Leyla McCalla - Sun Without the Heat
“Once I get into Leyla — I can’t let her go” — Iggy Pop, 6 Music
“Uplifting and empowering … The album rejoices in her musical heritage.” – UNCUT
“Very little will sound as good tumbling over a festival audience this summer.” — The Guardian
“McCalla knows that you can’t have hope without fear, and she never ignores that the act of transformation itself can be traumatic. This edge, this acknowledgment of the stakes at play behind her messages of faith, pushes these songs past any risk of empty sentimentalism, and makes ‘Sun Without the Heat’ truly uplifting.” – MOJO
“It’s an exhilarating thing, hearing a musical virtuoso explore her voice’s unanticipated potential in all of the ways that Leyla McCalla does … tracing the intricate textures of post-colonial, pan-African experience with her poetic language of longing.” — NPR
Coming out this Friday, Leyla McCalla’s new album and fifth studio recording, ‘Sun Without the Heat’, is playful and full of joy while also holding the pain and tension of transformation. Throughout the record’s ten tracks, McCalla achieves a balance of heaviness and light with melodies and rhythms derived from various forms of Afro-diasporic music including Afrobeat, Ethiopian modalities, Brazilian Tropicalismo, and American folk and blues.
McCalla drew lyrical inspiration on this album from the writings of Black feminist Afrofuturist thinkers, including Octavia Butler, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and adrienne maree brown. Like these authors, McCalla looks to songwriting to increase faith and hope, encourage community thinking, and catalyze personal transformation. “Songwriting is a modality to tell the stories that need to be told,” she explains. “Sometimes these are painful stories to tell.”
Born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, McCalla’s music vibrates with three centuries of history and influences from around the globe. She possesses a stunning mastery of the cello, tenor banjo and guitar and, as a multilingual singer and songwriter, has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. In addition to her solo work, McCalla is a founding member of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell) and alumna of Grammy award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Her 2022 album ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ told the story of the brave journalists at Radio Haiti who risked their lives to report news in Haitian Kreyol, highlighting the critical importance of a free and independent press to promote self and societal liberation. ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ was named one of the Best Albums of the year by The Guardian, Variety, Mojo and NPR Music, and her song “Dodinin” made Barack Obama’s short list of favorites. McCalla was also awarded the 2022 People’s Voice Award by Folk Alliance International, an award given to artists who unabashedly embrace social change in their creative work.
All upcoming dates are HERE. Contact us with any requests!