Maria will be performing at the incredible Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA on August 4 and at La Peña in Berkeley, CA on August 12. The first is a performance with her quartet featuring Pedro Giraudo (bass), Octavio Brunetti (piano) and Franco Pinna (drums). In California, Maria will perform her one-woman show “Maria Volonte: Intima.” See you there!

 

 Postales: Play Now | Play in Popup

The new album from celebrated Argentine vocalist and Latin Grammy nominee María Volonté is her most personal yet, featuring four of her own compositions along with exquisite versions of classic songs from Latin America.

Sudestada is an intense album. The title comes from the south-easterly gales that whip the shores of Buenos Aires where María lives. As she writes in the liner notes, “All I have seen, all I dreamed, all I lived, all I saved and all I lost, resides in these beloved songs.”

In Sudestada, María continues to put the rich musical traditions of the Rio de la Plata region – tango, milonga, chacarera, candombe – to good use as she explores a deeply personal terrain of femininity, desire, love, loss and passion.

Guest artists include guitarist Lucho Gonzalez on Chabuca Granda’s “La Flor de la Canela,” bandoneonist Walter Ríos on “Los Mareados,” and Uruguayan electric bassist Daniel Maza. The album also includes a duet with tango singer Caracol on a song the two artists composed together. The album was produced by famed singer-songwriter and producer Raúl Carnota.

Maria signed with Acqua Records to release her new CD “Sudestada” in Argentina. Acqua is the leading Argentine independent label and boasts a distinguished catalogue of artists including Raul Carnota, Franco Luciani, Quique Sinesi, Horacio Molina, and Willy Gonzalez, among many others. www.acqua-records.com

Marzo 2007 – El nuevo CD de María Volonté, “Yo soy María”, ha sido nominado para el Premio Carlos Gardel, dándole su tercera postulación al máximo galardón de la música argentina.

Los tres últimos discos de María fueron nominados para este premio y en el 2004, con “Fuimos”, ganó el Gardel y recibió además una nominación para el Grammy Latino.

En su nuevo álbum, María fusiona los clásicos del tango – tales como “El último café” y “Nostalgias” — con jazz y bossa nova. Ella lleva el tango a lugares insospechados, expandiendo las fronteras estilísticas a través de un enfoque de la música profundamente personal.

Tal como el “Los Angeles Times” describió: “Volonté es un buen ejemplo de una artista respetuosa de sus raíces que no teme ir más allá de las fórmulas consagradas…su concepción musical es renovadora y abierta.”

El disco fue producido por Daniel García y grabado en Buenos Aires en 2006 con el acompañimiento de su Quinteto Tangoloco.

La buena noticia llega mientras María arranca con su presentación en Buenos Aires durante los meses de marzo y abril en el exitoso show “Enamorándote”, junto a Chico Novarro.

Maria contributed a track to the CD accompanying Elsa Osorio’s new novel

February 2007 — When Elsa Osorio was writing her new novel “Cielo de Tango,” she drew inspiration for her fictional tango singer Rosa Leyra from real-life tango singer María Volonté.

The novel, recently released across Europe, tells the saga of two families at opposite ends of the Buenos Aires social spectrum. Rosa, one of the protagonists, sings tango with an intensity garnered from the rough life she has lived.

For the European launch, the author personally selected 11 tango songs to be included in a soundtrack CD, including two sung by Maria. The idea was to allow readers to hear the music of Buenos Aires – itself an important character in the book – and the music that was running through Osorio’s head as she wrote her new book.

“Rosa’s voice — from the first moment it appeared in the manuscript – was María Volonté’s,” Osorio says. “Rosa has María’s force and her passion. As one of my characters says, ‘When you sang to me, you felt each and every word as your own. The stories you told were happening to you, that was your secret.’

“María Volonté’s voice,” says Osorio, “together with the voices of Amalia Rodrígues and María Bethania, form the soundtrack of my life.”

For the album “Tango: Les musiques d’un livre,” Volonté sang “Apología Tanguera” and recorded a special version of “Nostalgias” accompanied only by guitars, giving it the sound it would have had in the 1920s when Rosa sings it in the book.

Elsa Osorio has published eight novels that have been translated into 17 languages in 24 countries. She is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Amnesty International Prize. “Cielo de Tango,” her latest book, has been published in Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Portugal and Germany.

Links:
Elsa Osorio’s web site: www.elsaosorio.com

Listen to the version of “Nostalgias” that Maria recorded to accompany the book:

 

 Nostalgias: special version: Play Now | Play in Popup