Leyla McCalla

Vocalist, songwriter, arranger, cellist, and multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla was created in NEW YORK to Haitian immigrant parents, raised in a fresh Jersey suburb, and spent 2 yrs in Ghana seeing that a teenager, time for the U.S. to wait Smith University before shifting to review cello efficiency and chamber music at NY University. Not scared to gamble, she relocated to New Orleans after university, purpose on busking with her cello in the French One fourth. She fell deeply in love with Louisiana Creole lifestyle, especially fiddlers like Canray Fontenot and Bébé Carrière, whose designs she begun to explore for the cello. While playing on the road, McCalla fulfilled Tim Duffy, movie director from the Music Machine Relief Base, who subsequently introduced her towards the Carolina Delicious chocolate Drops string music group. After touring using the Delicious chocolate Drops and showing up for the group’s Departing Eden record, McCalla begun to focus on a single profession. Her debut record, Vari-Colored Tracks, a tribute to Langston Hughes, made an appearance in European countries in 2013 and was called album of the entire year by both London Moments and Songlines mag. It was released internationally with the Music Machine Relief Base in early 2014. McCalla toured the U.S, European countries, and Israel in support. The name of her sophomore work, PER DAY for the Hunter, PER DAY for the Victim, was ultimately produced from a Haitian proverb. It highlighted songs in British, French, and Haitian Creole, with performances by Marc Ribot, Rhiannon Giddens, Louis Michot from the Dropped Bayou Ramblers, and New Orleans vocalist/songwriter Sarah Quintana. The established was released by Jazz Community in-may 2016.