:: VAGABUNDEO LINER NOTES

Track listing:

1. Habanera (Pilón-salsa) 4:30
By Georges Bizet

2. Ave Rara (Samba-canção) 6:26
By Edu Lobo/Aldir Blanc

3. Calling You (A capella ballad) 5:00 Featuring Kenny Washington
By Bob Telson

4. El Cantante (Salsa) 4:55
By Ruben Blades

5. Agua de Beber/Aguas de Marco (Bossa) 5:23
By Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes/Jobim

6. Her Ways Wander (Cha-cha) 5:23
By Alexa Weber Morales, Vince Mansel and Wayne Wallace

7. The Goddess of War (Afro-funk) 5:07
By Alexa Weber Morales

8. Así Es El Amor (Samba-cha) 4:49
By Alexa Weber Morales

9. Angelitos Negros (6/8 Gospel) 5:50
By Andrés Eloy Blanco and Manuel Alvarez Maciste

10. Tu Amor (Bossa nova) 5:10
By Alexa Weber Morales

11. You Cry, I Dry Your Tears (Ballad) 4:59
By Alexa Weber Morales

Singer, lover, gypsy, Jezebel, warrior, wanderer, mother… These are the women I portray for you. Though their language varies, they all share three things I can’t live without: Strength, rhythm and voice. I wrote my first song on a green hill in South Texas after escaping a tiny Mexican town with one too many dangerous men. While atop Wayna Picchu, lungs bursting as I gazed at the Incan ruins below, eerie harmonies echoed in my mind. Alone on a jungle path somewhere in Quintana Roo, I hummed a little song of courage. Hearing a berimbau played in a market in Belo Horizonte, I couldn’t resist its insistent twang. I’ve worn so many costumes, discarding some and cherishing others. Vagabundeo captures just a few of my worldly explorations. Come, these bright colors will lift you up. Dance with me…

Cantante, amante, gitana, sirena, guerrera, vagabunda, madre… Esas son las mujeres que les presento. Aunque varíen sus lenguas, todas comparten tres cosas sin las cuales no puedo existir: La fuerza, el ritmo y la voz. Escribí mi primera canción encima de una colina verde en el sur de Texas después de salir de un peligroso pueblito mexicano. Subiendo al Wayna Picchu, ví las ruinas incas e imaginé el eco de armonías exóticas. Andando solita en una senda en alguna parte de Quintana Roo, tarareaba una melodía de valentía. Escuchando un berimbau en un mercado in Belo Horizonte, no podía resistir su tañido. En el viaje de mi vida, me he vestido de muchos disfraces, tirando algunos y abrigando otros. Vagabundeo abarca esta aventura mundial. Vengan, estos sonidos coloridos les levantarán el ánimo. Bailen conmigo…

Executive producer: Alexa Weber Morales
Producer, arranger: Wayne Wallace
Engineer: Gary Mankin
Assistant Engineer: Ryan Drury
Photography: Eliot Kuhner
Hair: Laneesha Graham
Makeup, styling: Lisa Zomer
Design: Dwight Been

Recording: Bay Records, Berkeley, Calif.
Project West Studio, Berkeley, Calif.
Knob and Tube, San Francisco, Calif.
Mastering: Ken Lee

All printed lyrics © 2007 by Alexandra L. Weber Morales (BMI). © 2007 Crazy Monkey Productions. All rights reserved. Please do not copy this CD.

1. Habanera
Georges Bizet

Coro/pregón lyrics by Alexa Weber Morales
Arranged by Wayne Wallace and Alexa Weber Morales

Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano
Rick Vandivier: Electric/acoustic guitar
Michael Spiro: Congas, clave and castanets
John Santos: Cajón, güiro, handbell and quijada
Louis Fasman: Trumpet and flugelhorn
Melecio Magdaluyo: Alto sax, baritone sax (solo) and flute
Wayne Wallace: Trombone
Orlando Torriente and Edgardo Cambón: Coro

2. Ave Rara
By Edu Lobo/Aldir Blanc
(Marbello Music, BMI)
Arranged by Wayne Wallace

Alexa Weber Morales: Lead and background voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Frank Martin: Piano (solo), synthesizer, electric piano
Rick Vandivier: Guitar (solo)
Michael Spiro: Ganzá, surdo, pandeiro, tamborim
John Santos: Reco-reco, caxixi, tamborim, agogô

3. Calling You
Featuring Kenny Washington
By Bob Telson (Boodle Music, BMI)

Arranged by Wayne Wallace
Alexa Weber Morales: Lead, alto and soprano voice
Kenny Washington: Baritone and tenor voice (solo)
Brian Dyer: Bass voice

4. El Cantante
By Ruben Blades (Ruben Blades, Sony/ATV Discos Music Publishing LLC, ASCAP)

Arranged by Wayne Wallace
Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano
Michael Spiro: Congas
John Santos: Timbales, maracas, clave, bongó and hand bell
Louis Fasman: Trumpet
Melecio Magdaluyo: Alto/baritone saxophone
Wayne Wallace: Trombone (solo)
Edgardo Cambón, Orlando Torriente: Background voice

5. Agua de Beber/Aguas De Março

Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes (Corcovado Music Corp, V. M. Enterprises Inc., BMI)/Antonio Carlos Jobim (Corcovado Music Corp, BMI)

Arranged by Wayne Wallace

Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Frank Martin: Piano (solo)
Rick Vandivier: Guitar
Michael Spiro: Pandeiro, tamborim, cuíca, surdo
John Santos: Ganzá, triangle, reco-reco
Sandy Cressman, Ron Stallings and Wayne Wallace: Background voice

