La Huerta (la ware-tah), means “the garden” in Spanish. This isn’t a garden composed of hothouse flowers and luxury landscaping -- it’s the garden you’d find behind your house, full of nourishing plants, wild creatures, and weeds. It’s the patch of land where you plant your expectations, decisions, dreams, hopes, hatreds, losses, wishes, loves, mistakes. This is where the fruit of every seed you have ever planted grows… and grows.
Five years ago, acclaimed American singer-songwriter Tori Sparks made the move from Nashville to Barcelona. Her fifth album, El Mar (Glass Mountain Records, 2014), was a collaboration with flamenco fusion trio Calamento, and is a surprising mix of blues, rock and flamenco. The bilingual project was an international success, called "adventurous, pushing the envelope" (Rolling Stone), "extremely special, a monster of a record [Top 20 Albums of the Year]" (Orpheo), "defies comparisons” (Rockdelux), and “pure art” (Los Conciertos de Radio3, RTVE2).
The band went on to triumph on the festival circuit (Voll-Damm International Jazz Festival, (In)Fusion Flamenca, the GREC Festival, others) as well as on tour in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and more. Two years later, Tori Sparks + Calamento have returned to the studio, but with one important difference: The quartet has become a quintet. The maestro of the electric guitar, El Rubio (08001, Color Humano, Rosario Flores) has become an integral part of the Tori Sparks + Calamento’s ever-evolving live show, and has been part of the creative process of Sparks' sixth album from the start.
Tori Sparks and the band present La Huerta. The electric guitar of El Rubio combined with the flamenco guitar of Pepe Camacho smash traditional concepts of genre, and push the group's daring mix of musical flavors into even further into uncharted territory. The band continues to experiment with new sounds without sacrificing the unique combination of styles that won them fans the world over with El Mar. The new album includes original compositions, as well as unexpected versions -- Led Zepplin por bulerias, Camaron played as blues -- in which Tori Sparks' unforgettable voice is stronger and more expressive than ever. Calamento is flamenco guitarist Pepe Camacho, bassist Ramon Vagué and percussionist Javi Garcia.
The band presented La Huerta in concert for the first time on February 23rd at Luz de Gas in Barcelona. Invited guest artists included flamenco dancer El Yiyo, singers Alba Bioque and Julio de los Chavis, and Ramon Gimenez of Ojos de Brujo. They will present the new album in Madrid on March 30th at Sala Clamores. On the 22nd of April, Tori will release the vinyl version of La Huerta in a limited-edition pressing for Record Store Day 2017.