MARIA VOLONTE / マリア・ボロンテ / 9 VIDAS / CD

Back in Argentina — following her Wapas Tour in Spain with Mavi Diaz, her Blue Tango Tour in the US, a recording with the celebrated Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and the signing of a record contract with the prestigious European world music label Network Medien — Maria Volonte presents her new CD, “9 Vidas.”

“9 VIDAS” is a turning point for this Latin Grammy nominee and winner of the Carlos Gardel Prize. It is an album that was recorded live as a band, debuting new compositions and with a sound marked by Maria out in front of the band with her guitar.The beginning of this project was a trip. At the end of 2009, after two years singing in other lands, Maria Volonte returned to Argentina with new songs and a new vision for her music. In Buenos Aires, she formed the 9 Vidas Band with some of her favorite musicians and together they hit the road with a busy agenda of concerts.

Before leaving again on tour, Maria took the band into the studio and “9 Vidas” was recorded live in front of a small audience, to capture the emotions and the intense communication that had grown up during those three wild months of concerts.As Maria says, “It was a whirlwind of sensations, adventures, encounters and reenconters — one of those gifts life offers you from time to time… This CD is a celebration of the moment, of its raw energy and its generosity, of friendship, of love, of life itself.”

The incorporation of the harmonica in the band signals the beginning of the joint creative efforts of Volonte with Kevin Carrel Footer, an artist from California with strong roots in the blues but deeply inspired by tango. Together they wrote three of the songs on the album, including the title track “9 Vidas” and the celebration of the tango community in San Francisco, California, “SF Tango.”On this album you can feel the complicity and those brilliant touches that only appear when a band is joined together not only by a love of the music but also and above all by their complete happiness performing together.