CLAUDIA ACUÑA
Luna
MaxJazz
Check
out the Claudia Acuna Ecard featuring a sampling of this
album!
Luna fulfills the promise of Claudia
Acuna’s first two recordings, Wind From the South
and Rhythm of Life. While filled with gifted
performances, both of those albums suffered slightly from
a lack of focus, exploring a smorgasbord of musical styles
that, while they pointed out Acuna’s talent, did not
create and sustain a particular mood.
On Luna Acuna is committed to singing
the majority of the album in Spanish and exploring the variety
of styles from a variety of Latin musical traditions, including
Latin Jazz. The opening track, Armando Manzanero’s
“Esta Tarde Vi Llover” moves along on a languid
but insistent samba beat over which Acuna’s voice
crests and falls like gently lapping summer waves. Acuna’s
arrangement of Cesar Portillo de la Luz’s slow bolero,
“Tu, Mi Delirio” is sumptuous. Luisito Quintero’s
percussion work is particularly noteworthy, providing the
finishing detail to a perfect performance. As she scats
in the middle of the song, accompanied by the gentle bell-like
tones of Jason Lidner’s understated Fender Rhodes
work, she sounds momentarily like a more accomplished Sade.
Of course, Acuna’s voice has both greater musical
and emotional range than the pop singer’s, but she
is capable of creating the same bewitching spell.
All is not necessarily mellow in Acuna’s
musical world, and when she chooses to rock out, she can
create a real storm of energy around her. “Historias,”
co-written by Acuna and Lidner, has a funky feel, thanks
in large part the interplay between John Benitez’
electric bass and Quintero’s percussion. Acuna brings
the fire on this piece, pulsing with vocal strength that
belies her diminutive physical stature. Lidner’s “Meditation
on Two Chords” (might want to work on the title a
bit, guys) finds Claudia entering Flora Purim territory,
flirting with the Latin/jazz/rock fusion that Purim specialized
in and recalling the first incarnation of Return to Forever.
The six-plus minute “Oceano” ebbs
and flows with ambient energy, developing its own universe
that envelops the listener in the warmth and intimacy of
Acuna’s voice. There’s not a false step on the
entire CD, making it Acuna’s most consistent to date.
It also sounds like her most deeply felt project, one that
grew directly out of her artistry rather than any marketing
plan or focus group research. Acuna is currently playing
at jazz clubs across the company in support of the CD—catch
her if you possibly can. Once you check out Luna,
you’ll be hard pressed not to.
