Breaking The Thermometer

Description

The singer travels through her Haitian roots in this sublime new album.
Leyla McCalla finds her inspiration in her past and present. Whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted city, New Orleans, she - a bilingual multi-instrumentalist and former member of the Grammy Award-winning African American group Carolina Chocolate Drops - has managed to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and her experience. Leyla McCalla has produced a multidisciplinary work of music, dance, and theater, Breaking the Thermometer, which follows her personal journey as she uncovers the history of Radio Haïti, the first radio station on the island to broadcast news in Haitian Creole - the voice of the people. Through this juxtaposition of voices - personal and political, anecdotal and journalistic - McCalla expresses the enduring spirit of the marginalized poor of Haiti in the face of several centuries of political oppression. To create Breaking the Thermometer, it was necessary to listen to countless archival recordings of interviews conducted by the journalists of Radio Haïti, and McCalla specifically wrote "Fort Dimanche" after listening to a testimonial interview that Michele Montas - former journalist and station director - had conducted with a survivor of Duvalier's political prison. This album is a sort of soundtrack to the play that Leyla McCalla wrote and performed for this work.