Various Artists - Holding up Half the Sky: Voices of Latin Women (CD)

All Music Guide

Granted that this collection is limited by being part of a valuable series introducing great women singers from around the world, but its most valuable legacy may be illustrating the fallacy of the term Hispanic--singing in Spanish is about the only unifying element to be found in the wide range of musical styles here. Compiler/producer Daisann McLane candidly acknowledges that doing justice to the theme would require several volumes and opted to select 13 personal favorites that thrilled her.

Which is totally cool but raises other issues--a track like the late Patricia Teheran's vallenato ballad “Tarde Lo Conocí" may have special meaning for McLane because of circumstances she details in the liner notes but that doesn't mean the song will connect with other listeners. And why on earth select a lukewarm Albita track but leave off the totally commanding masterpiece “Que Viva Chango/Santa Barbara" by her acknowledged vocal godmama, the mighty Celina Gonzalez?

Musically, it makes no sense to have Celia Cruz and Lydia Mendoza on the same disc--they are queenpins of their respective traditions, but those draw on radically different elements. Good sequencing might permit shifts from accordion-driven Dominican merengue through Tex-Mex norteno and Colombian cumbia to the flashing trumpets and clave rhythms of Cuban son and its variants. But the transitions here are way too jarring--sticking in Fefita La Grande's hyper merengue as the bridge between Cruz and Mendoza doesn't come close to making it.

Even a horn-driven big band common thread can't link up La Lupe's Cuban-American blend, the smooth cumbia of La India Meliyra, and La India's impressive “Llegó La India" with music handled by Latin jazz's most radical innovator, Eddie Palmieri. Then Paracumbe's “Cico Mangual" jumps to African-roots percussion and voices (think Toto La Momposina if she hailed from Puerto Rico), back to Cuban son and impressive vocal fireworks by Omara Portuondo, and another abrupt shift to acoustic guitar-driven Afro-Peru (a la Susana Baca) on Lucila Campos' “Tío Goyo." Maria Teresa Vera's “Veinte Años" is from ‘20s generation Cuba and while Lola Beltran may be another queenpin, “Grítenme Piedras Del Campo" just sounds like the kind of overwrought vocalizing that gave rise to Latin spitfire stereotypes.