Lila Downs - Open Door Management

	`Lila Downs` b i o g r a p h y d i s c o g r a p h y a w a r d s / q u o t e s t o u r i n g p h o t o a r t i s t / r o s t e r

Lila Downs Lila Downs grew up in the Sierra Madre mountains of southern Mexico, in the state of Oaxaca, and also in Minnesota in the U.S.A. Daughter of a Scottish- American cinematographer/painter, who came to Mexico originally to make a documentary about the blue-winged teal’s annual migration from Canada to the Yucatan Peninsula. He met Anita, Lila’s mother, a Mixtec-Indian woman, who sang in Mexico city. Lila started singing mariachi songs when she was 8. When she turned 14, she started voice lessons in Los Angeles, California, continued voice lessons in Oaxaca city at Bellas Artes, and moved back to Minnesota for college where she studied voice and anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She was working at her mother’s car parts store, in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, when she returned to music, and toured with the Cadetes de Yodoyuxi, a "tambora" band, and La Trova Serrana, a band based in Guelatao, Oaxaca, who sing about their Zapotec community and values. Lila was to become an opera singer, when she became disenchanted with the music department,in Minnesota, dropped out, followed the "Greatful Dead" for a while, sold jewelry on the streets, and moved back to the mountains of Oaxaca where she learned to weave cloth. She later did her college thesis on the symbolism created by the Triqui women in their weaving, a language which narrates the history of this autonomous Indian group. Lila began singing in the club scenes of Oaxaca and Philadelphia along with Paul Cohen, an expatriate saxophonist who had also been a clown and juggler in the circus. They began collaborating together on songs that would slowly mature into their most recent recordings. This musical process began taking form during the soothing and warm Oaxacan nights, at a bar called "El Sol y La Luna". Lila and the band’s most recent performances have included heavy touring in Mexico, South America, the U.S. and Europe. Lila presently lives in Coyoacan and collaborates with musicians from Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay. She performs her own compositions and also taps into the vast reservior of native mesoamerican music, by singing songs in the the Indian languages of Mexico such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl.
b i o g r a p h y \| d i s c o g r a p h y \| a w a r d s / q u o t e s t o u r i n g \| p h o t o \| a r t i s t / r o s t e r

Lila Downs

Lila Downs grew up in the Sierra Madre mountains of southern Mexico, in the state of Oaxaca, and also in Minnesota in the U.S.A. Daughter of a Scottish- American cinematographer/painter, who came to Mexico originally to make a documentary about the blue-winged teal’s annual migration from Canada to the Yucatan Peninsula. He met Anita, Lila’s mother, a Mixtec-Indian woman, who sang in Mexico city.

Lila started singing mariachi songs when she was 8. When she turned 14, she started voice lessons in Los Angeles, California, continued voice lessons in Oaxaca city at Bellas Artes, and moved back to Minnesota for college where she studied voice and anthropology at the University of Minnesota.

She was working at her mother’s car parts store, in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, when she returned to music, and toured with the Cadetes de Yodoyuxi, a "tambora" band, and La Trova Serrana, a band based in Guelatao, Oaxaca, who sing about their Zapotec community and values.

Lila was to become an opera singer, when she became disenchanted with the music department,in Minnesota, dropped out, followed the "Greatful Dead" for a while, sold jewelry on the streets, and moved back to the mountains of Oaxaca where she learned to weave cloth. She later did her college thesis on the symbolism created by the Triqui women in their weaving, a language which narrates the history of this autonomous Indian group.

Lila began singing in the club scenes of Oaxaca and Philadelphia along with Paul Cohen, an expatriate saxophonist who had also been a clown and juggler in the circus. They began collaborating together on songs that would slowly mature into their most recent recordings. This musical process began taking form during the soothing and warm Oaxacan nights, at a bar called "El Sol y La Luna".

Lila and the band’s most recent performances have included heavy touring in Mexico, South America, the U.S. and Europe. Lila presently lives in Coyoacan and collaborates with musicians from Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay. She performs her own compositions and also taps into the vast reservior of native mesoamerican music, by singing songs in the the Indian languages of Mexico such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl.

b i o g r a p h y | d i s c o g r a p h y | a w a r d s / q u o t e s
t o u r i n g | p h o t o | a r t i s t / r o s t e r

t o u r i n g 2003

DAY	MONTH	CITY	PLACE
9-10	June	Singapore	tbd
18	June	New York, NY	Beacon Theater
19	June	Vienna, VA	Wolftrap - Filene Center
28	June	Quintana Roo, Mexico	Xcaret
8-10	October	Anchorage, AK	Alaska Center for the Arts
11	October	Juneau, AK	tbd
1	November	Alamosa, CO	Adams St. College Concert Hall
2	November	Taos, NM	Taos Community Auditorium
4	November	Clovis, NM	Lyceum Theater
7	November	Socorro, NM	Macey Center
13	November	Salt Lake City, UT	University of Utah
15	November	Denver, CO	University of Denver

