Latin Female Singers - Any suggestions?


I have always wanted to expand my listening repertoire beyond the traditional jazz ballads/balladeers. It seems as I discover new singers in the idiom I keep hearing many of the same traditional ballads being redone in much the same way. This is great to a point but a little spice of the Latin variety sure wouldn’t hurt. In that regards, I've done a little research and discovered Yasmin Levy (Landino, flamenco). Her album, Sentir blows me away. The recording quality is quite good too. I also like Brazilian Ceu (samba, reggae, jazz) on her self-titled album. Ojos de Bruja are also doing interesting stuff. None of these can be called jazz in the traditional sense but good nonetheless.

Concha Buika's collaboration with Chucho Valdes is another great find. Fantastic synergy between Concha and Chucho here, with very good sound quality as well. Others I have manage to sought out so far are Mexican singers Lhasa, Lila Downs,Chavela Vargas and Argentinian Mercedes Souza.

I'd be interested to hear of any others, along these lines, that you might be aware of.
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Eliane Elias "A Long Story" is a great album!

It's a shame Elis Regina passed at such a very young 36 years in 1982.

"Salome De Bahia" is out of sight, so is Susana Baca, she's from Peru. Silvia Gomez, Nazare Pereira, Clara Nunes, Beth Carvalho, Fortuna, and Claudia Gomez, are all Latin singers.

Enjoy the music.
A few thoughts on the Buena Vista sound. If one uses as criteria two of Jazz's essential ingredients, improvisation and roots in African music, it is clearly "jazz"' as Rok points out. But the music heard on most of BVSC's recordings is actually closer to the "guajira" and "son" styles; the "country-music" of Cuba. The repetitive vocal style is the influence of the chants of the music that the West African slaves brought to the mix. It predates the Cubano-bop that came a decade or two later.
If you really want to get exotic, try Aster Aweke from Ethiopia. She communicates the primordial soul of "woman"; you can feel the intensity of her passion. I see she's still performing here in the states.