7/20/2023 0 Comments Alisa amador![]() ![]() Hear "Milonga accidental" below, and listen to our full conversation with Amador above. "I do not take this lightly." She says her friends call these life-changing curveballs "an intervention from the universe." We're so glad Amador took a fifth swing. "And these have been uniquely, painfully, difficult times." Amador admits that just before Boilen called her to let her know she'd won, she had been feeling so tired that she didn't think she could keep pursuing music, but was grieving the thought of letting it go. "A career in independent music is challenging in good times," Amador says. ![]() In the past few months, Amador says she had actually been considering an exit from a career in music. Amador says that finding out she won brought on a mix of emotions – both immense excitement and wondering, "Oh my God, what am I going to do with this?" Past Tiny Desk Contest winners have gone on to win Grammy awards and write for Broadway, Kelly points out. "Cuando sabré descifrar mi razón? / Cuando sentiré mi hogar en mi voz?" ("When will I know how to decipher my purpose? / When will I feel at home in my voice?"), she sings in her winning entry. She explains that "Milonga accidental" is an ode to feeling like she doesn't fit neatly into any one box. "It's a really driving rhythm." She says she's always identified with her family's roots in Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Mexico and all of the other places her family is from. "Milgona," from the song's title, "is a folk rhythm from Argentina and Uruguay," Amador tells All Thing Considered's Mary Louise Kelly. For this year, she tried something new: She submitted a song sung entirely in Spanish, with a video that included what she calls an "animated visual translation of the lyrics." ![]() This was Amador's fifth year submitting a song to the Contest in the hope that it would earn her a performance behind series creator Bob Boilen's famed Tiny Desk. A songwriter from Boston, Mass., her entry "Milonga accidental" rose to the top of the thousands NPR Music received this year. With a sound described by Vance Gilbert as, “Shawn Colvin meets Joni Mitchell has lunch with Amy Winehouse meets Suzanne Vega and Diana Krall,” and NPR calls, “a pitch-perfect rendition of my wildest dreams,” her soulful singing, poetically incisive lyrics, and syncopated rhythms, are likely to make you cry, laugh and dance all within one set.Today, Morning Edition announced the winner of the eighth annual Tiny Desk Contest: Alisa Amador. Blurb:Īlisa Amador’s music is a synthesis of the many styles she’s voraciously absorbed: rock, jazz, funk and alternative folk, all wrapped in the spirit of the Latin music she grew up with. Whoever you are, whatever your struggle, pain, or joy – you belong at an Alisa Amador concert. Everyone who shows up –who participates in the revolutionary act of listening– is a part of the experience. No matter what the setup, you can be sure of this: no one leaves a concert unmoved. And, it’s not uncommon for her parents to grace the stage for a song or two. And Noah Harrington, a lauded bassist who has played in Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall, festivals across continents, and studied with luminaries such as David Hope, Kayhan Kalhour, Béla Fleck, Mike Marshall, and Julian Lage.Ĭome to a concert and you might see Alisa performing solo with her hollow body electric guitar, or harmonizing originals and jazz covers with Noah Harrington singing and playing upright bass, or turning up the volume and syncopation with the help of Jacob Thompson on drums and vocals sometimes, you might even encounter a horn or string section. Jacob Thompson, a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter of his own right, who has collaborated with great songwriters across the country, from Grammy award-winner David Mullins to ASCAP award-winning singer-songwriter Erica Leigh. She picked up some incredible collaborators along the way. Alisa returned from Argentina with a renewed belief in the power of music to break down social, political, and emotional barriers and create a space where everyone belongs. Together they started an amplified band outfit that toured through Buenos Aires and the United States. Add a life-changing trip to Buenos Aires where she met the brilliant songwriter, Mica Ipiñazar and her husband Facundo Parla of the Argentine rock band, Rabiosa. It was in green rooms, living room rehearsals, and cramped mini vans that Alisa Amador received her first musical education, singing backup vocals since the age of five for her parents’ Latin band, Sol y Canto.īut, how did Alisa’s sound grow into the Latin- Jazz- Soul and Blues-influenced folk rock that it is today? Start with years of jazz study, solo performance, and training in vocal harmony and improvisation all while pursuing a degree in gender studies at Bates College in central Maine. ![]()
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