a w a r d s / q u o t e s "Exotic beauty and startling voice…she is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries blur." ("Una belleza exotica y una voz sobresaliente… ella es un reflejo de una cultura del siglo 21 donde las fronteras etnicas y nacionales se desvanecen." Lorenza Muñoz, Los Angeles Times "…with a voice so vari-colored and many octaved that it’s difficult to imagine it as the product of a single larynx". Ariel Swartley, The New york Times "La Sandunga" is the debut of the mexican-american singer Lila Downs. Every so often a voice emerges whose distinctive color, texture, and passionate conception defy easy characterization. Lila Downs combines formal vocal training in the Minnesota university setting of her father with study in Oaxaca, Mexico, tapping the indigenous Mixtec traditions of her mother. She covers the vocal waterfront, from the tense-throated nasal vibrato of Lydia Mendoza and Lucha Reyes to the nueva canción sensibility of Mercedes Sosa, with the chops of Linda Rondstadt, the sassiness and inventive range of Sarah Vaughan, and the sweetness of Tish Hinojosa." Michael Stone, Roots World "Imagine Edith Piaf singing in Spanish and you have the idea of the soulful sound of Lila Downs" Los Angeles Times "Downs captures some of Mexico’s many voices"… she was captivating in every sense. Blessed with a pliable voice and an exceptional range, she invested her songs with an artful array of sounds and manners" Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times "Singing songs in Zapotec, Mixtec, Mayan, Spanish, and English, her profound affection for her indigenous roots was coupled with a strong working-class American ethic that she shared with a very hip medley of Woody Guthrie songs that included "Pastures of Plenty." As she strapped on a barreldrum for "Arenita Azul," an Afro-Mex offering, she was rescuing the folk music of cultures in Mexico fighting against obliteration.Truly a descendant of the cloud people of Oaxaca, as she caressed the melody we realized we’d been hovering around a mountainous musical talent. The heavens don’t get any closer than this". Chuy Varela, San Francisco Express "The modern world is a world of immigrants. We leave our homelands and come to the ‘first world’. We arrive in Los Angeles and New York, London and Paris, crossing the border in search of a better life. Politicians and pundits often blame us for the social and economic problems of the day. Why is it that the United States, which proudly calls itself "a country of immigrants", treats immigrants like aliens from another planet. These so-called ‘aliens’ take care of their children, pick their fruit and vegetables, clean their homes, and handle every job imaginable for the lowest wages. Is it too much to ask that we immigrants be granted the most basic human rights? In this recording, Lila Downs sings about the immigrant experience without sounding preachy or intellectual. She is their voice in both joy and pain. She sings about love, that ethereal thing which has no borders and is felt by everyone rich or poor, immigrant or not. These songs tell their story, your story, my story. Listen and remember". Betto Arcos, 90.7 -KPFK Los Angeles
b i o g r a p h y \| d i s c o g r a p h y \| a w a r d s / q u o t e s t o u r i n g \| p h o t o \| a r t i s t / r o s t e r

a w a r d s  /  q u o t e s

"Exotic beauty and startling voice…she is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries blur." ("Una belleza exotica y una voz sobresaliente… ella es un reflejo de una cultura del siglo 21 donde las fronteras etnicas y nacionales se desvanecen."

Lorenza Muñoz, Los Angeles Times

"…with a voice so vari-colored and many octaved that it’s difficult to imagine it as the product of a single larynx".

Ariel Swartley, The New york Times

"La Sandunga" is the debut of the mexican-american singer Lila Downs. Every so often a voice emerges whose distinctive color, texture, and passionate conception defy easy characterization. Lila Downs combines formal vocal training in the Minnesota university setting of her father with study in Oaxaca, Mexico, tapping the indigenous Mixtec traditions of her mother. She covers the vocal waterfront, from the tense-throated nasal vibrato of Lydia Mendoza and Lucha Reyes to the nueva canción sensibility of Mercedes Sosa, with the chops of Linda Rondstadt, the sassiness and inventive range of Sarah Vaughan, and the sweetness of Tish Hinojosa."

Michael Stone, Roots World

"Imagine Edith Piaf singing in Spanish and you have the idea of the soulful sound of Lila Downs"

Los Angeles Times

"Downs captures some of Mexico’s many voices"… she was captivating in every sense. Blessed with a pliable voice and an exceptional range, she invested her songs with an artful array of sounds and manners"

Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

"Singing songs in Zapotec, Mixtec, Mayan, Spanish, and English, her profound affection for her indigenous roots was coupled with a strong working-class American ethic that she shared with a very hip medley of Woody Guthrie songs that included "Pastures of Plenty." As she strapped on a barreldrum for "Arenita Azul," an Afro-Mex offering, she was rescuing the folk music of cultures in Mexico fighting against obliteration.Truly a descendant of the cloud people of Oaxaca, as she caressed the melody we realized we’d been hovering around a mountainous musical talent. The heavens don’t get any closer than this".

Chuy Varela, San Francisco Express

"The modern world is a world of immigrants. We leave our homelands and come to the ‘first world’. We arrive in Los Angeles and New York, London and Paris, crossing the border in search of a better life. Politicians and pundits often blame us for the social and economic problems of the day. Why is it that the United States, which proudly calls itself "a country of immigrants", treats immigrants like aliens from another planet. These so-called ‘aliens’ take care of their children, pick their fruit and vegetables, clean their homes, and handle every job imaginable for the lowest wages. Is it too much to ask that we immigrants be granted the most basic human rights?

In this recording, Lila Downs sings about the immigrant experience without sounding preachy or intellectual. She is their voice in both joy and pain. She sings about love, that ethereal thing which has no borders and is felt by everyone rich or poor, immigrant or not. These songs tell their story, your story, my story. Listen and remember".

Betto Arcos, 90.7 -KPFK Los Angeles

b i o g r a p h y | d i s c o g r a p h y | a w a r d s / q u o t e s
t o u r i n g | p h o t o | a r t i s t / r o s t e r

d i s c o g r a p h y
TITLE	SOUND CLIP	LABEL	CAT#	DATE	MINI
Border (La Linea)	La Llorona	Narada	B00005LNE0	2001
Tree of Life		Narada	B00004X0PS	2000
La Sanduga		Narada	B00000JHG6	1999
b i o g r a p h y \| d i s c o g r a p h y \| a w a r d s / q u o t e s t o u r i n g \| p h o t o \| a r t i s t / r o s t e r