The Whole Music Experience

Storks, Poetry and the Human Spirit   Around 2005-06, I heard vocalist and cuatro player Marta Topferova giving a radio interview in Seattle. After the interview, I acquired her recording, La Marea and I fell in love with its blend of old style Latin American music with a modern sensibility. That following Valentine’s Day I saw Marta with her trio at Jazz Alley (Seattle), and I felt swept away by the South American cuatro and Marta’s alto vocals. And I wasn’t the only one—many audience members stayed after the concert to meet the performers. Later with the release of her second recording on World Village, Flor Nocturna , again Marta supplied her listeners with a collection of thoughtful songs performed in a “chamber ensemble” format. Some of the material felt melancholy, but so were the times in which I found myself listening to the recording. Now, Marta awaits the release of her third World Village recording, Trova (see review below), which celebrates music of the C...

Marta Topferova Trova World Village Marta Topferova’s third recording for World Village, Trova focuses on the traditional Cuban sound—mainly sones and trovas, but makes a few excursions to South America. Marta returns with her cuatro while adding guitar and maracas on this recording. Aaron Halvo (accordion, très, vocals), Roland Satterwhite (violin, vocals), Pedro Giraudo (bass, vocals) and Neil Ochoa (traditional Latin percussion) round it off the sweet Caribbean ( Come and Walk to the Hill ), and South American sounds ( The Fireflies ). Marta’s vocals sound warmer and lighter on Trova then on previous recordings—a mixture of honey and cinnamon. True to the trova and son traditions, poetry plays a central role either portrayed as Marta’s spiritual yearnings or the poetry of others reflecting on nature, love or transcendence over pain such as in the Pablo Raùl Trullenque and Carlos Carabajal’s Come to My Place without Knocking . The lyrical content radiates a wistful f...