Album Notes

Traditional Venezuelan folk music. Imported.

Vocalist Beatriz López delivers astonishingly natural phrasing in this sophisticated Merengue style in 5/8 time. Accompanied by the greatest talents of Venezuelan folk music who also play 3 instrumental Joropos.

The style Beatriz sang on this recording is the Merengue from Caracas. This recording was made in Caracas, in August of 1999 and August of 2000.

Our initial plan was just to record Beatriz singing Venezuelan music, accompanied by experienced musicians. As the musicians were chosen for the ensemble, though, the plan evolved. The producer, Mark Brown, an instrumentalist himself, led the ensemble in a much more democratic and creative direction, treating the voice as another instrument and giving everyone ample freedom to improvise and create. In this recording, you can hear this creativity in the accompaniments as well as in the solos. There are moments when the musicians are taking a lot of risks, but, because of their vast experience, they always come to a very satisfying resolution.

Some of the musicians on the recording are: Cheo Hurtado, David Peña, Mark P. Brown, Jesús Rengel, Ernesto Laya, Luis Pino, and Alexander Livinalli.

The quality of Beatriz' voice is very pleasant, and you can hear in her singing the experience she has in this style of music. One of her more attractive qualities is the spontaneity that she brings to each of her interpretations (and she has been singing some of these songs since she was an adolescent!). Beatriz is the perfect singer for this type of ensemble because of her generosity and humility. She left space for everyone to leave their mark on this recording, but at the same time, Beatriz' voice always shines through, with her great spirit and charisma.