While many were first introduced to Leyla McCalla through the Carolina Chocolate Drops and later Our Native Daughters, her 2013 debut: Vari-Colored Songs A Tribute To Langston Hughes was given a well-deserved reissue last year by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings who were keen for that work to reach a far wider audience.
She’s an artist that deserves more limelight and, following her very recent spectacular performance at Celtic Connections as part of the Transatlantic Sessions (reviewed here) during which she sang in Haitian Kreyòl, her new album, Breaking The Thermometer, may be just the thing that takes her there.
Breaking The Thermometer (out May 6 via Anti-) charts McCalla’s own journey of self-discovery alongside the exploration of an archive of recordings from Radio Haiti, the first radio station in Haiti to report news in Haitian Kreyol. Anyone that has listened to our recent mix – KLOF No. 11 here, will have already heard a track from the album: Fort Dimanche. It was released as a single and is named after the former Haiti prison notorious for the interrogation, imprisonment, torture, and execution of dissidents and suspected dissidents during the reign of François Duvalier, aka Papa Doc, the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. Leyla is of Haitian heritage, and she was inspired to write the song after researching the prison. Throughout the song, you can hear interviews, including one who recalls her uncle and cousins being killed.
On her new album, she continues her journey of self-discovery alongside the exploration of an archive of recordings from Radio Haiti that were acquired by North Carolina’s Duke University in 2016. Radio Haiti was the first independent radio station to report the local news there in Haitian Kreyol. Active from 1957 to 2003, the station became a hub of Haitian politics, society and culture.
Upon acquiring the archives, McCalla was commissioned to create a multi-disciplinary theatre project with them, which became Breaking The Thermometer. The album combines original compositions and traditional Haitian tunes with historical broadcasts and contemporary interviews to forge an immersive sonic journey through the tumult of social and political unrest in late 20th century Haiti.
“While many of the songs on the album are inspired by the listening that I have done in the archive, much of the album is deeply self-reflective – integrating experiences that I have had navigating life as a child both in the US and Haiti, my journey in claiming my Haitian-American identity and understanding the experiences, sacrifices and challenges overcome by my immigrant relatives”, McCalla explains.
She has shared a video for the new song and single ‘Vini Wè’, inspired by the love story of Radio Haiti station owner and journalist Jean Dominique and his wife and fellow journalist Michéle Montas. Putting themselves in harm’s way every day for the right to a free and independent press, Dominique was assassinated at the station in 2000, alongside his security guard Jean-Claude Louissaint. The track comes alongside a video directed by Zuri Obi.
Speaking of the song McCalla says: “I also felt that this collection of songs needed a moment to acknowledge the possibility and hope that love can offer us, despite what the world throws at us. Vini Wè Soley Leve – means come see the sunrise”.
Pre-order Breaking The Thermometer here:
https://leylamccalla.ffm.to/breakingthethermometer
Explore the Radio Haiti digital archives here:
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/radiohaiti