LeAndra's voice rises high

LeAndra Live – Strings and Voice II, a review

NIGEL A CAMPBELL

Part of life’s mysteries are the unintended consequences of actions and occurrences beyond one’s control.

The unavoidable absence due to illness of master musician and advertised special guest artist Mungal Patasar at LeAndra Live – String and Voice II concert – on April 26, the first night of a two-night run – created an opportunity for her sublime voice to shine above reconfigured instrumentation, and reinforced a widely held opinion of LeAndra having her generation’s finest voice in this country.

Without hyperbole, this intimate event at Castle Killarney (Stollmeyer’s Castle), Queen's Park, Port of Spain, superseded expectations by innovating new ways of listening to a wide repertoire from this island songbird.

Reconfigured shows always have teething problems – better stage management would have sufficed – but, in the end, what the sold-out audience of just 100 people in what was the downstairs living room of Killarney got to experience was two sides of the singer who showcased control and power simultaneously. Those two sides were her solid takes on Broadway and musical show tunes and an amazing transformation to interpreting the languid vibe of music from “hot latitudes,” including bolero and soca.

The juxtaposition of these often opposite vocal techniques proved to many that the additional training she got at the University of TT – Academy for the Performing Arts (UTT-APA) was worth it. Foundation, quality and tone were all objectively of a high standard. Her natural talent, evident while she was still a child, has been enhanced effectively.

LeAndra opened the show with her rendition of Never Enough from the musical film The Greatest Showman that set the tone for demonstrating her ease with the contemporary metropolitan songs from the American songbook. Power and her broad vocal range were on display. This was followed by another ballad, Flowers from the Broadway musical Hadestown.

These two opening songs were suitably accompanied by the quartet of piano (Eunmi Choi), cello (Wasia Ward), viola (Nariba Herbert) and acoustic guitar (Johnathon Agostini). That acoustic setting and the music created an ambience of a quiet music salon that may have been the norm for the original occupants of this Caribbean Castle more than a century ago.

Classical guitarist Stefan Roach provided a five-song interlude that highlighted, at some points, the ups and downs of having to quickly amend a perfect set-list to make room for Patasar’s unexpected non-appearance. French composer Paul de Senneville’s romantic solo piano song
Mariage d’amour was transposed to guitar to retain the elegant heartbeat of music for love. That was followed by the popular Die With a Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga that added a modern touch outside of the European context and highlighted complex right hand technique and strums to the uninitiated. An Alegrías that optimally showed Roach’s fine flamenco strumming techniques –
rasgueado and
tremolo were terms discovered that evening – concluded his planned original trio of tunes.

As an addendum, he along with Agostini on second guitar and René Aleong on cajón played Despacito and surprisingly, Yung Bredda’s 2025 Carnival hit The Greatest Bend Over with a semi-classical make-over. At this point, imperfections crept in. Roach admitted after the show that, “things kinda fell apart at that point.” The adequate rehearsal necessary for peak performance was just not enough, he later said, however, the song choice did sit well with the audience who could be heard singing along quietly but confidently.

For LeAndra’s return before the concert’s intermission, she sang John Mayer’s modern folk song The Age of Worry with the clear voice, without embellishment, that signified distinction. For her next song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the film The Wizard of Oz, an emotional duet with her sister Tylah, she reminded the audience that she was a 12 & Under TV show winner, and that her grandfather who recently passed was her biggest champion and supporter; she dedicated the performance to his memory.

The superlative harmonising with the two voices proved to be an apt tribute as it raised the bar for what was to come. And that bar was easily hurdled by what was easily the highlight of the first set, Defying Gravity from the Broadway musical, and later film, Wicked. The notoriously difficult song was handled with surety as the controlled power and range of LeAndra’s soprano voice were on full display for all to hear, highlighted by magnificent musical accompaniment. A bravura performance!

The recognition that LeAndra is a fan of repertoire of musicals was evident in the first half. The second half, however, provided for new pathways for audience’s acknowledgement of her skill and talent.

As noted, Patasar’s non-appearance allowed for innovation and improvisation. His tune Dreadlocks, a popular fusion from his band Pantar, was stripped of its excess to just guitars and percussion allowing both Agostini and Roach to shine by mimicking, without mocking, the sound and tonality of the sitar.

Roshni, a song composed by Patasar for his wife of the same name was sung by LeAndra to ovation as she positively handled the “notes between the notes” of the Indian music scale. One heard the richness of her voice and the quality of her breath control moving outside of her comfort zone, beyond a boundary.

At this point, it was evident that the performance was not hindered but enriched beyond the status quo of a thoroughly rehearsed programme. The influence of Roach on expanding LeAndra’s song choices towards Latin music was illustrated effectively by two boleros,
Tuyo and
Bésame Mucho. Foreign languages were never an issue for a student of classical opera, as LeAndra was back at UTT-APA, and it showed as she moved easily among the lyrics of these two songs. The ensemble revelled in this music and this combination of instruments could become a standard as the thump of a drum is not necessary for a sublime voice to excel.

Bringing it all back home for her closer, Cocoa Tea by Kes, LeAndra demonstrated restraint by making the song linger on unhurried tones rather than hectic rhythms – the epitome of groovy soca – and in so doing allowing for a fuller recognition of the talent of this singer. These last three songs were comfortably interpreted to point toward a new path for singers from this region.

The urgency of Carnival music can be countered by intimate elegance. The songbooks of Broadway and musical theatre and film, the contemporary folk of the American music scene, the boleros and soca of Latin America and the Caribbean, even the ragas of transplanted India, were all on show.

The warm muted ambience of Killarney, defying the din of purring electric fans that mocked the silence in an attempt to cool the room, provided a backdrop for a different kind of entertainment in this season and that night when local ears were listening to promises from the hustings and loud music trucks providing a soundtrack for it all. LeAndra Live – Strings and Voice II took an audience back in time when music was not electronic and repetitious, and the human voice was heard without artifice. As a showcase for an artist on an upward trajectory regionally, this performance fulfilled expectations and delivered promising possibilities.