Artist: Emilia Conde
LP: In a Pop Mood / In a Latin Mood
Song: "Where, When & How"
[ listen ]
Song: "Mi Calle Triste"
[ listen ]
Here are a couple tunes (one in the pop mood, one in the Latin) from a wonderful 1970 Emilia Conde record I picked up for $3 in NYC's East Village on Monday. Sadly, there's very little info on Ms. Conde on the web—ie. nothing on Wikipedia, Google turns up no images, etc.—which is surprising, considering her resume outlined in the LP's liner notes and the fact that the Puerto Rican Cultural Association presents an "Emilia Conde Award" to an outstanding young artist every year. I did find an autographed copy of this same LP available for $10 here, if anyone's interested. I'd say it's worth it just to experience the "sense of discovery" and for the chest full of sparkly gems you'll end up with. Read the LP liner notes here:
Stunning! Masterful! Glamorous! Exciting! Beautiful!
The preceding exclamations are just a random sampling of the
superlatives with which concert, night club, radio and television
critics, and record reviewers, greeted the extraordinary artistry
of Emilia Conde as a classical vocalist and musician.
But if such response has exhausted the critics' bag of adjectives,
this new Audio Fidelity album in which Miss Conde reveals a new
dimension of her astonishing talent, is surely going to provoke
the necessity to invent new adjectives.
Although she has been singing popular songs for several years
now, it was not until very recently that Emilia made the decision
to enter the popular music idiom in a total way. "Something,"
she says, "was missing in classical music. With so much
discipline I could not express myself freely."
But if Emilia has freed herself from the restrictions of classical
music in order to involve herself full time in a style that permits
her the greatest opportunity to express herself, the expert
musicianship and the sophistication which she acquired in
the classical field has not been abandoned. Indeed, while
Miss Conde makes it abundantly clear, in this album, that
she can out-"now" the most "now" of contemporary pop singers
(that is, be responsive to and draw upon all elements of current
popular music from the cabaret genre to rock), there is nothing
shallow or ephemeral about her work. She brings to popular
music a high artist's grace, intelligence and polish that makes
everything she sings substantial and enduring.
In this album, one side of which is devoted to songs sung in
Spanish, her native language, and one side of which is in
English (she can sing, incidentally, in nine languages), Emilia
demonstrates an authority, vocal range and emotional
depth that makes of each song a true experience whether
you are familiar with the language in which it is sung or
not. Go immediately to Sunburst or I Can't Forget San
Francisco or Mi Calle Triste or Dia Tras Dia for the most
outstanding examples of her versatility and impact.
Born in Puerto Rico of French and Spanish parents, Emilia,
when she was just fifteen, received a government scholarship
to the renowned Eastman School of Music where she studied
classical piano, harmony, theory and voice. She began her
singing career as a protege of Pablo Casals and was
encouraged to develop her voice by such luminaries
as Jose Iturbi and Alexander Schneider.
Upon graduating from the Eastman School, Emilia played piano
concerts at New York's Carnegie and Town Halls and later
appeared as a soloist with various symphony orchestras
throughout the country. Extensive tours of Europe and Latin
America were followed by twenty weeks as singing star of
the Folies Bergere at the famed Tropicana in Las Vegas.
Immediately after that she was moved to the club's
Fountain Room as the star of a one-woman show. Also
among Emilia's credits are smash night club appearances
in Madrid, Mexico city, San Juan, Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad,
Lisbon, London and Toronto. Among her American triumphs
are an eleven week booking at Bimbo's 365 club in San
Francisco and an engagement at Act IV in Detroit which
prompted the Detroit Free Press critic to remark, "She
sends you away with a sense of discovery."
This "sense of discovery" with which the Free Press critic
left the Act IV that evening is something which everyone
who owns this recording can now share. And it will be a
"sense of discovery" that is repeated many times over,
for the multi-dimensional talent of Emilia Conde has a
weight and substance which gives forth
new gems with each hearing.
