Canter Bridge

Sometimes an artist with formidable cross-genre credits returns to her roots, as much for her own soul’s sake as to mine a promising market. The results are often mixed, for spanning multiple blocks of fans is more than just a technical feat. As often enough, the broadening loosens the soil that surrounds the roots. To be widely admired is, often inevitably, to be far from home.

Still, Gloria Estefan’s 2000 Alma Caribeña goes a long way towards disproving that this sad prognosis is set in stone. The angry,anguished, haunted `Por un beso’ promises that the artist has not roamed far from the Cuban taproot of her music, but it is track two’s `Punto de Referencia’ that stakes her claim to own a piece of the land from which the tree itself springs. It is beautiful, understated, self-assured. Think Celia Cruz with the softness of Gloria at her most accessible. The confessional tone of `Dame otra oportunidad’ frames a poetic lament for a lover’s cruel indiferencia. Like so many other tones on this album, its balladic principal theme becomes complemented by some brilliant and subversively upbeat rhythm and brass before reverting to Gloria feeling bad about herself with minimal accompaniment.

Some of the works bear an otherworldly beauty, the music shimmering, the lyrics flowing off Gloria’s lips as though she woke up one morning murmuring uninvited words. `Cómo me duele perderte’ is one of these. Its opening stops the heart.

Cómo duele el día nublado
Cómo el tiempo es tan pasado
Sí, porque a diario pienso en ti.

Qué bien grita el silencio
Qué bien duelen los recuerdos
Sí, porque todo habla de ti

Qué delicia tu sensualidad
Qué locura cuando te sentía muy de cerca
Y ahora que estás lejos
Hasta el universo ha muerto …

Cómo me duele
Qué pequeño se hace el cielo
Qué humillante es el deseo
Sí, porque ya no estás aquí.

Qué sincero se hace el frío
Como hielo mi sufrimiento
Ya no sé lo que es vivir …..

Como me duele perderte …

This is classic Gloria, at ease with her style, not tempted to over-sing, backed by unsurpassable Carribean musicans. The word exquisite should not be over-used, yet it presses its way repeatedly into this listener’s thoughts.

Then there is the entirely alternative magic of Gloria paired with the late Celia Cruz in the jaunty `Tres Gotas de Agua Bendita’. A splendid little repartee between the two Cuban-born ladies of song makes one grateful this track was recorded before Celia’s time has run its course.

There are other gems in here and perhaps one or two throw-aways. The cumulative value is strong. Often the instrumentals are as impressive than Gloria’s own performance or even a bit more so. This is not uncommon in Cuban/Carribean music, where the marriage between soloist and band is as tight as in any musical genre but where the band often vastly outnumbers the lady (or the man) up front. Celia–of recent mention–made a career out of not getting lost in front of massive and celebratable instrumentation. Gloria pulls the same off here. There is not competition between the two, only solid musical reciprocity.

Gloria is to be saluted for becoming a crossover artist the mainstream English-language market while refusing to lose her roots in the process. Alma Caribeña shows just how deep into her native soil those fine roots still run.