Trova

Marta Topferova is an exciting example of a new generation of musician-composers as adept in Caribbean and South American music styles as if they’d imbibed them with their mother’s milk. It’s uncanny in Topferova’s case because, as a New York-based Czech, her affinity must come from pure inspiration and pleasure in the revived traditions and newly emergent music of the 1960s and 70s. And if I’m deliberately avoiding the term ‘Latin, it’s because, as an umbrella term, it would overshadow the fine attention to form, timbre and texture found on these original compositions, even if they are underpinned by the familiar rhythms of Cuban son and guajira (on ‘Largo El Camino’, ‘Descarga de la Esperanza’) and Argentinian chacarara (on ‘Entre A Mi Pago Sin Golpear’, ‘La Amapola’ and ‘Las Lucernagas’). Topferova’s fifth album moves us straight into the warm embrace of Cuban trova characterised by the serenading sound of the Cuban tres, a three-stringed guitar, played by Aaron Halva. Her band are sophisticates when it comes to arrangements, imparting melancholy into captivating compositions such as ‘Largo El Camino’, on which Halva solos over Pedro Giraudo’s walking bass. Neil Ochoa provides superb percussion throughout, with Roland Satterwhite on violin (heard to great charanga-style effect on ‘Vuelo de Cigüeña’).

Topferova’s voice is shapely, while her singing styles show her to be a chameleon – a blend of Lila Downs and Lhasa de Sela, with traces of Chavela Vargas and Mercedes Sosa. While this might suggest she’s not quite found her own true voice yet, with such a singular take on things she’s more than on the way.