Lila Downs - Biography
By Nick Castro
Lila Downs has become one of Latin pop's most famous singers. She was born, Lila Downs Sánchez, in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1968. She had a unique childhood, with her mother as a moonlighting singer and her father as an art professor and filmmaker. She spent half of your youth in Mexico soaking up the regional sounds and culture, and then she spent the other half of her childhood in California, and later in Minnesota, where she attended the University of MInnesota to study anthropology. These disparate elements have become the foundation of Downs' sound.
Some call Downs' music world fusion, due to her combination of Mexican and American songforms, but her music is uniquely her own. She studied voice since her youth and when she was old enough she began to perform in Philadelphia and in Oaxaca, where she would play with saxophonist Paul Cohen, who has since become Down's husband. While attending the University of Minnesota, Downs dropped out of school to follow the Grateful Dead. Her journies brought her south, back to Oaxaca, where she would learn weaving. She would make a living, during those times, by selling her jewelry on the street. Eventually she returned to school to complete her studies.
Upon graduating, Downs had a newfound passion for the traditional musics of her mother's people. Together with her musical partner, Cohen, Downs developed a style that would bring her massive success. She displayed, since her youth, a powerful voice, and she could command a three octave range with seamingly little effort, transposing delicate melodies into epic themes with a quick turn of phrase. She released a cassette, on her own, in 1994, called Ofrenda (1994 - Private Press), but it was her 1999 album, La Sandunga (1999 - Aries Music), that would mark her first commercial success. On this album, Downs mixes traditional songs, like "La Llorona", with her own compositions, such as "Tengo Miedo de Quererte", which she co-wrote with Cohen. She brings a loose jazz feel to the standard "Sabor a Mi", accompanied by upright bass and acoustic guitar. Her next album, Tree of Life (2000 - Narada), contained many more of her own compositions, most written with Cohen, such as "Semilla de Piedra" and "Nueve Viento". In this album, Downs wove in many instruments, uncommon to the United States, such as the Ocarina, Tarahumara drum, and other obscure percussion like the gourd, clay drum and djembe.
Downs' next record was Border (La Linea) (2001 - Narada), which was her second for the Narada label, which is well respected in the world music scene for releases by artists like Baka Beyond, Jane Birkin and Tony Allen. On this album Downs features a guest appearance by Lola Beltran and Toña La Negra, who have both forged their own ways as stars of Mexican music. She also does a medley of a song that she and Cohen wrote with one by Woody Guthrie, called "Pastures of Plenty/This Land is Your Land". Though most of the album is sung in Spanish, she managed to reach American and other English speaking markets through her voice, which is beautiful enough to defy boundaries of language.
The next year found Downs' in a cameo appearance of the film Frida, as well as singing on the soundtrack, along with Caetano Veloso, famed Brazilian singer. Many have actually pointed out that Downs has a strong resemblance to the artist Frida Kahlo, who the movie was about. This soundtrack brought Kahlo into the eye of the mass market of music fans and Downs' new found success brought her an Oscar nomination for the song "Burn it Blue". Her next album was not until 2004 but Una Sangre (2004 - Narada), which was the most ferocious in study of traditional musics of Mexico, such as those of the the Nahuatl, Mayan and Zapotec people. What would become an almost erratic project for most, is carefully coordinated by Downs and her crew as they delicately arrange the standard western instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums and they also utilize the vihuela, a predecessor to the guitar, along with bouzouki, taiko drum, udu and charango. Some would consider this the definition of world fusion, but Downs' base remains fans of latin pop firstly. Even the band comes from diverse backgrounds, some American, some from Cuba and Brazil. the standout tracks on the album are Downs' interpretation of the classic "La Bamba" as well as her song "Madre Jones".
In 2003 Downs' performed live at the Academy Awards ceremonies, with Veloso, in duet. Her music has also been featured in various movies, other than i, such as Real Women Have Curves and Tortilla Soup. In 2006, Downs' released the album La Cantina "Entre Copa y Copa" (2006 - Peregrina), which was a collection of cumbias and renchera songs, interpreted with electronic instruments alongside traditional ones. She is joined by legendary Tejano accordion player, Flaco Jimenez. Some of Downs' compositions on the album include "La Cumbia del Mole" and "Agua de Rosas". Although Downs received some negative critiques from purists of folkloric musics, much of the charm of this record is ruled by the very unorthodox instrumentation these critics scrutinized.
Downs' most recent work Shake Away (2008 - Manhattan), finds her in her most professional sounding and developed state yet. Even more than on her last record, Downs embraces the juxtaposition of her various disparate influences. Her version of Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman", comes as a surprise in the middle of the album, but Downs' interpretation is far removed from the original, instead done with a thick arrangement of brass and woodwinds and played with guest guitarist Raul Midon. Downs is also joined by famed Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa.
Downs has cultivated a following of progressive latin pop fans and she has managed to keep a thread of poilitcal activism and outspoken statements present through the many years of her music. There is also a compiliation of her best songs, which is enhanced with a live DVD on it, featuring a performance of hers in Madrid, Spain, called The Very Best of El Alma de Lila Downs (DVD Madrid en vivo) (2008 - EMI).
