One Week in Havana

#		Title	Length
1		Two Warhols	3:53	Play
2		Yellow Havana Eyes	4:14	Play
3		Tonight, Gonna Phone You	4:32	Play
4		Supposed To Tell You	4:24	Play
5		Carmen's Mirror	3:53	Play
6		Dark Eyes	4:02	Play
7		Yellow Havana Eyes ('El Cubanito' Remix)	4:27	Play
			29:25

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Description

Artist: Glenda Rush Calzado
CD Title: One Week in Havana

Reviews:

"I sensed lyrically a style that of Leonard Cohen, and influences of great Hispanic artists, South American and Cuban, and one in particular, the Argentinean Alicia Borisonik."
T. Bruce Wittet, Musician & Writer, Musik Etc., Drums Etc. Modern Drummer Magazine), Ottawa, Canada


"Put this music on as background to an apartment party to stimulate conversation like the music itself---relaxed, intelligent, unobtruvisely cool, with an unaggressive hint of sex."
Victor Swoboda, The Montreal Gazette, Montreal, Canada


"My favourite track is "Yellow Havana Eyes" (both versions) although each selection has it's own unique and seductive appeal. This is the perfect companion to a good meal and some great wine."
Bob Farrow,Music Director/On AIr Host, WAVE 94.7 FM,Smmoth Jazz Radio, Hamilton


"Glenda's style and sounds comfort the wounded and excite the lovers in all of us"
Michael Perlmutter, Music Supervisior, SL Feldman & Associates, Toronto


BIOGRAPHY

Glenda Rush Calzado was born in Montreal, Quebec. She grew up in Chomedey, Laval, a small suburb just north of Montreal. She has played guitar since she was a child, and started out by jamming with her two brothers in the basement. She developed a love for music from these jams, from AM Radio/Top 40 pop hits, and also from listening to LPs of Broadway shows. One Week in Havana is a collection of songs that encapsulate Glenda's journey from growing up in Montreal, then discovering the soul of Latin music and composers, and then finally traveling to Havana, Cuba.

Glenda is the rhythm guitarist, vocalist and arranger of the music on One Week in Havana, and it was produced by Perry Alexander, of Toronto, Canada.

Glenda graduated from the Theatre Department at York University in Toronto, Canada. After completing her studies, she returned to live and work in Montreal as a sheet music salesperson at Steve's Music Store. Glenda also played bass with Montreal artist/lounge style singer Hugh Ball, and the various incarnations of his bands throughout the years. (Hugh Ball & The Martinis, Hugh Ball & What It Is) This band eventually signed a contact with Montreal's Justin Time Records. Glenda met record producer Yank Barry in a Montreal gym one day, and convinced him to see a show.Yank invited Jim West, President of Justin Time Records to see a gig at club 'Tatou', and he loved the band and signed them for a recording. This resulted in a variety of studio sessions, superstar studio musicians, and then an eventual band break up in the late 1980's. At this time, Glenda decided to work as a solo artist, and write and produce her own music, and explore music beyond the bass guitar.

In 1990, Glenda moved to Toronto. She brought her bass, a guitar, a drum machine and a Sansui 6 Track Recorder. She attended many SOCAN songwriting seminars, and was mentored by great Canadian writers/artists like Marc Jordan and Shari Ulrich. Glenda received a FACTOR New Talent Demo Award for 2 original songs, which she recorded in Toronto. This was an encouraging and fruitful time for her artistically, however, at other times she got discouraged by panels of music industry executives at such seminars, touting the 'grunge' genre of music in vogue at the time.

This led Glenda to look toward different avenues for musical inspiration and guidance. She went to clubs that featured live flamenco guitarists and saw Toronto musicians like Roger Scannura, Kevin Laliberte, Bill Katsioutas, Jesse Cooke, Robert Michaels, and Juan Tomas. Glenda also studied old Mexican and Cuban boleros. She discovered songs with lyrics and melodies of love and romance. which were not out of fashion at all- in fact she discovered that these love are legendary standards. She was deeply touched by these songs...even though she could not understand a word in the lyrics. This music changed her life. She totally immersed herself into every bit of Latin culture she could discover in Toronto. She took Spanish classes, salsa classes, and flamenco guitar lessons. She immersed herself into danzons, cha cha chas, and mambos from Cuba. She was in love, with the music.

After hearing flamenco guitarist Roger Scannura perform one evening, Glenda asked him to give her guitar lessons. Roger invited her to sit in on his flamenco dance company's classes. During one of these sessions, Glenda recorded Roger's jamming style of flamenco guitar. One of these jam cassettes became the song Carmen's Mirror on One Week in Havana. Roger encouraged Glenda to record her songs outside of her living room 8 track studio set up, and introduced her to dance music producers Perry Alexander (Chris Perry and Adam Alexander), and guitar player, Kevin Laliberte.

Chris Perry encouraged Glenda to record her songs, and she started to record solo tracks on guitar and voice with Chris and his amazing production and engineering talents. As they recorded song after song in the studio, they formulated a blend of acoustic guitar, fused with samples of Latin music, flamenco and hip hop beats. Chris invited Adam Alexander (his production partner) into the studio to participate. And then Kevin came in and added his lead guitar coloring and lead arrangements. Glenda also did the occasional live gig with Kevin in small clubs in Toronto.

Glenda continued to record in the studio with Chris and Adam and move forward on fuller production on new songs she was writing. Chris, Adam and Kevin were integral to her development, and also their friendship and encouragement gave her a force to move forward with.

In 2000, Glenda's demo tape fell into the hands of Michael Perlmutter, Music Supervisor at S.L. Feldman & Associates in Toronto. Michael placed one of Glenda's songs for a scene in a CBC Television program called 'Drop The Beat' where they used a few moments of one of the songs. Michael's guidance and friendship gave Glenda encouragement and focus and encouragement towards her continued development.

In December 2000, Glenda traveled to Havana, Cuba fulfilling a fantasy to experience the wealth of music and culture she knew the island would offer her. She was deeply affected and inspired by the people as well as the music. In Havana, Glenda discovered what everyone knows: Such great musical talent and huge volume of players exploding onto the streets at almost every corner, for the sole purpose of playing the music itself. A wealth of soul and talent, but a horrific material poverty and sadness, overshadowing all of the beauty. This made her realize that the most important thing was to just play the music, write about it, and record it. So she did, and finally, One Week in Havana is complete: A 6 song EP of original tracks with a 7th remix track. A journey from the basement of Chomedey, Laval to Havana, The Hotel Nacional de Cuba...first as a tourist, then as a local....the real Havana...it was the beginning of a Caribbean dream.

At present, Glenda lives in Montreal, and continues to write and play music In November 2003; she was introduced to the great Haitian-Montreal based guitarist/composer, Toto Laraque. They are currently writing songs together, with Glenda's English- Spanish lyrics, and Toto's Caribbean flavored guitar arrangements and compositions.



For more information please contact Glenda directly:

Glenda Rush Calzado
Glen89122@aol.com