Leyla McCalla
Join us at the Broadside to celebrate the release of Leyla McCalla's new album Sun Without the Heat , a record described as playful and full of joy while holding the pain and tension of transformation.
Like its predecessor, Sun Without Heat draws from a similarly fascinating backdrop of great thinkers, writers, speakers and inspirations, but this time with a much more joyous and playful undercurrent and more of Leyla’s own bright personality, not to mention her masterful performances on all host of instruments and vocals.
On the album McCalla embraces Brazilian Tropicalisimo, Afrobeat and Ethiopian folk, and we are treated to two singles from the album, the first of which is accompanied by a music video directed by Zuri Obi.
-Alex Galcher, KLOF Magazine
Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present, whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, a bilingual multi-instrumentalist, and alumna of Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. McCalla’s music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful and witty — it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive and contemporary, sonically blending New Orleans influences and Haitian rhythms, with lyrics sung in English, French and Haitian Creole. McCalla’s widely-acclaimed collaborative project, Songs of Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell), released via Smithsonian Folkways in 2019. The album pulled influence from past sources to create a reinvented slave narrative, confronting sanitized views about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny from a powerful, modern Black female perspective.