HomeMusicLeyla McCalla - 'Breaking the Thermometer' Review

Leyla McCalla – ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ Review

Singer-songwriter and cellist Leyla McCalla is no stranger to mixing personal narrative and broader social history. She’s done it not only on her solo albums, but as member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters. Her latest album ‘Breaking The Thermometer’ places her personal story in the context of her parents’ home country, Haiti. Throughout, the album incorporates field recordings and radio clips with McCalla’s original music, which includes vocals in thee languages: English, Kreyol, and French.

Field recordings from Haiti’s shore bring us into the album on the first track, “Nan Fon Bwa,” an adaptation of a folk song McCalla first heard performed by the guitarist Amos Coulange on a Radio Haiti broadcast. Those sounds give us the setting, while the dialogue between the artist and her mother about a trip to the island nation places the artist directly into the narrative.

McCalla’s examination of contemporary Haitian history occasionally ranges so broadly that it stretches further than her self-insertion can bear out. ‘Fort Dimance’ which combines her original songwriting with archival footage, is a strong piece of work, but it’s hard to see the direct connections between the places where McCalla has inserted herself into the album and this discussion of the horrors of the Duvalier regime. It’s easier to see the connections with ‘Ekzile’, a harrowing account of escaping from Haiti, and in the lyrics of ‘Donidin’, which are a poem written by a refugee journalist.

Leyla McCalla
Credit: NoƩ Cugny

The same character depicted in ‘Ekzile’ also appears in the love story ‘Vini Me’ deepening the impact of both songs.The most intimate songs on the album are ‘You Don’t Me’  and ‘Memory Song’. The former reimagines a TropicĆ”lia tune written bythe exiled Brazilian musician and activist Caetano Veloso as a meditation on McCallaā€™s Haitian roots, while the latter looks how histories of intergenerational trauma shape us.

McCalla completed this projected using the Radio Haiti archives at Duke University; the institution requested she use the archives to request an original work. McCalla was somewhat hesitant, as she was born in the United States. But her parents are from Haiti, and her connections to the Caribbean nation are strong, through her time spent in Haiti itself as well as living in New Orleans, which is heavily influenced by Haitian culture. This makes McCalla the ideal artist to work on this project, and it’s difficult to imagine anyone else having made better use of the archives.McCalla’s cello work is a highlight; she’s also been a terrific player, and she turns in another excellent performance. Rhiannon Giddens was the star vocalist of the Chocolate Drops, but McCalla’s singing is quite strong in its own right.

This album is going to matter more as a piece of folk culture than as a piece of pop music; it is going to be an important piece of historical commentary. McCalla has done terrific work her in combining personal biography with social history, making use, in the process, with unique materials, which have allowed her to produce an album that stands out.

Track list: 1. Nan Fon Bwa 2. Fort DimancheĀ 3. Bon AppĆ©tit Messieurs 4. Le Bal est Fini 5. Dan Reken 6. Dodinin 7. Ekzile 8. Pouki 9. You Don’t Know Me 10. Jean and MichĆØle 11. Vini WeĀ  12. Artibonite 13. Still Looking 14. Memory Song 15. Boukman’s Prayer Record label: Self Released Release date: May 6th 2022 Buy ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ now

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