Lila Downs returns to Argentina with a mini tour that starts at Cosquín Rock

The great singer-songwriter lilac bottom one of the great names in world music and Latin American singing as well as a performer of unparalleled energy on stage, returns to Argentina after the pandemic to offer four shows of his Tower Two Heartsthe first of which will take place this Saturday at Cosquín Rock, in the Punilla Valley.

The author of “La cumbia del mole”, of a very particular version of the anonymous “La cucaracha” and of “Zapata se queda”, and who with a unique voice has been able to reconcile telluric traditions with sounds that do not exclude percussion or pop, electric or jazz linked to popular song, will continue its Argentinian journey with a presentation at Teatro Coliseo on Monday 20, Tuesday 22 at Cine Teatro Español in Neuquén and Friday 25 at the Municipal Amphitheater Humberto de Nito de Rosario, a date that will share with Delio Valdez.

This return of the Downs to Argentina is different from his previous presentations as he arrives gripped by the deep pain of the loss of his partner for the past 30 years, the bass player Paul Cohenwith whom he created and developed his entire musical project, who died last December at the age of 69.

“Here I am, surviving this new life after losing my partner and co-writer of all my songs, it’s a new life and it takes everything; Fortunately, music accompanies us and helps us because it allows us to express our feelings and I believe, indeed, that for us musicians these are unique moments in which we evolve on stage in a deeper way when we cross such great suffering,” Lila said in a phone conversation from her home in the hills of Oaxaca where she cooks for her 12-year-old son.

“No, I’m not making mole,” he replies, “but a meat pie that’s traditionally made in the United States but comes from the German tradition,” he says.

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The tour two heartsInspired by a new song that she will record for the next album and also thinking of Paul, she offers a show with recent compositions that will go to this new studio material that she presents and previous songs, some of which have already become listen to her singing live, as well as historical compositions from her vast repertoire.

“We change according to our feelings, every day and in every city on stage, and also thinking of this great affection that comes from people. Love is unique and so fleeting and in these moments I want to express what I am going through , with a deep appreciation for life and also a farewell to another chapter of life,” says Lila.

—Where are you now, Lila?

— I am in my house in Oaxaca in the south of Mexico, close to the city but a little out of the way, on the hills, I cook for my twelve year old son who has to eat a little more meat, it will be good he is in Argentina.

— How have you been through the pandemic and the isolation it has caused?

— We arrived there without making a lot of music but happy to be at home and doing things as a family, we also suffered, like everyone else, the question of the couple in the middle of all this confinement thinking of the possibility that everyone will go their own way, but things have arisen within the same music and the same work that have made us rethink our lives. After spending a lot of time with someone we have to decide if we like them like that or what we do and happened to us because a series of things have happened, also the subject of the weight of death in Paul, we knew it for 10 years that he was going to lose his life and it’s not easy to live because on the one hand you want to live longer and on the other you become very careful, it affected us but also , fortunately, life has brought us together again . At the end of his life, Paul was playing a lot, he was playing a lot of music at the end, and this is an example of the strength to live with this reality and to live fully.

—The losses of people so dear and close are difficult.

— We knew he was going to die, when death came it was as if we had been waiting for him all this time and it was something very heavy, even if it is also true that in a certain way I knew how to face it, when I was 16, I lost my father to a sudden death, it stopped my heart and it was very tragic. I was alone with him and had a kind of panic and it took me about seven years to get over it and feel like a whole person again. In Paul’s case, it’s not that I was prepared but I was aware that it was going to happen, it’s something very difficult to accept but it’s also like a path that we let go, we has the possibility of letting go, as the Buddhists say, and this is necessary.

Source: Telam

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