The record, which comes out on May 16th, is produced by Enrique Morente

Flamenco-world.com, April 2006

If ‘Mi cante y un poema’ and ‘Calle del aire’ were real record phenomena, there’s no reason to expect less from ‘Mujeres’, the third album by Estrella Morente. The Granada-born cantaora pays tribute to great female voices, both from flamenco and other musical genres in these thirteen new songs produced by Enrique Morente. The album takes a look at historic cantaoras like La Niña de los Peines, La Perla de Cádiz and La Repompa, as well as singers of the likes of Imperio Argentina, Nina Simone and Chavela Vargas, among others. Moreover, the album includes the version of ‘Volver’ the cantaora recorded for director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film. ‘Mujeres’ comes out on May 16th, 2006.

	Estrella Morente (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Five years have gone by since Estrella Morente showed that it’s possible to make it on the charts with unadorned cante jondo. Preceded by the hit albums ‘Mi cante y un poema’ and ‘Calle del aire’, which sold two hundred thousand copies, the Granada-born cantaora launches her third record on May 16th. ‘Mujeres’ is a tribute to the great female voices of all time, always from a flamenco viewpoint. Alegrías, bulerías, tangos, soleares, tarantas... are some of the styles tackled by the Granada-born cantaora on this long-awaited record for which she has chosen La Niña de los Peines, La Perla de Cádiz, La Repompa and Carmen Linares as flamenco references.

Estrella Morente has also wished to look outside flamenco. The album contains versions of songs like ‘La noche de mi amor’ by Chavela Vargas, ‘Ay Mari Cruz’ by Imperio Argentina, ‘Nostalgia’ by Susana Rinaldi and ‘Ne me quitte pas’ by Jacques Brel as performed by Nina Simone. It also includes the lullaby from Lorca’s play ‘Yerma’, as well as ‘Volver’, the song by Carlos Gardel which the cantaora recorded as the title cut of the soundtrack from Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, starring Penélope Cruz.

Despite the spell between albums, Estrella Morente hasn’t stopped carrying out projects in this time. Standing out is the show ‘Pastora 1922’, a tribute to La Niña de los Peines which has been performed on stages such as La Alhambra’s Patio de los Aljibes and Madrid’s Teatro Español. She has also collaborated in the documentary about the figure of her father, Enrique Morente, ‘Morente sueña La Alhambra’ and the album coming from the film. Her voice has also been heard these last few years on records such as ‘Romero’ by guitarist Juan Carlos Romero.

magazine@flamenco-world.com