SUSANA BACA, Peru
WOMAD Singapore 2006
25th - 27th August 2006
Fort Canning Park

Born in Lima (Peru), she grew up in a small coastal town called Chorillos. Baca describes life in the predominantly Afro-Peruvian barrio as "filled with music." As a child, she would accompany her mother when she cleaned homes and says that the only way she could keep still was when her mother put on classical music. Her father, who was a driver, was also the barrio's own street guitarist and would often play outdoors with a group of neighborhood musicians. Their instruments were usually guitars and a percussive instrument called the cajón (a wooden box), which is played by her longtime band member Juan Cotito Medrano and can be heard on all of her albums.

While she was growing up, families in Chorillos would often gather in parks for festivals and religious processions. It was at these festivals that Susana found a place to perform, entering dance contests and singing before audiences of familiar faces. It was also at these gatherings that she began to hear old slave songs, which had been passed down through generations, but were not often performed publicly. Despite the tenderness in Baca's music, it is influenced by a history of political engagement that was aroused with her increasing awareness of societal oppression. As a young woman, Baca was compelled to protest the stark role for women in the church and in a machismo society. "I have always been a leftist," she says, adding how she would sing with a feminist group at fiery, anti-establishment rallies.

Her main literary influences include writers like Arturo Perez Revete, Alfredo Bryce, Javier Marias and Mario Vargas Llosa. She has a kinship to Vargas Llosa, in the tradition of Peruvian social protest in her understated manner and actions against machismo and racial prejudice—a manner that never becomes propaganda.

On her recent trip to Congo, she saw firsthand the legacy and impact of colonialism on the population. "It's hard to get people to think and act for themselves after so many years of colonial rule," Baca says. While there, she performed along with a children's choir for a series of concerts. "When children learn to think for themselves, it opens doors," she says.

Her journey to success has been a long one. She fondly remembers the day in 1995 when she got a phone call in Peru saying that David Byrne wanted to meet with her. She could not believe it at first, and admits that, while she knew of him, she did not know much about him. "He wasn't in my world at the time," she says. She decided that it would be better to cook a meal for him at her house rather than go out to a fancy restaurant. She recalls, somewhat embarrassed, that she had to take her large dog outside to keep him from excitedly jumping on Byrne when he arrived for dinner. It was the first meeting in what has proved to be a fruitful artistic partnering since she signed to his recording label, Luaka Bop.

Since then, she released three albums under David Byrne's imprint and has achieved an unprecedented level of international attention and success for a Peruvian artist. She has toured throughout the world, from the United States to Finland, appeared on TV shows in the UK and France, and performed at prestigious events such as the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo. She is also the first Peruvian artist to ever win an American Grammy award. Three albums on, she is now considered around the world as an ambassador for Afro-Peruvian culture. Her success and performances have admittedly changed her perspective on life. "It's embarrassing to be applauded in restaurants," But she takes it all in stride. "The party is great," she says. "But then later you find yourself in a corner and this is the music for those times."

These days she can stroll through the University of Chicago campus, reading about Louis Armstrong, learning English and visiting Chicago's legendary jazz clubs. She does not feel the need to try to fit into any mainstream Latino explosion; she is perfectly content doing what she is doing—it's an authenticity that is hard to find in the music world. "My only regret is having this knowledge, traveling around the world and not having the vitality that I need," she says in complete modesty. But after listening to her latest album and seeing her perform, you'll have to politely disagree.

More information on Susana Baca.