Buika

Listening to the music of Concha Buika is like entering in a time traveling machine and exploring all the cracks and crevices of the culturally rich Mediterranean soundscape. This Spanish born singer not only adapts the music influence from her native land, she also encompasses elements of American jazz, South American flamenco, and emotional communal vocal cries found in traditional African music.

She seems to capture the best part of each genre and meld it into a sound uniquely her own. It is hard not to be moved by her powerful vocal deliveries and her vocal ability is just one of her many talented attributes. Coming from a family of writers, she has expectantly developed an understanding of the inner-workings of words. She is an accomplished poet and lyricist and always seems to choose the perfect phrasings that relate to the raw broken energy evidenced by her singing style.

She composes and produces a large portion of her music, but has also exhibited a skill in covering and rearranging classic world jazz pieces. There is perhaps no better example of this than her 2009 album El Ultimo Trago. She covers artists ranging from Ecuadorian composer Bendavides to Mexican singer songwriter Jose Alfredo Jimenez. Her music is as warmly accepted by the critics as it is her fans. Her albums, Nina de Fuego and La Noche Mas Larga, both received Grammy nominations and rightfully so.

Her live performances are in a league of their own. In support of her 2008 album she blew people away with the sparse setup of guitarist Javier Limon and pianist Ivan Lewis. At other times she will be accompanied by a much fuller band. However it doesn’t matter if she is backed by one guitar as she was when performing with artist Javier Limon or an entire orchestra, her voice is so deep and emotive that it could carry the entire show by itself.