Mercedes Sosa (1935-2009)
"Mercedes was the greatest voice and had the biggest heart for those who suffer. … She sang for her people and her American [continent], but her universal chant was heard throughout the world. Her voice resonated in the heart like an embrace."
— Shakira
I don't recall a second of my life in which Mercedes Sosa was not a superstar.
From an early age, in the late '60s, I knew that the Argentine with the blackest and straightest of hair and the most enigmatic eyes I had ever seen was some kind of badass singer my parents (and everyone around us) adored. Later on, I became a devotee myself, as soon as I heard her voice for the first time. I don't remember what song it was; all I remember is that it was a voice that seemed to be simultaneously coming straight from the center of the earth and from beyond the earth. It was an entirely spiritual affair.
And finally, as I'm writing this, it hit me: "La Negra" is gone.
Mercedes Sosa, 74, inarguably the greatest living singer in Latin America, and arguably the greatest ever, died on October 4 in Buenos Aires from complications from kidney disease. She spent most of her last 13 days in a pharmacological coma, until her body gave in. The Argentine government declared three days of mourning, and her body was displayed in the National Congress, where thousands of fans showed up to say goodbye. Her body was cremated on October 5.
Even though Sosa's fame spread well beyond the confines of the Río de la Plata (her recording career spanned 50 years and dozens of styles, and she could sell out both Carnegie Hall and the Roman Coliseum, as she did in 2002), to everyone she was Mercedes Sosa. For Argentines and Uruguayans, however, she was La Negra, a vocal powerhouse who sang to each one of us and who single-handedly destroyed stylistic differences just by opening her mouth. She wasn't the first artist to delve into folk and rock (to name two of the many styles she recorded), but none had the reputation and respectability to tell the folkies that rock 'n' roll was cool, or to tell the rockers that you cannot be a true rockero unless you appreciate the best native folk has to offer. Her first big statements on this were her monumental live recordings at the Buenos Aires Opera in 1982, when she returned from forced exile and called on rockeros and folkloristas to sing with her. Later on, she solidified that dialogue with Alta fidelidad (1997), a classic album written and produced by Charly García, Argentina's number-one rocker.
As noted in Sosa's New York Times obituary, Joan Baez (who illustrated the cover of Sosa's 2005 Latin Grammy-winning Corazón libre) once said that Sosa was "monumental in stature, a brilliant singer with tremendous charisma who is both a voice and a persona. ... I have never seen anything like her. ... As far as performers go, she is simply the best."
In total, Sosa won three Latin Grammy awards and will probably win at least one of her two new nominations for Cantora, her latest double CD of collaborations (winners will be announced in November). But I'll always remember her for her incredible voice and for my two encounters with her.
The first took place in LA in the mid-'90s. AIDS-stricken Juan Carlos Nagel, a writer for La Opinión and a friend of Sosa, had helped organize a show for her at UCLA's Wadsworth Theater. Months before his death, Nagel attended in a wheelchair, and at the end of the show Sosa dedicated the performance to him. As we were leaving the theater, a visibly moved Nagel asked me, "Did she really say that? Did Mercedes Sosa dedicate her show to me? I can die now. … I can die now." Such was Sosa's stature, even among friends.
The last time I saw her was in LA in 2000, right after she won her first Latin Grammy for Misa Criolla. Even though I had written the official program book for the event (as I would do with the next two editions), I had mixed feelings about the whole voting process: Many major artists with superb albums were ignored, but some major artists, like Mercedes Sosa, earned deserved recognition. It was the first Latin Grammys, and her classy acceptance speech (and her mere presence) was a much-needed endorsement for an event that began on shaky ground. On a personal level, seeing her with the gramophone in hand made me a believer — yes, perhaps it is possible for the music industry to do both business and art.
As she was walking out, followed by her staff, press, friends, and a handful of fans backstage, I mentioned this to her, and asked her if this honor helped to somehow soothe the pain and persecution she had to endure for some time due to her social conscience and commitment to human-rights movements. She smiled, looked at the gramophone, and replied, "Y tú qué crees?" ("What do you think?")
"Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto" (Thanks to life, that has given me so much) she sang in the ultimate version of Violeta Parra's "Gracias a la vida," her greatest hit. Today, the outpouring of affection and recognition for her remarkable career is nothing but life giving thanks to her. •
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/10/07/2009-10-07_her_voice_wont_die.html or http://tinyurl.com/yae65yb
Mercedes Sosa's voice won't die
Wednesday, October 7th 2009, 4:00 AM
In the torrent of reaction to the death on Sunday of the legendary Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, the words of René (Residente) Pérez, the Puerto Rican rapper from the duo Calle 13, stand out.
The 31-year-old Pérez and the 74-year-old Sosa would seem to have little in common, yet he is one of 21 artists who sang with "La Negra" on her last album, "Cantora," released in the U.S. last week.
Their song "Canción Para un Niño en la Calle" ("Song for a Child on the Street") is a devastating tribute to homeless children. Sosa's iconic vibrant voice contrasts powerfully with Pérez's rapping in Spanish.
On Sunday, Pérez wrote a letter about the legacy of Sosa, whose music decried injustice — from hunger and poverty to the notorious civil rights abuses of Latin America's military regimes, which led to the disappearance of thousands of civilians in the '70s.
"Her voice connected me to everything that school didn't want to teach me. Revealed what they tried to hide," Pérez wrote.
"With her voice, 'the disappeared' appear and hug their mothers," he continued.
"She got folk music heard louder than a Madonna song. She gave substance to the young."
"Cantora" is a compilation from "Cantora 1" and "Cantora 2," which were released earlier this year in Latin America. Volume 1 is up for three Latin Grammys at the Nov. 5 ceremony in Las Vegas.
