Sep 29, 2010
A Voice for the Ages

By a nice little vortex of coincidences, I ended up at Lula Lounge last night for a concert by Patricia Cano and Carlos Bernardo, with Carlos playing Voyageur for a couple of songs near the end of the set.

Part of the story is that Carlos – a Brazilian instrumentalist based in Rio – had expected to play Voyageur a year ago at an event in North Bay that never quite came together. When I met Patti and Carlos at a backyard event a couple of weeks ago, I told them I'd love to make good on the opportunity whenever we could make it work. I offered for the Lula show and they eagerly accepted.

To hear Carlos with the Six String Nation in his hands (pictured) was a great honour and a great pleasure for sure but, my goodness, the songs! There are some Brazilian jazz and samba standards and traditional Peruvian folk inflections they do brilliantly (with the help of a top notch band) but the stuff that Patti and Carlos have written together (they met during a residency with the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris years ago) is unbelievable. The song about Carlos' daughter ("Manuela" - sung last night in honour of her birthday) or the ode to Patti's ancestral home of Ica, Peru, gave me the same feeling as those Rufus Wainwright songs that sound as if they've been plucked from some Platonic bag of perfect songs that have simply always lived in your heart.

But the real thing to write about here is Patti Cano. She is astonishing. She is a gift. She is a force. Her voice is pure and nuanced and powerful and timeless and gorgeous and joyous and sexy and honest and you must hear it right away. The album is called "This Is the New World" and it's available on CD or on iTunes. But just wait until you see her live. You will wonder why you are not seeing her at Massey Hall or Carnegie Hall or the Montreaux Jazz Festival or something. If you happen to be in northern Ontario, you will have a chance to see her live as she's touring the region as we speak.

Thanks to Patti, Carlos, Luis Mario, the Josés, Tracy, Dan, Howard and the lovely Lula Lounge.

Posted at 9:20 AM

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