Una Sangre: One Blood

"To women, who inhabit past and present times, the ones who have given birth to their ideals: one blood".

"A voice raw and ronca as a conch shell, as ancient and smoky as a flute, startling like a knife slicing a mango."
- Sandra Cisneros

"Imagine Edith Piaf singing in Spanish and you have the idea of the soulful sound of Lila Downs."
- Los Angeles Times

"With a voice so vari-colored and many octaved that it's difficult to imagine it as the product of a single larynx."
- Ariel Swartley (The New York Times)

"Exotic beauty and startling voice - she is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries blur."
- Los Angeles Times

Lila Downs' album 'Una Sangre: One Blood' weaves the hearts of her ancestral cultures in songs from both Mexico's Hispanic and native Indian traditions, as well as songs sung in English, with fresh rhythmic arrangements framing her remarkable voice. Lila was first heard by many in the Academy Award nominated film about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Released in 2004, 'Una Sangre: One Blood' captures a true star in ascendancy on a compelling and radiant recording.

While the concept of identity is an obvious influence on 'Una Sangre: One Blood', the Mexican-American singer continues using her creative impulse to explore what brings us together, rather than that which divides. Her fourth and most diverse effort to date, 'Una Sangre: One Blood' draws from a host of styles and sounds to produce a very eclectic - and appealing - collection of songs.

For Downs, the daughter of a Scottish-American cinematographer / painter and Mixtec-Indian vocalist, expressing Latin culture has been a lifelong passion.

Combining formal vocal training with an extreme emotional intensity, her remarkable voice is as varied in range as the musicians with whom she performs - a Brazilian guitarist, a Cuban bassist, a Chilean drummer, a Mexican harpist, and a pianist / saxophonist / musical director from New Jersey. Each brings his particular musical slant to create a crisp, jazzy, Latin sound, leaning in no single direction but inclusive of all of them.

Within the scope of identity, 'Una Sangre: One Blood' is rich with important subjects, and Downs takes them on with rare vivacity. Downs doesn't forget to have fun, as on the percussive-driven cover of "La Bamba", originally made famous by Ritchie Valens (and again by Los Lobos), dating back a century to the son tradition in southern Veracruz.