Leyla McCalla: Vari-Colored Songs – A Tribute to Langston Hughes

Leyla McCalla: Vari-Colored Songs – A Tribute to Langston Hughes

April 14, 2021

Virtuous Circle Listening Post 298. Leyla McCalla stands enigmatically on the cover of Vari-Colored Songs, her dress pattern suggesting the solution to a puzzle: Connect the dots. On the album she sings eight Langston Hughes poems that she set to music, five...
Lakou Mizik: HaitiaNola

Lakou Mizik: HaitiaNola

April 21, 2020

Home Away from Home Listening Post 249. Iko Iko is a much-covered song about the collision of two Mardi Gras Indian tribes. On their second album, the Haitian ensemble Lakou Mizik reworks it as Iko Kreyòl, leaving the cryptic chorus intact but applying new verses...