Customer Reviews

Nina de Fuego

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

All the songs in this flamenco CD are charged with deep emotion, romance and sensuality. The CD is almost addictive. You can keep listening to it and liking it more as you listen to it more. Not knowing any Spanish, I don't understand the lyrics, but these songs do not need a language. They are simply beautiful to listen and enjoy.

Ever since I read a synopsis of her life and music career in the newspaper a year ago, I was intrigued. I went to see her in a small local theater, and since then I was hooked. She mixes African and Spanish rythms with jazz and Latin beats to create an amazing sound. Her voice is captivating and penetrating. She portrays herself through her music.

When reviewed on NPR recently, what I heard was delicious! I pulled over on my commute home just to write this down. Her musicianship is amazing in its invention, phrasing, coloring, and variety of sound and emotion; and the engineering on this album is just a treat! She has that wonderful vocie of the real Flamenco singers from Spain that I was introduced to nearly 30 years ago by a Cuban refugee friend and himself a consummate musician in Miami. (Wil, you would love Buika. Sorry you're not here to hear!) She would make a perfect Carmen, as well perfect for the vocals in El Amor Brujo. Amazing voce, amazing album. I will get more of her work.

Fiery, soulful, sensual, Concha Buika's new release "Nina de Fuego" (Girl of Fire) has finally crossed the Mediterranean and landed in the United States and is a Latin Grammy nominee for the 2008 Album of the year. Buika is from the island of Majorca (Balearic Islands) whose musical style fuses, Flamenco, Jazz and Salsa. With this new release, Buika's silky voice creates yearnings of love, loss and hope against lush jazz chordal changes that will invoke comparison to Sarah Vaughn and other jazz greats. Although all the songs are in Spanish, the mood and cadences in the music will bring even the biggest die-hard into the fold of Buika and her spell binding music.

After noting in a review the beautiful and mysterious 'unnamed voice' who concludes the film A MATADOR'S MISTRESS a reader was kind enough to comment on the review and inform that the 'voice' was that of Concha Buika (Maria Concepcion Balboa Buika), better known as simply Buika. For this listener she is an astonishing discovery. Born in Mallorca of African parents who had moved to Mallorca as political refugees from Equatorial Guinea, she lived among the gypsies and absorbed by Spanish coplas and while `copla' literally means verse, the term has come to describe a heartfelt ballad in the cando flamenco tradition. Hers is a voice that is smoky, dusky, sensuous and extremely musical. She has made several CDs in which she marries this flamenco music with jazz, rumba, and soul. The result? A performer who communicates form the heart like a gypsy but who is in full control of her vocal gifts.

Once charmed by her presence the listener begins to note that her ensemble in performance with her is exceptional. This CD is a fine mix of traditional copla, some fused with more flamenco and jazz, others with rumba and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Buika also adds ranchera to her repetoire with a very slow but effective version of the standard "Volver, Volver" and "Mienteme Bien", composed by Buika herself. She is supported by Javier Limon on guitar and Ivan Lewis on piano. The result is an unforgettable experience, especially if this is the first exposure to the sorcery of Buika! Grady Harp, June 11

I was introduced to Buika at a concert at the Mondavi Center for the Arts in the fall of 2010 and fell in love with her music immediately. She was described as a daughter of political refugees from the African nation of Equatorial Guinea and grew up in a gypsy neighborhood on the Spanish Island of Mallorca. When she stepped up to the microphone I was blown away by her intense, powerful, luminous and smoky vocals. It was obvious that she fully absorbed the culture of her new home and related it in her music. The next day I promptly bought two of her CDs: Nina de Fuego and Mi Nina Lola. I love both of them and plan to buy her other CDs. I'm not a professional music critc. All I can say is that if you love flamenco, jazz, soul and blues, you will love this CD. All of the songs are sung in Spanish. I do not speak Spanish but I can tell you that Buika skillfully conveys the feelings and emotions of the songs so well that I almost feel like I know what she is singing about. I feel it in my core. The musicians are very talented as well and blend perfectly with her vocals. Buika will definitely take you on a wonderful musical journey.

Wonderful,soulful music and songs that stir the heart. I love this singer .

A wonderful voice and technique with an unbelievable performance.
I feel born again whenever I listen to her music. Looking forward to her new works.

Very jazzy and soulful (but not as in soul music), as in she's singing from within and sharing with her audience a secret place. Good buy. Love listening to it.

I first discovered Concha Buika while traveling in Spain a couple of years ago and was very impressed. This recent work by her is, of course, very good but not as stimulating and captivating as the previous disc.