http://calabashmusic.com/New Music From Marta Topferova on Calabash Music2008-09-06T10:03:38ZThe Calabash Music Teamsupport@calabashmusic.comla marea (the tide)http://martatopferova.calabashmusic.com/#album_624832006-12-12T07:40:55ZMusic from la marea (the tide)Marta Topferova’s La Marea (The Tide) is an album of agelessly beautiful and heartfelt music. Featuring ten original songs sung in Spanish and set to rhythms ranging from Cuban son to Venezuelan vals, merengue and gaita, Topferova’s World Village debut boasts fascinating instrumentation including the Colombian harp, the French horn and the four-string cuatro. This unlikely mix creates a strikingly unique and intimate record. Topferova’s songs are musical paintings, the lyrics filled with carefully etched images and landscapes, the melodies colored with distinctly defined moods and textures. While you can hear that Topferova’s influences come mainly from the Cuban songbook, musica llanera (“music of the plains” tradition in Colombia and Venezuela), and bossa nova, her compositions also reflect a touch of her background in classical music and the folklore of her native Czechoslovakia. Topferova’s voice is a rich contralto, sweet, nostalgic and full of poetic expression. Her talent also shines here as an arranger and producer. For this album, she brought together nine wonderful musicians, each a member of either her touring trio or quintet. Performers include the stunning Edmar Castañeda on harp, bassist Pedro Giraudo, French horn player Chris Komer, accordionist/pianist Angus Martin, violinist Jenny Scheinman, flutist Yulia Musayelyan, percussionists Neil Ochoa, Urbano Sanchez and drummer Chris Eddleton. La Marea is a new panorama of sound drawn by one of the most intriguing young singer/songwriters today, an artist who is continually inspired by one of the most vibrant musical cities on the planet: New York City, her home.]]>Sueno Verdehttp://martatopferova.calabashmusic.com/#album_736942006-12-12T07:40:55ZMusic from Sueno VerdeSinger Marta Topferova's debut album "Sueno Verde" (Green Dream) is a collection of new, beautiful melodies arranged with Caribbean rhythms in an acoustic setting featuring guitar, bass, latin percussion, French horn, cello, violin, flute, trombone & flugelhorn. This is a dreamy, poetic record. Marta Topferova’s debut recording Sueño Verde- Ten songs co-written/produced with longtime collaborator and guitarist Enrique Lopez along with producer Joe Boyd - Sueño Verde is an emotionally seductive, acoustic fusion of son-bolero-samba swerves and romantic avant poetry dipped in saudade. Call it the Pan-Latino cosmopolitan blues. Topferova and Lopez have enlisted an impressive band of A-list Latin, jazz and neo-classical musicians -- Ira Coleman, bass; Adam Cruz, tambora, snare drum, conga, cymbals, bell; Chris Komer, French horn; Erik Friedlander, cello; Jason Jackson, trombone; Erik Jekabson, flugelhorn, Jenny Scheinman, violin and Connie Grossman, flute -- to make their dream sound a reality. That said, it's Topferova alone who gives these songs blood and life. Blessed with a dusky contralto, a jazzman's ability to mood swing behind-in-front-on-the beat, and a Latin diva's sensual-emotional intuition, Topferova is really the only vocalist on the scene today capable of putting this music across. The result: uniquely original songs ranging from airy bossa-son-reggae bops ("Pulso De Nueva York", "Vuelo De Ciguena") to crazysexycool, tango-silky mambos ("Sueno Verde", "Obsesionada") to son-jazzy cha-cha-chas ("Mi Poema", "Esperanza") and points both tangential and in between.]]>Flor Nocturnahttp://martatopferova.calabashmusic.com/#album_775692006-12-12T07:40:55ZMusic from Flor NocturnaMarta Topferova’s dusky-sweet, cafe-au-lait vocals have evoked comparisons with Mercedes Sosa, Nana Caymmi, Amalia Rodrigues and Cesaria Evora. Her original compositions, with their modern hearts and ancient souls, incorporate high-and-lonesome Andean-based melodies and other Central and South American folkloric and urban-based tributaries. The discerning ear will also pick up echoes of the Spanish Caribbean, American jazz, European cabaret and not surprisingly, an underlying whiff of Slavic melancholy. Topferova’s material also harks back to Nueva Canción, a movement of intellectual Latino singer-poets that flourished during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Her earliest inspiration, Inti-Illimani, was a leading light of that style, as was the late Atahualpa Yupanqui of Argentina. On her new album Flor Nocturna, Topferova has chosen to cover two of the latter’s works, "Los Hermanos" with its stalking, tango-inflected rhythms and the darkly anthemic "Tú Que Puedes, Vuélvete." Her unashamedly emotional yet subtly delineated gifts as composer and performer, augmented by an all-acoustic consort of cuatro, guitar, flute, cello, marimba, squeezebox and percussion, continue to wax deeper and finer. First-time listeners are transformed into ardent fans and the cognoscenti return again and again, eager to be swept away by Topferova’s warmth, elegance and sensuality.]]>