This inspired double bill brought together two very different singers with similar histories. Leyla McCalla and Mélissa Laveaux were both born in North America to Haitian parents, and are fascinated by the history and music of this battered Caribbean country, which they have reworked and fused with US influences.
McCalla grew up in New Jersey and Ghana, is now based in New Orleans, and spent two years with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Her third solo album, The Capitalist Blues, is released early next year, and on this showing she deserves to follow her former colleague Rhiannon Giddens to international celebrity. McCalla was remarkable for the power and subtlety of her singing and songwriting, her multi-instrumental skill, and the constant changes of musical and emotional direction.
She started out with Girl, a gently edgy ballad from her 2013 debut, on which she played cello, backed by guitar, double bass and drums. Then she switched to banjo for upbeat Haitian songs interspersed with explanations of their metaphors. She then changed direction again as she picked up the electric guitar for a preview of her new album. Aleppo, a pained, brooding lament on the Syrian tragedy was followed by the banjo-backed rockabilly of Oh My Love, and then the powerful protest of Heavy As Lead, with a reminder that her own daughter was among the American children who have suffered from poisoned water supplies. She ended this remarkable, varied set with the Haitian-influenced title track to her last album, the thoughtful and political A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey.
Canadian-born Mélissa Laveaux, who opened, played electric guitar and brought insistent riffs and an indie rock treatment to traditional vodou and upbeat political songs from 1915-34, the years when the US occupied Haiti. It was a cheerfully effective fusion, thanks to songs such as Nibo, but would have been helped by more variety. It was good that she reappeared for the final song of the night, a delicate duet with McCalla on Pouki, by one of Haiti’s greatest songwriters, the late Manno Charlemagne.
• The London jazz festival continues until 25 November.
