After 15 years of working with Susana Baca I organized a tour for her in the United States during April 2010. It was great to see her career revived in the U.S. and to work with such a vibrant and talented artist. It reminded me why I do this, to create music that helps people understand the world around them. I, 1996, I produced her first CD in the US in, Susana Baca, traveling to Peru for almost a month where we work daily in a studio with a noisy air conditioner in the control room. It was hard work trying to make a world class recording in this studio but she had amazing musicians who were able to make this cracker box studio vibrate with energy. After this we would visit with her when she came through San Francisco and talk on the phone now and then. In 2008, I was working in Peru and went to visit her and she asked me to produce some new material for her in her home studio in Lima. I brought my whole family with me and they were happy tourists while we slaved away in the studio, but the results were breathtaking. We ended up recording her voice in her kitchen, a place where she normally sings and dances while she cooks, she sang the songs her mother used to sing and material she learned from her mentor Chabuca Granda, the great Peruvian singer who put modern Peruvian music on the international scene.
Anyway the tour went well, big crowds all over the country and she is now back in the scene.
