Album Review: What a Difference a Day Made from Ermelinda Cuellar

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Album:  What a Difference a Day Made

Artist: Ermelinda Cuellar

Label: Self-Released

Website: www.ermelindacuellar.com

 

The lush and penetrative vocal textures of Ermelinda Cuellar are entrancing, displaying an elegance that’s unparallel to others, demonstrated on her latest release What a Difference a Day Made.  Fraught with modern jazz standards, Cuellar fuses bossa nova smoothness with swing blues sophistication.  The clarity in her voicing is inviting, encouraging an intimacy with her audience that is ideal for building a lasting bond with listeners.


Her vocals caress the melodies, imprinting gentle cascades, sleek glides, and flickering embers along the melodic progressions with an ease that is bewitching.  Her treatment of “Midnight Sun” partners the smoothness of jazz vocals with the exotic tingles of Latin grooves.  The intensity in her storytelling, sung intermittently between English and Spanish, enhances the sentiment projected in the lyrics.  Her improvised scatting is applied with an intuitive nature, highlighting the beauty of her rich vocal resonance.  The sensitivity, warmth, and tenderness she applies to “Angelios Negros” leaves a vivid impression on the listener, as the lulling sway of her vocals along “Duermo Nino” moves with the graceful stride of dancing spirals. 

 

Endowed with vocals that can stop traffic, Ermelinda Cuellar is accompanied by a cadre of like-minded musicians that include pianist Gilbert Sedeño, guitarist Greg Petito, bassist Anthony Caceres, trombonist Andre Hayward, and drummer/percussionist Marlon Simon.  Earning a degree in Opera Performance from Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, Ermelinda Cuellar has a voice that lifts the human spirit and corresponds intense emotions.

 

Musicians: 

Ermelinda Cuellar - Vocals 

Gilbert Sedeño - Piano

Greg Petito - Guitar

Anthony Caceres - Bass

Andre Hayward - Trombone

Marlon Simon - Drums & Percussion

 (In memory of) Anibal Ambert – Percussion

 

 

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