[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: Citysong]

Tiffany Hanson: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Tiffany Hanson, in for Alison Stewart. By the way, Alison will be live with us on Monday appointment listening folks. As for right now, school is almost out. Today's the last day of school in the New York City public schools system. For our final hour of the show today, we're going to be celebrating with some music and some books made for families to enjoy together. Later this hour, we'll hear from two children's book authors who have written new stories set in New York.

But first, we're going to hear a live performance from a local Grammy award-winning musician, Lucy Kalantari and her band, The Jazz Cats, have released their first album in six years. Their first album written entirely in Spanish. Kalantari's family comes from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The new album is called Creciendo. It's out now. Lucy Kalantari joins us in studio at the piano. Hi, Lucy.

Lucy Kalantari: Hi.

Tiffany Hanson: She's also brought her son, Darius, who has a cello in front of him. Hi, Darius. Welcome to WNYC. Let's just get started with some music. Tell us what the title of this is though, Lucy.

Lucy Kalantari: This song is called Tu Luz.

[MUSIC - Lucy Kalantari: Tu Luz]

Tiffany Hanson: Thank you for that. Lucy, I don't speak Spanish. Tell me-

Lucy Kalantari: That's okay.

[laughter]

Tiffany Hanson: -thank you. Tell me, first, the title means what in English?

Lucy Kalantari: Yes. It means your light.

Tiffany Hanson: Ooh, I like that. Now that I know that, I can hear that in your words, in your intonation, in your inflection. Tell us a little bit about the spirit of the song. We don't need a word by word translation, but just the-- I can guess from the way the music lifts me along.

Lucy Kalantari: I'm so pleased to hear that because that's the thing. That's the power of music, right? That it transcends all language. It's funny, just the moment I said Tu Luz and that it means your light, I saw your light in your eyes. You're like, "Oh, it all makes sense." That's the thing. We have this inner light and sometimes we need to be reminded that it's there. It's just a, "Hey, it's there. Take care of it. Share it. Take care of it and let it keep shining."

Tiffany Hanson: You mentioned that music really transcends language. I think that's especially true for kids. If I'm speaking from my own lived experience as a kid, hearing songs in other languages that I didn't understand and loved them anyway, maybe I can remember hearing the Gipsy Kings, for example.

Lucy Kalantari: Oh, how fun.

Tiffany Hanson: Right. Just making up my own story about what it was about- [chuckles]

Lucy Kalantari: I love that.

Tiffany Hanson: -based on the way the music sounded. I'm wondering if you think about that when you are writing these songs, just the spirit, the intent of that is often just enough for kids.

Lucy Kalantari: Yes. It's funny, one of the tunes on the new album on Creciendo is called Adivina, which means guess. It's guess the emotion. It's really focusing a lot on that, on translating some of the emotion in song. It's a game where we play something and they're supposed to guess what emotion we're conveying with the song, with the music. We got to play it live. It was very exciting. One of the kids during something that was supposed to be super serene, it's like really serene. I went around the audience and I asked each child, it went through all the emotions.

They got sadness, they got happiness, they got all the things, but when it came to serene, what was it that the child said?

Darius: Disappointment.

Lucy Kalantari: Disappointment. [laughs] It was funny. We played it again and she said, "Disappointment." There was something in her. That's the thing. There is no right or wrong.

Tiffany Hanson: Right.

Lucy Kalantari: It's like that was a thing that was stirred in her in that particular moment

Tiffany Hanson: Such a great word.

Lucy Kalantari: Isn't that-- and this child, she was like, what? 11 maybe.

Darius: No, she was seven.

Lucy Kalantari: She was seven. [laughs] [crosstalk]

Tiffany Hanson: It makes me think of, do you remember The Tale of Despereaux? Did you ever read that or see that movie? It's Kate DiCamillo book. Anyway, the mother-- have you read that, Darius? Do you remember the mother always says, "Such a disappointment."

[laughter]

Darius: Yes.

Tiffany Hanson: Maybe she read that book. Darius, I have a question for you. What's it like when you see your mom playing a song like that? What does that feel like? Are you proud of her?

Darius: Yes, totally. We both have been doing this for a long time and I feel like we've connected over the music a little bit. It just feels like just like normal life. I don't know.

Tiffany Hanson: It's a pretty great normal life I think having a mom who can play like that.

Darius: Yes. Music has become part of my life.

Tiffany Hanson: Well, of course. How did you start playing cello?

Darius: There's this band, it's made up of two cellists. They were classically trained. Their names are Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. They make a band called 2Cellos. When I was two or one, I would watch the music videos and I would play along with this little ukulele I got when I was one and a half or something, and this little blue drumstick. I would just make the motion of playing the cello. I would always ask my mom, "Can I have a real cello?" Then she said, "When you're three, you can have a real cello."