6. Her Ways Wander
By Alexa Weber Morales, Vince Mansel and Wayne Wallace (BMI)

Arranged by Wayne Wallace
Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano
Frank Martin: Synth
Rick Vandivier: Guitar (solo)
Michael Spiro: Congas and güiro
John Santos: Timbales and percussion

7. The Goddess of War
By Alexa Weber Morales (BMI)
Arranged by Wayne Wallace

Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano
Frank Martin: Synthesizer (solo)
Rick Vandivier: Rhythm and picking guitar
Michael Spiro: Conga, shekere, woodblock
John Santos: Djembe, African agogô, cowbell
Louis Fasman: Trumpet
Ron Stallings: Alto and tenor sax
Wayne Wallace: Trombones

8. Así Es El Amor
By Alexa Weber Morales (BMI)
Arranged by Wayne Wallace
Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano
Andre Bush: Guitar
Michael Spiro: Congas, güiro, pandeiro
John Santos: Timbales

9. Angelitos Negros
By Andrés Eloy Blanco and Manuel Alvarez Maciste
(APRS Mexico, BMI)

Arranged by Murray Low
Choral arrangement by Wayne Wallace
Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
David Belove: Bass
Murray Low: Piano and organ
Andre Bush: Guitar
Patricia Bahia, Sandy Cressman, Helen Bernard Gray, Kimiko Joy, Vernon Staggers, Ron Stallings, Alexa Weber Morales: Choir
Ron Stallings: Saxophone

10. Tu Amor
By Alexa Weber Morales (BMI)
Arranged by Wayne Wallace

Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Ricardo Peixoto: Guitar
David Belove: Bass
Paul Van Wageningen: Drums
Anthony Blea: Violin
Mimi Dye: Viola
Monica Scott: Cello
Melecio Magdaluyo: Flute
Michael Spiro: Percussion

11. You Cry, I Dry Your Tears
By Alexa Weber Morales (BMI)
Arranged by Alexa Weber Morales
Alexa Weber Morales: Voice
Frank Martin: Piano

Habanera is Georges Bizet’s most celeberated aria. He died just after Carmen’s 1875 premier, unaware that it would become the world’s most popular opera. The habanera rhythm (heard in the traditional bass line—we switched it to a pilón) is Cuban; it reached Bizet via Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier. The spoken intro is from the opera’s recitative: “When will I love you? My goodness, I don’t know. Could be never, could be tomorrow. But not today, that’s for certain.”

Ave Rara pairs the inventive lyrics of Aldir Blanc (who wrote for Jobim and still works with Guinga) with the harmonic prowess of Edu Lobo. The words are enthralling: “My life is a pilgrimage in search of you… I hear your song, rare bird of Islam… This thirst is my destiny… Your bed is an oasis, but at the end of the trek, all I ever find is a mirage, sand and sun.”

Calling You is an Oscar-nominated song by Bob Telson, written for the movie Bagdad Café. Here, it takes the emphasis on vocal harmonies throughout this record to its most elaborate expression. This was my theme song when I left college to pursue music and lived in my VW van while driving across Highway 10 for several months.

El Cantante is Ruben Blades’ portrait of a salsa singer, best embodied by Hector Lavoe: “I am the singer you’ve all paid to hear… no one asks me if I suffer, if I cry, if I have wounds that throb deep inside.” This acoustic arrangement pays homage to the Fania production, but adds new twists (and lyrics) with a baritone sax ostinato in the bridge.

Agua de Beber/Aguas de Março is a medley of two essential Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes. Agua de Beber (“water to drink”) reveals how fear can kill your heart. Aguas de Março refers to the March rains at summer’s end in the Southern Hemisphere. The lyrics, written in both English and Portuguese by Jobim, list evocative images of life and nature.

Her Ways Wander (by Alexa Weber Morales, Vince Mansel and Wayne Wallace) was inspired by a phrase in the Bible: “Her ways wander, and she does not know it.” The bridge has another mystical reference.

The Goddess of War (by Alexa Weber Morales) epitomizes how, in songwriting, a single idea sparks a sonic drama that unfolds in just five minutes. I’m always seeking unusual settings. Here, the narrator is disenchanted with destruction carried out in the name of progress—but she’s complicit as one of its architects.

Así Es El Amor (by Alexa Weber Morales) is a love story about miraculously finding a soulmate, only to be separated by insurmountable obstacles—and the realization that this pain is the true meaning of love, that all the beliefs that preceded it were just the ramblings of a novelist (“asi es el amor… ya no es invento del fabulador”).

Angelitos Negros is adapted from a poem by Andrés Eloy Blanco (1896-1955) of Venezuela. In 1946, Mexican actor Manuel Alvarez Maciste composed the song, and the haunting question was made famous by Pedro Infante: Why has the cathedral painter forgotten the little black angels?

Tu Amor (by Alexa Weber Morales) is about love in its first bloom: the sensations of falling, floating, yearning, aching and everything else that goes with passion’s promise: “…and we break free of Earth’s gravity.”

You Cry, I Dry Your Tears (by Alexa Weber Morales) has a simple piano setting with an introduction inspired by Bethena, a waltz by Scott Joplin

Thanks
Les doy infinitas gracias a mi esposo Emilio y mis dos lindos amores, Sebastián Quauhtli y Carlos Ollier. Ustedes son mi rueda de cariño, diversión y lucha.

Thanks to Jesse “Chuy” Varela, Mark Ruffin, Avotcja, David McBurnie, Leon Reyes, David Flores, Jeff Chambers, Herman Bosset, Edgardo Cambón, Christopher Putnam, Jay Strickwerda, Wes Worth, Yvonne Chang, Emily Hayes, Christy, Laurie, Mike Marshall, KPFA, KCSM, KPOO, California Brazil Camp, the Jazzschool, Jazzcamp West, La Peña Cultural Center, Grace Cathedral, Jazz at Pearl’s and Yoshi’s.