"Cantora" features duets with many Spanish-speaking music greats, including Shakira, Argentine rockers Charly García and Gustavo Cerati, Spaniards Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina and Mexicans Lila Downs and Julieta Venegas.
Listening to the CD's 18 tracks, we may yearn to hear more of Sosa's voice, but this collaboration album gives comfort that the torch has been passed.
"Today she dies but her voice remains as reference for future voices," Pérez said.
"Mercedes Sosa was a woman who dared talk like no man has been able to. Her voice is as real as the needs of Latin America."
mjunco@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/10/07/2009-10-07_her_voice_wont_die.html#ixzz0TMXG2C2s
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/04/arts/AP-LT-Argentina-Obit-Mercedes-Sosa.html?_r=1
Mercedes Sosa, Argentine Folk Singer, Is Dead at 74
Mercedes Sosa performed in Quito, Ecuador, in 2007.
Filed at 1:40 p.m. ET
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, the ''voice of Latin America'' whose music inspired opponents of South America's brutal military regimes and led to her forced exile in Europe, died Sunday, her family said. She was 74.
Her remains lay in state at the National Congress, where thousands of people -- many with flowers or Argentine flags -- lined up to pay respects to one of the region's most iconic voices.
''She was the best ambassador the country ever had,'' said Clara Suarez, 63, holding a bouquet of white flowers outside the Congress.
Sosa was best known for signature tunes such as ''Gracias a la Vida'' (''Thanks to Life'') and ''Si se Calla el Cantor'' (''If the Singer is Silenced''). She had been in the hospital for more than two weeks with liver problems and had since been suffering from progressive kidney failure and cardiac arrest.
Her latest album, ''Cantora 1,'' is nominated for three prizes in next month's Latin Grammy awards in Las Vegas, including album of the year and best folkloric album.
Affectionately dubbed ''La Negra'' or ''The Black One'' by fans for her mixed Indian and distant French ancestry, Sosa was born July 9, 1935, to a poor, working-class family in the sugarcane country of northwest Tucuman province.
Early on she felt the allure of popular traditions and became a teacher of folkloric dance.
At the age of 15, friends impressed by her talent encouraged Sosa to enter a local radio contest under the pseudonym ''Gladys Osorio.'' She won a two-month contract with the broadcaster -- the first of many accolades over a career that continued until her final days.
''I didn't choose to sing for people,'' Sosa said in a recent interview on Argentine television. ''Life chose me to sing.''
By the 1970s she was recognized as one of the South American troubadours who gave rise to the ''nuevo cancionero'' (New Songbook) movement -- singers including Chile's Victor Jara and Violeta Parra, Argentina's Victor Heredia and Uruguay's Alfredo Zitarrosa who mixed leftist politics with poetic musings critical of the ruling juntas and their iron-fisted curtailment of civil liberties and human rights abuses.
In 1972, Sosa released the socially and politically charged album ''Hasta la Victoria'' (''Till Victory''). Her sympathies with communist movements and support for leftist parties attracted close scrutiny and censorship at a time when blending politics with music was a dangerous occupation -- Jara was tortured and shot to death by soldiers following Chile's 1973 military coup.
In 1979, a year after being widowed from her second husband, Sosa was detained along with an entire audience of about 200 students while singing in La Plata, a university city hit hard by military rule.
''I remember when they took me prisoner,'' she told The Associated Press in late 2007. ''I was singing for university kids who were in the last year of veterinary school. It wasn't political.''
She walked free 18 hours later under international pressure and after paying a $1,000 fine, but was forced to leave her homeland.
''I knew I had to leave,'' Sosa told the AP. ''I was being threatened by the Triple A (a right-wing death squad that terrorized suspected dissidents during the 1976-83 military junta). The people from the navy, the secret services were following me.''
With three suitcases and a handbag she headed to Spain, then France, becoming a wandering minstrel. Her pianist and musical director, Popi Spatocco, said exile was exceedingly harsh for a woman who loved Argentina.
Sosa returned home to wide acclaim in 1982 in the final months of the dictatorship, which she would ultimately outlive by a quarter-century.
The following year she released the eponymous album ''Mercedes Sosa,'' which contained several tracks considered among her greatest hits: ''Un Son para Portinari'' and ''Maria Maria''; along with ''Inconsciente Colectivo'' by Charly Garcia; ''La Maza'' and ''Unicornio'' by Silvio Rodriguez; ''Corazon Maldito'' by Violeta Parra; and ''Me Yoy pa'l Mollar,'' together with Margarita Palacios.
Late in life, with South America's military regimes consigned to the dustbin of history, Sosa remained relevant by tapping powerful, universal emotions, singing about stopping war and ending poverty, about finding love and losing loved ones.
''There's no better example of artistic honesty,'' her nephew and fellow singer Chucho Sosa said in 2007. ''Her songs reflects how she is in life.''
Sosa won Latin Grammy Awards for Best Folk Album for ''Misa Criolla'' in 2000, ''Acustico'' in 2003 and ''Corazon Libre'' in 2006.
She also acted in films such as ''El Santo de la Espada'' (''The Knight of the Sword''), about Argentine independence hero Gen. Jose de San Martin.
All told, Sosa recorded more than 70 albums; the latest, a double CD titled ''Cantora 1'' and ''Cantora 2,'' is a collection of folkloric classics performed with contemporary Latin American and Spanish stars such as Shakira, Fito Paez, Julieta Venegas, Joaquin Sabina, Lila Downs and Calle 13.
The vigil will continue until midday Monday, her brother Orlando Sosa said, then her remains will be cremated.
The city of Buenos Aires suspended all artistic activities Sunday, including postponing celebrations of the fact that the tango was declared part of the world's cultural heritage by the United Nations last week.
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