You can hear the essence of great jazz vocalists like Carmen McRae, Nina Simone, and Sarah Vaughan in the sound of NYC’s Afro-Boricuan group duendita.
Speaking on how “born with power” was created, duendita shares this: “‘born with power’ was once just an a capella voice note. The melody and lyrics popped into my head within seconds while on tour in Europe. Months later, Noah [Becker] and I were on the road again, this time in the US. Working in headphones in the living room of our AirBnB while our friends watched Squid Game, we made ‘born with power.’ We performed it on stage for the first time days later. Live performance is at the center of our creative process, and we let those early performances of the song inform this final version. When we got back to New York, pianist Paul Wilson blessed the track, which was endlessly fun for me to edit. The entire process from voice note to final export was extremely collaborative, and that’s what makes this song so special.”
duendita’s forthcoming project, the mind is a miracle, is a meditation on love and recovery.