From Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, Tiny Desk is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with an “El Tiny“ takeover of the (home) concert series, featuring J Balvin, Camila Cabello and several more musicians from all corners of Latinidad.
Felix Contreras | September 29, 2021
As you gaze into the space where Cuban vocalist Eme Alfonso performs her Tiny Desk (home) concert, you enter a place where music becomes a spiritual language. So much of her history and music is centered around the Afro-Cuban spiritual practice that some know as santería. In the 1980s, her parents started Síntesis, a pioneering band that performed secular versions of that musical liturgy through electric jazz fusion. In fact, her parents, Carlos Alfonso and Ele Valdés, join her on vocals on this three-song set, which she recorded in Havana.
As with all things spiritual, it’s best to start off paying homage to all things greater, which she does with a track from her 2018 album Voy, “Ayabba,“ a prayer sung in Yoruba and interpreted for voice and j
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2 years ago 00:48:04 1
Eme Alfonso Spalding and Melissa Aldana (En Vivo)
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Eme Alfonso: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
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Eme Alfonso - El bote (Live at Fábrica de Arte)
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Alfonso - Don’t Give Me Love I Can’t Use (Original Mix)
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Eme Alfonso - Alguien me detenga (Somebody Stop Me)
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Eme Alfonso - Buscando inspiración (Searching for Inspiration)
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Eme Alfonso (M Alfonso) - Havana International Jazz Festival 2011