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Lila Downs: Singer Lila Downs
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Lila Downs divided her time growing up between the Sierra Madre mountains of southern Mexico, in the state of Oaxaca, and Minnesota. Intending to become an opera singer, she became disenchanted with music and dropped out of school, following the Grateful Dead and selling jewelry on the streets. She moved back to Oaxaca where she worked closely with the Triqui women, learning to weave cloth and ultimately completing a college thesis on the symbolism created through their weaving before returning to music, singing in clubs and putting together a band that has since toured the world. She creates strongly layered music in which blues and jazz cohabitate with rap and ranchera, and honkytonk swings alongside romantic boleros. Her songs delve deep into the hearts and minds of common people, invoking struggles, lost loves, and legends. Downs performs her own compositions and ... taps into the vast reservoir of native Mesoamerican music, singing songs in the native Indian languages of Mexico, including Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, and Nahuatl.
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Mexican singer Lila Downs presents a clear example of transnational feminist politics and identity. Her musical repertoire draws from a variety of musical styles ranging from traditional Mexican songs, indigenous poetry, jazz, to the folk/protest songs of Woody Guthrie. Her work exemplifies what can be seen in a community that crosses generations, national borders, and cultures.
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Known for her performance on the soundtrack of the film Frida, Latin Grammy Award winner Lila Downs creates strongly layered music in which blues and jazz cohabitate with rap and ranchera, and honky-tonk swings alongside romantic boleros. One of the most compelling singers to straddle the US-Mexico border.
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Lila, herself the daughter of a Mixtec mother and an gringo father, has experienced the cultural differences and prejudices on both sides of the border. Lila’s father, Alan Downs, was an art teacher at the University of Minnesota when he went to Mexico on a film project back in the 60's. In Mexico City, he met Lila’s mother, Anita, a Mixtec Indian who had run away from her home in the mountains of Oaxaca to become a nightclub singer. One thing led to another led to Lila.
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UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Lila Downs, an acclaimed singer who re-imagines American and Mexican music as an on-going conversation between two great traditions, on Tuesday, April 18 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Creating a strongly layered and emotional music in which blues and jazz cohabitate with ranchera, and honky-tonk swings alongside romantic boleros, Downs has invigorated a new wave of cross-border Latino music. Her 2004 album
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If you caught the award-winning 2002 film Frida, starring Selma Hayek as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, then you've heard -- and seen -- Lila Downs. She recorded "Burn It Blue" with Brazil's Caetano Veloso for the Grammy-nominated soundtrack and ... appeared as a tango singer in the movie.
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Singer Lila Downs