Leyla Mccalla

Capitalist Blues Leyla Mccalla

Cajun, creole, zydeco, traditional jazz from New Orleans, rara from Haiti, Americana folk ... it's all in there. Her third CD, The Capitalist Blues, with even more Bayou influences. Leyla McCalla is at home in both Haiti and New Orleans (via New York and the Carolina Chocolate Drops) and the French Les Inrocks also mentions: '...tire profit de ces deux cultures pour explorer le folk ancestral, avec un violoncelle, un banjo et une voix en or.'.

The Capitalist Blues tackles the musical spectrum from New Orleans traditional jazz to Zydeco to Haitian Rara but this album is a departure from the folk approach of McCalla's first two critically acclaimed albums, with the majority being original songs and increasingly steeped in the music of Leyla's adopted home of New Orleans and her ancestral home of Haiti. The Capitalist Blues, ex-Carolina Chocolate Drop Leyla's McCalla's forthcoming third album, shows a more physical, danceable side to her music. The title track is a swinging blues, and it's easy to hear the classic New Orleans R&B in "Me and My Baby," and the calypso in "Money is King." The album also puts McCalla's voice in several new contexts as the size and composition of the band behind her varies from track to track. "There's more arrangement," she says, so her voice stands out in the way fans of her previous albums might expect on the spare "Pennha," but she's clearly part of a rowdy group on "Me and My Baby." The New York-born McCalla has lived in New Orleans since 2010, and A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey broadened not only her examination of Creole identities but her sound as she brought in a number of musicians to add fiddle, clarinet, piano, electric guitar, and additional voices. Her growing relationship to the city's musical community led her to consider her relationship to New Orleans on The Capitalist Blues, and for the first time, it led her to record with a band.