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Xiomara Laugart
Xiomara Laugart - Latin vocalist
Xiomara Laugart is Cuban. This alone makes her a competitor in the music industry. She was born with a fusion of rhythms in her veins. Moreover, Xiomara Laugart is a "Guantanamera," also the name of a quintessential Cuban folk song. Guantánamo is the easternmost province in Cuba, where even the palm trees sing and dance.
At the age of 15 she began her career. Soon thereafter, her voice was considered a true prodigy that allowed her to perform the most diverse genres. She performed several different expressions of traditional and contemporary Cuban music.
During the 1980s, she entered the “Adolfo Guzmán” Contest for Cuban music where she was granted the highest award. From that day on, she became one of the most brilliant representatives of Cuban song.
She received invitation after invitation to perform all over the world. She took the world by storm, taking home many international awards (1980, Sochi Russia; Sopot Festival 1985, Poland; Dresden Festival 1986, Germany, and others). Xiomara had been performing at the largest of venues in Cuba for years, performing with the biggest talents around. Yet she longed for a deeper sense of artistic expression, which she found difficult to develop in the oppresive climate in Cuba. Her dream was to go to the United States and fill the creative void in her soul with her music, the best music she could make.
After having recorded self-titled albums in Cuba, she moved to Rome and later to New York.
Soon, Xiomara was invited to be the guest singer on two jazz albums, “Deep Rumba” by Kip Hanrahan and “Latin Lullaby” by Ellipsis Art, and on Jacky Terrason’s new album “What it is” released in April of 1999 by Blue Note Records. She also was featured in the first single from the recent album by Fun Loving Criminals released worldwide in 2001. Laugart's monthly showcases at New York City's famed underground Zinc Bar have been called legendary.
She has flooded the stage with her power voice in the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Russia, Finland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Mexico, Colombia, and others.
Xiomara has a peculiar mastery to reveal, not only her vocal virtues, and flexibility, but a special sound, fluently “liquid” and garrulous. Her range is such that the jazz influences seem to be a natural extension of her repertoire. She takes on each style of music and embraces it with her own stamp and authentic flare.
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Xiomara Laugart: Tears And Rumba
by James Nadal
Despite over fifty years of political turmoil leading to a ludicrous embargo, the music of Cuba has thrived and is as vibrant as ever. Though many premier Cuban artists have gone into cultural exile in America and abroad, they continue to seek inspiration from and expand upon the music of their homeland, continually performing it around the globe. Vocalist Xiomara Laugart is a prime example of this diaspora, and on Tears and Rumba, she revisits the music of Cuba's romantic ...
read moreXiomara Laugart in Concert! March 28 at Miami Dade County Auditorium
Source:
All About Jazz
FUNDarte presents XIOMARA LAUGART IN CONCERT
Dont miss Xiomara Laugart, the Voice of Cuba," in her first solo concert in Miami. Adored as the lead singer of new-wave Latin funk band Yerba Buena and her star-turn in the Broadway premiere production of Celia: The Life & Music of Celia Cruz, Xiomara Laugart's solo performances are marked by her soulful singing and accomplished virtuosity. Her repertory spans a cappella to performing with a full-band accompaniment, from songs like F" to Hoy ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson