"Lost are the langourous moments, the slow dissolve between two frames," sings Erika Luckett with naked intimacy in
"99 mph" from her latest CD, Tinted Glass. "I need a little stillness and quiet and I can't keep your pace…" The song's
context is the disjointed cadence of a relationship, but if you've ever felt overwhelmed by the blurred pace of modern
life, Luckett's Glass is the perfect antidote.
A self-described "child of the Americas," Erika Luckett was born in Mexico and raised in Venezuela and Brazil, where she
soaked up the rich rhythms and melodies of Latin America's exotic musical culture. She studied guitar in Brazil and by the
age of 16 was busking the subways of Paris. Then on to Boston's Berklee School of Music, where she earned her degree in film scoring.
Luckett went on to score music for film, television, and multimedia, including the Academy-Award-nominated documentary
Untold Stories and Stellaluna, which was chosen by Newsweek as its pick of the year for children's CD-ROMs.
In 1990, Luckett founded the world jazz ensemble Wild Mango, and released Circulo Vital (1991), Made in Mango (Redwood
Records, 1993), and Oba (Marquee Records, 1995). Wild Mango toured nationally and internationally, performing at the
Monterrey Jazz Festival, Aspen Jazz Festival, among others. Her songs have graced the airwaves of hundreds of radio
stations throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Tinted Glass, Luckett's debut solo release, finds her exploring a much more intimate songwriting approach. Her languorous
vocal phrasing articulates each tune's melody with a sweet, sensual ache that calls to mind Jobim's fluid melodic grace.
Luckett's sultry world jazz ambience evokes a slower-paced world of heightened senses, limned exquisitely with nylon- and
steel-stringed guitar, acoustic bass, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone; flute, clarinet, electric cello, both Hammond B-3
and wurlitzer, and assorted hand percussion.
Luckett is wonderful at honing in on the nuances of tone and rhythm, coloring her songs with texture without cluttering the
space, and giving her voice room to breathe with pensive passion. From the hypnotic jazz allure of "Gray Wall," to the
undercurrent of Latin percussion that flavors the sanguine "Evangelina" and the slower, more melancholy "Siete Rios,"
to the elastic acoustic groove of the year's best election anti-anthem, "Pennsylvania Avenue" (awarded Best Song by the
Northern California Songwriters Association in March, 2000), Luckett extols the virtues of slow, deliberate movement.
