As I entered the home of a friend in Los Angeles, I was immediately transfixed by the music playing on her cd player. It was acoustic, intimate, soulful and not instantly categorizable. The accompaniment was sparse; on some tracks it was just acoustic guitar and percussion. On others, piano was in the mix. Occasionally there was a subtle trumpet solo. The female vocalist had the lusty rawness of flamenco yet it was less abandoned than most flamenco. Naturally, I had to learn who this artist was. Turned it was Buika, an artist I had been wanting to check out as word filtering out of Europe had been that she was an exciting new "flamenco fusion" artist.
Buika was born in the Balearic Islands of Spain. Her parents were political refugees from Equatorial Guinea. Clearly she has absorbed flamenco styles as well as other music. Perhaps her background explains why her style is such a fresh take on flamenco. Her style blends jazz, flamenco, pop, various Latin styles including rhumba, ranchera and such Spanish song styles as copla. The results are not obviously flamenco but her singing clearly owes a lot to flamenco singing. Enough categorizing....the results, on her latest cd "Nina de Fuego" especially, are beguiling and moving. "Nina de Fuego" appears to be her third release and from what I have sampled of her three cd's, it is her best. Her earliest release has busier backing tracks and feels more pop oriented, even if the pop is Spanish or Latin popular music. But her second release, "Mi Nina Lola" is much sparser though not as inviting as "Nina de Fuego." Though she was nominated for a Latin Grammy, Buika is not well known in the U.S. and has only performed in America sparingly. Attractive and mesmerising as a performer, she is destined for a bigger audience here.
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