within them. Much like Chavela, Concha is able to make her audience feel completely exposed. Her songs transport us to a place where we are left face to face with our own love history, one in which our failures stand out the most. And, what’s more, after listening to her sing, one is determined to keep making the same mistakes because there are no rules, common sense, caution or regret in passion. In “El Último Trago” Buika celebrates all the incarnations of passion, from the most glowing to the darkest. She does so in a thrilling and original way.
However, Concha Buika takes after many artists besides Chavela, and brings other sources of inspiration to her completely authentic chavelian repertoire. Her voice reminds us of La Lupe’s frenzy with sometimes a hint of Olga Guillot. She also flutters her hands and stands erect in front of the microphone like the great Lola Flores.
With the immeasurable help of her brilliant stage companion Chucho Valdés and his band, Buika’s moving, spot-on tribute unveils an Afro-Cuban, jazzy Chavela. Buika and Chucho are united by Africa, and Cuba vibrates in every key of Chucho’s piano, which is just as eclectic as Buika herself.
Seeing Buika draw from such different genres as copla, tango, bulería, bolero, Cuban music and jazz, mix them altogether with such grace and spontaneity, one cannot help but think that there is a brighter future as long as one can witness the boundless evolution of this infinite performer.
Pedro Almodóvar
Buika by Javier Limon
One day we dreamt of bringing together Chucho Valdés, the first figure of afro-cuban jazz, an idol of our youth, and Concha Buika, the undisputed top afro-flamenco jazz voice, and Casa Limón’s spearhead.
We envisaged basing this movie’s screenplay on Chavela Vargas’s songs, which are like a string of pearls that the Mexican diva has lovingly picked up one by one, across the world. We thought ‘What if this meeting took place in Havana?’
Think no further, the dream has come true.
A friend once told me classics do not earn their classic status because they have been in vogue for some time, they are classics because of how long one foresees they will remain current. From that perspective, this 11-straight-hour recording is already a classic album. We could not be more pleased with how our dream turned out.
Javier Limón