Eva! Leyenda Peruana

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Although Peruvian singer Eva Ayllon has made, by the estimate of annotator Luis Tamargo, over 20 albums since the late '70s, including 2002's Eva, which earned her a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, and has toured internationally to a limited extent during that period, she didn't really begin to gain recognition in the U.S. until she appeared on David Byrne's Luaka Bop compilation The Soul of Black Peru, and Eva! Leyenda Peruana is a rare domestic release for her. Happily, it is also a representative one for the singer, whose primary focus on her own country can be explained by her concern for preserving traditional Peruvian dance music. Here, largely employing arrangements dominated by Spanish guitar and African-derived percussion, she presents new and old material in a variety of rhythms, helpfully appending the name of each to the individual song. Thus, the leadoff track, Andrés Soto's "Negra Presuntuosa" ("Presumptuous Black Lady"), José Maria Auguren and Daniel "Kiri" Escobar's "La Danza Clara" ("The Clear Dance"), and Chabuca Granda's "Cardo ó Ceniza" ("Thistle or Ashes") are identified as landós, an Afro-Peruvian genre Tamargo says "aims to propitiate the suggestive pelvic movements of the dancers that once earned condemnation from the country's ruling oligarchs...." Those ruling oligarchs can't have been pleased by the other rhythms Ayllon explores here, either, since they are for the most part similarly blood-stirring. Only toward the end of the album, on tracks produced by Alex Acuña and featuring a different mix of musicians does Ayllon move to more conventional beats, introducing a salsa (with horn parts) on "Cuando Llegue la Hora" ("When the Time Comes") and concluding with a bolero, "Que Somos Amantes" ("We Are Lovers"). No matter the beat pattern, however, it is the singer's throaty and expressive performances that stand out on this striking collection.