Leyla McCalla

Leyla McCalla

Person from United States

Genres: folk, Cajun music, americana, jazz, blues, folk rock

Leyla McCalla

About Leyla McCalla

Leyla McCalla (born Leyla Sarah McCalla in New York City on 3 October 1985) is an Haitian-American classical and folk musician. She was a cellist with the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, leaving to focus on her solo career. McCalla sings in French, Haitian Creole and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar. Her music is influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk. Raised in suburban New Jersey (with a couple of teenage years spent in Accra, Ghana), McCalla renewed her connection with her Haitian heritage after moving to the Crescent City in 2010. The relocation led to her appearance on the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ GRAMMY-nominated 2012 album Leaving Eden, as well as extensive concert dates as a touring member of the group. Her debut solo album Vari-Colored Songs was named 2013’s Album of the Year by the London Sunday Times and Songlines magazine. The track “Heart of Gold” was featured on NPR, which noted that the song’s instrumentation “sounds like lonesome nighttime.” Her second album, A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The Prey, was released in 2016 by Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi. Named after the Haitian proverb that also provided the title of Gage Averill’s 1997 book about popular music, power and politics in Haiti, and featuring songs sung in English, French and Haitian Creole, the album includes guest appearances by guitarist Marc Ribot, Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, and New Orleans singer-songwriter/guitarist Sarah Quintana. Capitalist Blues was released in January 2019 on Jazz Village/PIAS, and Breaking The Thermometer in May 2022 on ANTI-.

Taken from Last.fm

43,617 listeners  ·  398,018 plays via Last.fm

On RadioStar

31
stations playing
9
countries
25
tracks tracked
most active station (France)

Radio Stations sorted by tracks on rotation

Radio Active
2 tracks on rotation
MP3 : 320
99 Likes

Radio 50/50
1 track on rotation
AAC : 128
137 Likes

Leyla McCalla — Top 25 songs

Artist Song title Like / Dislike
Leyla McCalla Le Bal est Fini
Leyla McCalla You Don’t Know Me
Leyla McCalla Artibonite
Leyla McCalla Open the Road
Leyla McCalla Le Bal Est Fini - Breaking the Thermometer
Leyla McCalla Dodinin
Leyla McCalla Scaled to Survive
Leyla McCalla Vini Wè
Leyla McCalla You Don’t Know Me
Leyla McCalla The Capitalist Blues
Leyla McCalla Small Towns
Leyla McCalla Take Me Away
Leyla McCalla Little Sparrow
Leyla McCalla Mesi Bondye
Leyla McCalla A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey
Leyla McCalla Rose Marie
Leyla McCalla Manman Mwen
Leyla McCalla Dodinin (live Session )
Leyla McCalla Dan Reken
Leyla McCalla Vini Wè
Leyla McCalla Fey-O (Feat. Shaye Cohn)
Leyla McCalla Money Is King
Leyla McCalla Me And My Baby (2019)
Leyla McCalla Fort Dimanche
Leyla McCalla Lavi Vye Neg
Le Bal est Fini
You Don’t Know Me
Artibonite
Open the Road
Le Bal Est Fini - Breaking the Thermometer
Scaled to Survive
Vini Wè
You Don’t Know Me
The Capitalist Blues
Small Towns
Take Me Away
Little Sparrow
Mesi Bondye
A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey
Rose Marie
Manman Mwen
Dodinin (live Session )
Dan Reken
Fey-O (Feat. Shaye Cohn)
Money Is King
Me And My Baby (2019)
Fort Dimanche
Lavi Vye Neg