The enchanting singer, guitarist and percussionist, Stefani Valadez offers romantic and uplifting, ancient and original modern songs from many lands: Mediterranean, Brasilian, Celtic and American FolkRock'n Delta Blues.
Her haunting voice and sensual rhythms will linger long after your first experience.
Click below to play "DURME" from the album "Other Voices"
“If you are a Jobim / Gilberto / bossa-nova connoisseur, the versions of “Estrada Do Sol (Road to the sun)” and “E Preciso Perdoar (We must forgive)” alone are worth the price. Ms. Valadez has a lovely voice and her arrangements, band performance, and recordings are excellent. I prefer her version of the moody “E Preciso Perdoar” to that found on the 1975 Stan Getz / Joao Gilberto “Best of Two Worlds” album.
I fell in love with the “Sephardic / Ladino” material, too. For example:
*Durme, durme (a Sephardic lullaby)
*Niggun (Song without words)
*Mose Salio De Misrayim (Story of Moses)
There are also a few Celtic folk songs on the album.
So it’s a very rich mixture of Brazilian-Portuguese bossa nova, traditional Sephardic/Ladino, and Celtic.”
Jamie Papish is a Los Angeles percussionist , session musician and music teacher specializing in world and sacred music. The Stefani Valadez Ensemble is Stefani Valadez on Guitar and Vocals, Leo Chelyapov on Clarinet, Richard Hardy on Flute and Sax, Oliwa on Bass, Christo Pellani on Monotone and Percussion and Jamie Papish on Middle Eastern Percussion and dancer Melanie Kareem.