Because I was two and a half, two and three quarters, right before I turned three, everywhere I went, I was telling everybody, "When I'm three, I'm going to get a real cello." I did and I started taking lessons and that's how I-

Tiffany Hanson: Nice.

Darius: -discovered it.

Tiffany Hanson: As a cellist, I can confer and concur with you that the cello is the best choice.

Darius: Yes.

Tiffany Hanson: Let's be clear about that. Lucy, when did you start playing music when you were growing up?

Lucy Kalantari: I did not see videos of cellists. [chuckles] I could say, Darius is so cool. Hearing that story from his perspective is really fun. It's totally true. That's exactly how it happened. For me, I always had just melodies and songs in my head. That's something I've seen in Darius since he was really small, just always humming. While he's doing Legos, there's humming songs and songs and music. I think I tried to do as much noodling whenever I saw that there was a house we went to that had a keyboard.

It wasn't until I was in Dominican Republic, I was living there with my mom, I was about 10 years old. This man would come over who had a crush on my sister. He came with his keyboard and would give me the keyboard that I-- [laughs]

Tiffany Hanson: He went all out.

Lucy Kalantari: So I could play with the keyboard and then he could hang out with my sister. I'd noodle on the keyboard and that's what really ever since then, I haven't stopped.

Tiffany Hanssen: I wonder if you felt like-- I think once we start to clue in as kids to the fact that music is all around us, especially let's say here in New York, what was that like as a kid? What kind of music did you hear around you as a kid?

Lucy Kalantari: I feel really blessed that I got to grow up both in America and in Dominican Republic because I was surrounded by music in Spanish, music in English. I got so many different styles around me. Everything from Merengue, Salsa, Bachata to my neighbors in Dominican Republic really liked Air Supply, which is very bizarre.

Tiffany Hanssen: I didn't have that-

Lucy Kalantari: I know, right.

Tiffany Hanssen: -on my bingo card. Okay.

Lucy Kalantari: Isn't that bizarre? I got to listen to everything, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, and then of course, cartoons. That was probably a big influence there. That's where I got a lot of the jazz inspiration and education actually from cartoons, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, everything from-- all the classical music, Bugs Bunny, The Conductor., come on. When that's the thing that you associate your childhood with, it becomes this other joyful space.

For me, when I started our band, Lucy Kalantari and The Jazz Cats, I started making jazz for kids and it's just because I associated that with my childhood and my joy. It just all made sense to me. This is everything I've grown up with.

Tiffany Hanssen: So much of what we like musically as kids is influenced by what our parents like. If our parents are listening to classical, we grow up with an appreciation of that. Did you sense that when you were growing up?

Lucy Kalantari: I am the sixth of six kids. I actually had all the big brothers and sisters, everything that they were listening to, I got Prince, I got Menudo. What else were the big hotness in that time? Even in Dominican Republic, Sergio Vargas. It's just such a big mix. In terms of my mom, probably Mariachi, and my dad played guitar just a little bit. His brothers, I found out, they're all musicians and they're fantastic. Every time there's any family reunion, they bring out their guitars and do all their church music and just have a wonderful time.

Tiffany Hanssen: Darius, has your mom introduced you to music that you actually like? Are you like, "Oh, yes, okay, that's not so bad"?

Darius: Yes, for sure. I like a lot of the stuff she plays for me.

Tiffany Hanson: Oh, good.

Lucy Kalantari: A relief.

Tiffany Hanson: Yes.

Darius: She just started introducing me a couple of years ago to more Spanish music, more modern, we're big fans of a band called Bomba Estéreo.

Tiffany Hanssen: Nice.

Darius: She likes Camilo and Carlos Sadness.

Tiffany Hanssen: We're going to out mom here on all of her favorites.

Lucy Kalantari: My guilty pleasure.

Darius: We blast Bomba Estéreo while going random places in the car. My mom gives me this peculiar, really cool kind of music that is just, I don't know, I feel like I have sort of a connection with it, I don't know. My dad has a big range between modern pop and rock from old music and stuff.

Tiffany Hanssen: Okay. We're not going to talk about what old means, but yes.

Darius: Well, no, I'm talking about '80s stuff.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes, I got you. Old. Really, we're digging back.

Darius: Older, how about?

Tiffany Hanssen: We're digging back. Mom, I just got to say, as a mom, if I were hearing that, I'd just be in a little puddle.

Lucy Kalantari: Yes, I'm really trying not to cry, just from the very start. [chuckles]

Tiffany Hanssen: Let's get to some music then. The album is called Creciendo, it's also the title track. I confessed, I don't speak Spanish, but I am a musician. I imagine Creciendo as crescendo as getting louder or bolder or making yourself heard. Am I-

Lucy Kalantari: That's pretty cool.

