FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2022
Contact: kelly@epitaph.com

LEYLA MCCALLA BREAKS DOWN PERSONAL + POLITICAL MEANING OF NEW ALBUM ‘BREAKING THE THERMOMETER’

WATCH NEW MINI DOCUMENTARY HERE

ON TOUR IN EUROPE NOW

WATCH NPR TINY DESK PERFORMANCES OF “DODININ,”
“MEMORY SONG,” “FORT DIMANCHE” & “NAN FON BWA”

“An ambitious, accomplished piece of work “- The Guardian, Best of The Year Thus Far

“One of 2022’s most compelling albums” - NPR Music

“An exquisite distillation of hope and perseverance, mystery and humanity” - MOJO

Leyla McCalla has spent 2022 sharing the story of her latest album ’Breaking the Thermometer,’ which came out this past May - Haitian Heritage Month. McCalla was granted access to Radio Haiti’s archives via Duke University in 2016, and from researching those archives ’Breaking The Thermometer’ was born. In delving into the project, McCalla found herself forced to grapple with her own experiences as a Haitian-American woman, unraveling layers of marginalization and generations of repression and resolve as she searched for a clearer vision of herself and her purpose. The result is at once a work of radical performance art, historical scholarship, and personal memoir, a wide-ranging and powerful meditation on family and democracy and free expression that couldn’t have arrived at a timelier moment. She speaks about this process in a new mini documentary about the album’s creation. Directed by Lily Keber, watch it below.

‘Breaking The Thermometer’ Mini Documentary: https://youtu.be/Mujo3mOazBA

‘Breaking The Thermometer’ combines original compositions and traditional Haitian tunes with historical broadcasts and contemporary interviews to forge an immersive sonic journey through a half century of racial, social, and political unrest. The music is captivating, fueled by rich, sophisticated melodic work and intoxicating Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and the juxtaposition of voices—English and Kreyòl, personal and political, anecdotal and journalistic—is similarly entrancing, raising the dead as it shines a light on the enduring spirit of the Haitian people.

This past spring and summer McCalla toured the record extensively in the US and Canada, bringing this music to major festivals and spaces like Big Ears Festival, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Montreal Jazz and opening for Neko Case and Mary Chapin Carpenter. The National Symphony Orchestra commissioned and performed full orchestral arrangements of songs from the album at the stunning Kennedy Center, McCalla sang a beautiful rendition of “Summer’s End" as a part of You Got Gold, a celebration of John Prine's life at the Ryman alongside Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Kacey Musgraves and others. She also just returned to the Ryman to open for Jason Isbell before heading to Carnegie Hall to perform with Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah).

Leyla and her quartet will finish up the year with their current 3-week tour of the UK, Belgium and France and recently announced multiple dates with Paris Philharmonie in Spring of 2023. All upcoming dates are listed below.


TOUR DATES
11/10 - Villejuif, France @ Romain Rolland Theater 
11/11 - Cenon, France @ Le Rocher de Palmer
11/12 - Nantes, France @ La bouche d’air 
11/15 - Paris, France @ New Morning
11/16 - Leuven, Belgium @ Het Depot
11/17 - Roeselare, Belgium @ De Spil
11/18 - Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
11/20 - Fleurus, Belgium @ Bibliotheque Communale de Fleurus 
11/22 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Vondelkerk
11/24 - Birmingham, UK @ Symphony Hall
11/25 - London, UK @ Kings Place
4/21/23 - Paris, France @ Philharmonie De Paris
4/22/23 - Paris, France @ Philharmonie de Paris

Listen + Order ‘Breaking The Thermometer’

https://leylamccalla.com/
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

#####

Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is made possible, in part, with a grant from the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a grant from New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council; and a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Duke Performances at Duke University, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, MDC Live Arts – Miami Dade College, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Special thanks to the Human Rights and Radio Haiti archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University for serving as the research site and partner on Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, and to the Forum for Scholars and Publics.
 
Explore the Radio Haiti digital archives here: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/radiohaiti

#####

For More Info on Leyla McCalla, Contact:
Kelly Kettering | ANTI- Records Publicity | kelly@epitaph.com