The musician and agitator Lalo López conspires once again to highlight the heritage of Great Black Music in Barcelona. And, as always, he does things in a big way. The guitarist, composer, and producer brings some of the best Catalan female voices of the moment to the stage of the Palau de la Música Catalana, to pay tribute to the great heroines who, with their vocal cords, have stitched together the history of black music, writing some of the most fundamental pages of that great audiobook that has brightened so many lives.
Through the show I’m a soul woman, Billie Holiday, Etta James, The Supremes, Barbara Lynn, Chaka Khan, Nina Simone, Tina Turner and, very especially, Aretha Franklin will come back to life next Thursday, November 26, at the hands of Myriam Swanson, Memi Sillah, Tonia Richii, Brigitte Emaga and Yasmina Azlor, with Monique Makon officiating as master of ceremonies.
But this is not just a musical story. This journey through the history of black music has the African-American woman as its absolute protagonist, in a totally hostile context for her, such as the United States of the 20th Century. A nation marked by racism and segregation that could result in the lynching of anyone who entered the wrong restroom to relieve themselves, exchanged a glance with a person of the wrong color, or simply happened to be there at the least opportune moment.
A country immersed in a struggle for Civil Rights that even today, so many decades later, still seem to be in question in so many circumstances. Amidst this panorama, black women faced the double obstacle of their skin and an inherent machismo in that society that cruelly and systematically dynamited their personal and professional development.
In this sense, I’m a Soul Woman vindicates their role, their greatness of art and spirit, remembering those heroines who insisted on singing against adverse winds and tides. Against that narrow-minded and drooling world that made them invisible or tried to crush them, without succeeding, without managing to kill that beauty capable of growing, in the form of beautiful songs, in those streets, towns, and ghettos destined to be dung heaps of misery, moral and otherwise. Thanks to them, beauty won.
A usual suspect
To carry out this heartfelt tribute to some of the greatest ladies of soul music, in a privileged setting such as Domènech i Montaner's musical temple, there seems to be no one more suitable than Lalo López, a true usual suspect of Barcelona's sound fabric.
Lalo has been a co-founder of the legendary Fundación Tony Manero and has been involved in various projects such as Cardova, Chocadelia Internacional, and Banda Achilifunk. Since 2022, he has been pursuing a solo career that includes two magnificent albums, Lalo malo and Todo por hacer.
For the November 26 show, he promises a repertoire that will include covers of classics such as Respect (Aretha Franklin), I’m every woman (Chaka Khan), Tainted love (Gloria Jones) I ain't no, I got life (Nina Simone) or Seven day fool (Etta James), with a backing band that includes Manu Davobe on keyboards, Charlie Moreno on bass, Kathy Benítez on drums, Haizea Martiartu on saxophone, Mila González on trumpet, María Cofán on trombone, and Sergio Del Boccio on backing vocals.