Downs rekindles rancher, > BY TONY MONTAGUE
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e x i c a n -A m e r i c a n chanteuse Lila Downs draws deep from the well of tradition. And no artist has inspired her music more than ranchera legend Cha vela Vargas. The nonagenarian is best known to Canadians as the elderly woman with the hauntingly strong face performing the old bal lad "La Llorona" in the 2002 biopic Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo-with whom Vargas allegedly had an affair. Over the past decade Downs has become a good friend of the notoriously cranky Vargas, even performing with her at a festival in Madrid a few years ago. She's also re corded a string of songs made famous by Vargas. They include La Cantina's "Paloma Negra", one of the most emotion-drenched songs of the macho romantic style, which dates from the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. Vargas, who came outas a lesbian at the age of 82, is a master of ranchera's subtleties and adds an element of sex ual ambiguity. She's an iconic figure for Downs, who performed as a tango singer in Frida's gay-couple dance scene, and for bisexual Spanish diva Concha Buika. Last year, Majorca born Buika-whose strong and agile voice blends blues, soul, jazz, ranch era, and above all flamenco-paired up with Cuban piano giant Chucho Valdes to record a starkly beautiful homage to Vargas, El Ultimo Trago. Now Downs and Buika have got ten together to present three con-
certs-in Chicago, Los Angeles, and person to get close to," says Do\\ Vancouver-as a live tribute to ranch- whose mother comes from the 1\, era's increasingly frail queen. tee tribe, and who wears traditio1 At the Chan Centre for the Per- embroidered huipils (blouses), forming Arts this Sunday (Nov- toons of necklaces, and braided h ember 7), Downs and Buika-each "She said, 'You know, Lila, when Iv performing a solo set-will sing lost in drink I went to Tepoztlan songs from their own repertoire and town in the Mexican state of M several Vargas classics. "Her voice elos]. I lost myself. And there v has been an essential part of my life," this Indian family that picked 1 says Downs, calling from New York up, didn't ask me any questions, a City, where she lives. "My mother clothed and fed me, and I've alwi says I was singing songs by Chavela been grateful for that.' So I thi from the time I was seven. Ranchera there's a deep sense of Chavela id was my first influence musically. It's tifying with the Indian heritage such an important and honest man- have in Mexico. That's how I in preted it-that she respects this si ner of delivering Mexican songs. "And as a woman, Chavela repre- of who I am as well." sents someone who fought to stay Ranchera used to be regarded a true to her sexuality and her unusual man's genre of music, with roots in 1 personality," Downs continues. "She heroic era ofEmiliano Zapata and P lived at a time when she was able to cho Villa. But Downs argues that 1 share her thoughts and her life with machismo doesn't make it a uniqu people like Jose Alfredo Jimenez, one male preserve. "There are just as ma of the greatest poets of ranchera. It's a female singers who embody this ki wonder she's been as great as she has, of song, I think, in the sense that C considering the crazy life and experi- vela would represent both male a ence she had with alcohol." female energies. That's what's dif Vargas's commanding voice and ent about her and someone like Luc charismatic presence made her a star Reyes, who also embodied that in·, of Mexican music from the late '40s pretation of the songs in a woman's to the late '70s, when her drinking carnation. The beauty of this music problem ended her career. Or so it that a woman becomes kind of a m seemed. Vargas bounced back from as she sings-so it's a play with t her addiction, and in the past 20 years sexuality and the power that it gh she's enjoyed a new, if fragile, lease on you to sing these songs."� life. Though she's got few other close friends, Vargas has taken a shine to STRAIGHT.COM both Downs and Buika. "At one point � Make the Straight your source 1 I asked her why she liked me-some 'f1 Vancouver arts. Visit us at thing that surprised me, because www.straight.com/arts she's famous for being a difficult
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