| A small but enthusiastic audience braved the first truly freezing night of the year to attend Eliana Cuevas’ CD Release party on December 5 at the Glenn Gould Studio. They were treated to an impeccable performance from Cuevas and her regular band mates: pianist Luis Guerra, bassist/producer George Koller, and percussionists Daniel Stone and Luis Orbegoso. The group was also joined for this concert by a five-piece string section orchestrated by Aaron Davis.
The program consisted mostly of Cuevas’ original compositions, plus a couple of Latin American standards, running the emotional gamut from the poignantly tragic “Alfonsina y el Mar” to the jubilant “La Samba Me Llama”. Musical influences ranged far and wide as the quintet incorporated elements from Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and Martinique into their mosaic.
Cuevas’ second CD is entitled Vidas — plural for the Spanish “vida”, meaning “life”. The songs on the album are inspired by lives that have crossed her path — family, friends, sometimes even complete strangers. Lyrically, Eliana plays the part of a vulnerable observer — commenting on the lives of others, responding emotionally to their stories, but without offering a solution or an agenda.
“I have a great band, don’t I?” the Venezuelan singer-songwriter summed it up best during the first set. Indeed, this is a unit that has developed a fierce cohesion over the five years they have been playing together, becoming so tight they make it seem effortless.
It’s fun to watch them do it — but on this particular night I was also asked to perform as a guest pianist, having contributed a couple of arrangements to the recording. It is difficult not to feel like an intruder when you take the stage with a band that plays so well together. Cuevas worked with a variety of arrangers on Vidas, including Gordon Sheard, Luis Mario Ochoa, and band mates Luis Guerra and Daniel Stone.
The concert was being recorded for broadcast by the CBC and host Andrew Craig had the crowd at a height of exuberance by the time the musicians took the stage. For their first piece, the band launched into “Cualidad Sagrada”, an ode to those who speak their minds, featuring Stone and Orbegoso’s creative voicing of a Cuban bata rhythm.
The centerpiece of the night was, of course, Cuevas’ stunning voice. She sings with the clarity of a trumpet and the intensity of a laser beam, with occasional bursts of vibrato so tight it sounds as if she has stuck her finger into a light socket. (Don’t try that one at home, kids!)
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Eliana Cuevas |
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George Koller |
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