Girls Are Rad: Mil i Maria
Maria del Rocio Herrera Alonso of Mil i Maria traverses language and time.
I’ve always had an obsessive fondness for Spanish and Portuguese–language music, my inability to remember a single lesson from high school Spanish class be damned. And no, it wasn’t Ricky Martin or Enrique Iglesias trilling Spanglish chorus repeats that got my attention; it was the female vocalists with acoustic guitars and a story to tell that did it. Hell, it was even the burning and distinctive soundtrack that kept me from turning off Love In the Time Of Cholera, despite the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad plotline. And now that the “world music” tag has made it through its heyday to become an overused and politically incorrect term, the Internet has helped foster the growth of all genres, and the Latin music craze in America has come and gone and come again, it appears to have finally dawned on native English-speakers that music is, in fact, a global language—despite the dialect it may come packaged in.
Maria del Rocio Herrera Alonso is a reflection of these principles. She began writing and performing in Brazil in 2003 and has been developing the group Mil i Maria since then, which is currently based in Madrid and includes herself on guitar and vocals (be it Spanish, Portuguese, or English), Rafael de la Torre Coca on guitar, and Rawle Bruce on bass. Mil i Maria are releasing their debut, Nadie es Nadie (“No One Is No One”) this month through the newly formed BlancoMusic, a label pinned firmly under the creative thumb of Robin Taylor-Firth (Nightmares On Wax), who also co-wrote the album. Nadie es Nadie encompasses the charming, pared-down nature of Shakira’s 1996 breakout, Pies Descalzos, but Herrera Alonso brings many more years of experience and wisdom to the table, along with a wider variety of musical influences: fado ballads, flamenco, French grande chanson poetry (her robust vocals have been compared to Edith Piaf’s), and South American locales.
The album opens on the contradictory Portuguese track, “Eu Quero,” where lines roughly translate to “I want to be behind and always in front / I want to conquer and always lose.” She gets a little more upbeat during Caribbean-influenced tracks like “Trabajo Temporal” and “Ta Na Rua.” But overall, Herrera Alonso constructs a complex story instrumentally and vocally, heard during the tempestuous “Vivo en Penumbra” and “Sau Paulo,” whose lyrics contain the line that Nadie es Nadie’s title was taken from—a song which circulates around stands in São Paulo that sell glue to young street kids. “NYC” and “I’m Going” are the two tracks with English lyrics on the album and prove that, whether she’s being mournful, poignant, or playful, Herrera Alonso will impress you most with the strength and agility of her unyielding voice.
Posted by Leah Urbom on Nov 05, 2009 @ 9:00 am