Afro-Peruvian songstress Susana Baca has spent a lifetime uplifting and celebrating her culture, first as an educator, folklorist and ethnomusicologist and later as Peru’s Minister of Culture. But music has been her greatest loudspeaker by far. Baca, 77, learned from the legendary singer Chabuca Granda, a friend, mentor and source of inspiration, and worked in
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What does it mean to you to be the voice of Afro-Peruvian music on the world stage?
I came to understand where I came from, what my roots were, little by little. As a child in school, you’d be singled out by other students for being Black. You start to ask yourself what it means to be Black. And then, at home, you get together with your family on Sundays, all of them Black, all of them full of laughter and grace. Once the music started, everything would change for me. I’d stop playing with my little cousins and would run to where the music was coming from. This same enthusiasm is what has led me to identify with who I am. Who am I? That family, that world that surrounded me in my childhood, and to be able to share that, as well.
What did you take away from your time as Peru’s Minister of Culture in 2011 that influenced your music?
I traveled to many parts around the country. I learned from the music of the places, I learned from the soul of the people and I think that is in my singing anyway.
Palabras Urgentes is framed by classic melodies and traditional Afro-Peruvian rhythms mixed with contemporary sounds. On this album Michael League takes the lead in production. How did that encounter come to be? What were League’s contributions and how did that translate into the magic that was captured in the studio?
Michael had already known my music for a long time, from when he was a student at the University of Texas, in Austin. He had a band, and he tells me that one of his professors made him listen to my music and so he would play my music with his band around different venues in Austin. When I met him for the first time in Peru, he invited me as a guest on his album, Family Dinner – Volume 2. I offered to do two Afro-Peruvian songs. Afro-Peruvian rhythms are difficult to play, but Michael mastered it right away. And so, we traveled to New Orleans and recorded the songs.
The confluence of traditional Afro-Peruvian music and contemporary sounds from across the globe are points of reference in your body of work. Was there a turning point in your career where you decided to go in a broader direction?
I’m very curious. What would my music sound like mixed with this? For instance, I’ve worked with guitarist Mark Ribot on other albums and I’ve loved working with him. On other projects, I’ve invited John Medeski, a pianist who is at the forefront of the new generation of free jazz. Of course, the producers play a role. The producer will say to me, ‘Susana, listen to this musician. Do you like it? If you like it, we’ll invite them.’ ‘OK, let’s invite them. How wonderful.’ And they come. They enjoy my music and I enjoy their sound. These encounters are something beautiful. They are the best of what globalization has to offer.
In other areas, globalization hasn’t fared so well, and on the track, “Cambalache,” you sing about the chaos in a world turned upside down. Originally written as a tango in 1930, you updated the lyrics some, but the song still applies to our current state of affairs.
It was almost like a premonition; it’s still relevant.
The album closes with “Vestida de Vida,” a song that has a strong message of hope. Do you feel hopeful about the future?
Yes, I still am. I think it’s what helps us overcome disease, sadness, depression, feeling that the world is coming to an end, that it has nothing left to offer. So then you have to think about things that help you to persevere and shake the fear of pushing ahead. And if you have the voice and can transmit feeling in your music then you have to share that with people. That’s what came to mind when I made my album A Cappella, which I recorded in the middle of the pandemic. I began the album reciting the words of [Argentine rocker] Fito Paez — ‘Who says everything is lost? I come to offer my heart.’ So that’s what compels me to always give. I see people around me in extreme situations and feel that we must give people some spirituality, happiness, something they can reflect on, like Palabras Urgentes. Palabras Urgentes is an album about reflection and perhaps about tackling problems head on. - Lissette Corsa
Featured photo by Javier Falcon.