Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada collaborated with
Charlie Hunter
on Lo Sagrado (2017) and on
Charlie Hunter/ Carter McLean Featuring Silvana Estrada (2018)
and debuted solo with the
four-song EP Primeras Canciones (2018).
Marchita (2022) has virtually no jazz. She plays
the Venezuelan cuatro (a sort of guitar) and often uses no percussion or very light percussion (only finger-snapping and foot-stomping in Un Dia Cualquiera).
Other than the nocturnal soul ballad Ser De Ti, she mostly sets her
delicate crooning in settings that mix folk and classical elements.
Casa is the typical example: choir, orchestra and vocal effects.
Both her folk-ish flamenco-ish numbers, Carta and Marchita, are hijacked by strings.
Sabre' Olvidar pushes beyond that format, with sections of almost spoken-word and a string crescendo that evokes Ennio Morricone's soundtracks.
The instrumental La Enfermedad del Siglo is a great duet of
flugelhorn and organ.
She comes through as a brainy, intellectual Hispanic version of Joanna Newsom and once, in
La Corriente (jazzy woodwinds and strings) as a female John Martyn.
