Susana Baca is more than a singer or a performer, she is a storyteller. She is a proud woman who has devoted her career as a singer and her life as a politician to fight against the discriminations that Afro descendants still have to face in South America.
She was born on 24 May, 1944 and hails from a long family-line of illustrious Afro-Peruvian artists: her father played the guitar, her mother danced, her aunts sang and her cousins were the founders of Perú Negro, an emblematic music and dance group.
The love of music never abandoned Susana who started performing with a group of experimental music during her post-University period.
By 1970 Susana Baca was working with Chabuca Granda – the composer of such classics of Peruvian music Fina Estampa and La Flor de la Canela – as her personal assistant and becomes her protégé and then great friend.
In 1995, David Byrne was raptured by her interpretation of Maria Lando, the song of Chabuca Granda which tells about the fate of proletarie woman in Peru, and asks her to go to New York. Then, he decides to include this song in his compilation The Soul of Black Peru.
During 2011 Susana Baca held the post of Minister of Culture of Peru and currently she manages a cultural centre, Centro Cultural de la Memoria Escondida, in San Luis de Cañete in the south of Lima.
Palabras Urgentes, is not another album in her discography. “It is more than that. It is a musical creation, a collection of songs, intended to take on today’s difficult times. The album was not created to be just a beautiful distraction or as a means to charm the listener. On the contrary, Susana has recorded this album as a form of protest and to spark debate – and the listener must understand this to really understand the album – but, also, as a means to encourage us to cherish and value the time we are given and to live in the fullest sense”. (Source: https://realworldrecords.com/artists/susana-baca/).
This record is published by Real World Records, a founded in 1989 by WOMAD and Peter Gabriel to provide talented artists from around the world with access to state-of-the-art recording facilities and audiences beyond their geographic region.
“Age casts a different light upon the world and this album seeks to express freely and honestly those things that I love most intensely. At the age of 76 it is time to stop thinking of always having to please others and deliver an album truly from the heart. These ten songs seem to be mostly premonitions of the difficult times we are now living through. They weave music from my deepest roots with urgent words, of hope and condemnation, to seek out a mature and cherished truth. With my own spirit and the hearts and talent of all those who have contributed, we offer this album as a renewal of our traditional music. I hope those listening to this album feel both a love for life and a love for living truthfully”.
(Susana Baca – Source: https://realworldrecords.com/artists/susana-baca/)
It is no surprise that visionary artists like David Byrne or Peter Gabriel created a bond with Susana Baca.
Susana Baca arrives at the Philarmonie with a purpose: to tell us the meaning of the songs and of the poems that she has transformed into the music. The songs are stories and these stories are the expression and the inheritance of all the women and artists who have fought for freedom in America Latina.
Susana Baca vocals
Miguel Díaz percussion
Oscar Huaranga bass
Renzo Vignati electric guitar
Alex Quijandría backing vocals, percussion
Jorge Campos backing vocals
Jonathan Mendoza acoustic guitar
