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Breaking The Thermometer

by Leyla McCalla

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Griffyn Louis Denizard
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Griffyn Louis Denizard Beautiful rhythmic intrications, marvelous acoustic arrangements delivered with a delicious recording sound. When hard memories are transcended by music. Congratulation for the talented work.
Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss
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Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss Love the sampling and multi-lingual vocals spanning the album. Had a tough time picking a favorite between Fort Dimanche, You Don't Know Me, and Vini We Favorite track: You Don't Know Me.
Lute FP
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Lute FP I suppose there should be a genre called “world Americana”, and if there were, this would be it.

Leyla played with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and if you don’t know them you should, and if you do know them, then enough said.

This is masterful, soulful folk music fused with afro rhythms and audio samples from Haitian archives. Sung in French, this is truly a musical melting pot.
Brian Condra
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Brian Condra What an incredible album! Leyla McCalla is an amazing, gifted and most of all inspirational artist.
defiantcreatrix
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defiantcreatrix This is great! I love the instrumentation and the writing, and honestly I'm just a sucker for French.
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1.
Nan Fon Bwa 04:36
2.
3.
4.
5.
Dan Reken 02:38
6.
Dodinin 03:28
7.
Ekzile 03:16
8.
Pouki 04:11
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10.
11.
Vini We 04:34
12.
Artibonite 02:50
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14.
Memory Song 03:53
15.

credits

released May 6, 2022

Produced by Kevin Ratterman

All songs written by Leyla McCalla/Makala Music (ASCAP), c/o Strictly Confidential, except “Nan Fon Bwa” (Composed by Frantz Casseus/Haitiana Music Company), “Dan Reken” (Traditional; Words by Richard Brisson), “Dodinin” (Atis Indepandan), “Pouki” (Manno Charlemagne), “You Don’t Know Me” (Caetano Veloso/Terra Enterprises, Inc), “Artibonite” (Lyrics by Leyla McCalla; Melody by Louis Lesly Marcelin, “Sanba Zao”), “Boukman’s Prayer” (Music by Leyla McCalla; Words by Dutty Boukman)

Memories of Haiti come to me in waves.

As my work on the theater piece Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever began to materialize, I began to also hear an album in the making. After years of digesting audio recordings from the Radio Haiti archive housed at Duke University, with guidance from director Kiyoko McCrae and archivist Laura Wagner, I started to imagine how my personal story, the story of Radio Haiti and the story of Haiti-US relations could be connected through song in one album. 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. This story is mine in many ways and yet belongs to the greater movement for freedom of speech and human rights worldwide.
— Leyla McCalla

This album is dedicated to Michèle Montas, the eternal Jean Dominique, and all of Radio Haiti’s journalists.

Music and Radio Haiti archival recordings from this album appear in Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, a muli-disciplinary music, dance and theatre work developed by Leyla McCalla with collaborator Kiyoko McCrae.

Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is made possible with support by: MAP Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New Music USA, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, South Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Duke Performances at Duke University, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, MDC Live Arts – Miami Dade College, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Breaking the Thermometer is a project of Duke Performances’ ongoing From the Archives initiative in which performing artists create works engaging archival materials from Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Explore Radio Haiti recordings here: repository.duke.edu/dc/radiohaiti

CREDITS
Leyla McCalla, vocals, cello, tenor banjo, guitar; Shawn Myers , drums, percussion; Pete Olynciw, electric & upright bass; Jeff Pierre, tanbou; Nahum Johnson Zdybel, guitars; with special guest vocalist Melissa Laveaux on “Pouki”
Mixed & Mastered by Kevin Ratterman, Invisible Creature Studios in Los Angeles, CA
Management: Noelle Panepento & Carissa Stolting, Left Bank Artists
noelle.panepento@gmail.com / carissa.stolting@icloud.com / www.leftbankartists.com
Fundraising: Celine Thackston, Unmanageable Arts, www.unmgmt.org
Booking: Virginia Prater, Prater Day, virginia@praterday.com (N. America) & Jean Herve Michel, Nueva Onda, jeanherve@nuevaonda.fr (EUR)
Cover photography by Noé Cugny; Inside photography by Rush Jagoe
Design by Noelle Panepento & Gina Leslie

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Leyla McCalla New Orleans, Louisiana

Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present. Whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, she — a bilingual multi-instrumentalist and alumna of Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops — has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. ... more

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