Tiffany Hanssen: -close?

Lucy Kalantari: Yes. Creciendo means growing, growing up. In this case, it's growing up, so it's about kids growing up.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Let's hear it.

Lucy Kalantari: All right. When I wrote the song, I wanted to do an anthem for kids growing up.

Darius: This is definitely an anthem.

Lucy Kalantari: Let's do it.

[MUSIC - Lucy Kalantari: Creciendo]

Tiffany Hanssen: As if we couldn't tell, the title of that song is Creciendo. You mentioned you were wanting an anthem. I mean, definitely able to chant along with that, but I'm curious a little bit if we can just back up into the process. It can't just be like, "I want to write an anthem." The Creciendo might have come to you, or how did that all happen?

Lucy Kalantari: It's really funny. I spend a lot of time thinking about what our children need as they grow up, the tools they need, but also, what parents need as they grow up. The thing is, our kids are so hungry to learn, just naturally, everything about their environment, everything about the world. It's a really wonderful and magical thing. Our job as their parents, as their teachers, and as people just in their environment is to, well, feed them, feed that part.

This is part of that, it's just like praising, it's just like letting the kid have that voice or say, "I'm growing up, feed me. I want to feed my mind, I want to do these things, I want to move around, I want this." In this part, the first thing that I thought about was the chorus, the escribir, dibujar, construir, florecer, nunca dejo de crecer. This is something we talk about a lot, where it's you write, you draw, it's what you do with your hands because that's the main tool. As you're growing up, you start learning those motor skills with your fingers and your hands.

You start learning how to manipulate things, how to move things, you could start with the pencil grip. Then suddenly, when you can hold that pencil, and then you start scribbling. It's just like, "Well ,wait, I can actually write words, I can write ideas, I can draw pictures." Escribir, dibujar, write, draw, and aprende, nunca dejo de crecer, I never stopped growing. The wonderful thing about that is that as adults, neither do we. That is the most incredible thing because our brains just keep going.

That's what kids bring that inspiration, I think, to adults too, where it's just like, "I want to learn stuff too." It just keeps going. It's just a cycle. As long as you're--

Tiffany Hanssen: As long as we don't shut it off.

Lucy Kalantari: Exactly. As long as our mind-- Keep your mind open and keep learning, keep growing, and the rest will follow.

Tiffany Hanssen: We're talking with Lucy Kalantari about her new album, the first one in six years, written entirely in Spanish, the album called Creciendo. We're also talking with Darius on cello, Lucy's son. Lucy, I mentioned it's written in Spanish, the first full-length album written in Spanish, so talk about why that was important to you.

Lucy Kalantari: I'm Dominican-Puerto Rican. I grew up in Dominican Republic. I've done bilingual songs, but I really wanted to connect more with the Latino families all around the world. Especially being of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, I wanted to see my mom and dad finally hear music that their daughter's making in Spanish as well. It was just so wonderful. My mom has dementia, and so I was able to share a lot of the writing experience with her.

Because music is just so powerful and transcendental, she learned the songs. She can't remember things from five minutes ago, but she can learn a brand-new song and sing it with me. It just--

Darius: Her favorite one-

Lucy Kalantari: Her favorite one.

Darius: -is called Me Caí-

Lucy Kalantari: Me Caí.

Darius: -Pero Me Levanté. It means, "I fell, but then I got back up."

Lucy Kalantari: Yes, that's right.

Darius: She sings it every single time. Even actually, if you don't play that song and you just start playing the album, sometimes-

Lucy Kalantari: She'll sing that one.

Darius: -she'll start singing that one.

Lucy Kalantari: That's pretty great. It's a wonderful thing. Music is just incredible.

Tiffany Hanssen: For people who are familiar with the music of the Dominican Republic, will they hear some of that on this album?

Lucy Kalantari: Yes, absolutely. Actually, I've been doing a bunch of interviews with the radio stations and TV out in Dominican Republic. Wonderful technology that we can do all these interviews from afar. It's been just so, so wonderful and so cool to connect in this new way.

Tiffany Hanssen: Let's talk about this last song. It's called Firefly. I can imagine why fireflies are inspiring the way they attract other fireflies with their glow. Again, I'm projecting my own pre-interpretation on this-

Lucy Kalantari: Magic.

Tiffany Hanssen: -but talk to us about your interpretation of it.

Lucy Kalantari: Sure. In this, I wanted to do a song. This one I co-wrote with my friend Roger Montejano, who's based in Spain. We wanted to do something interesting with audio, just a bedtime story for kids. I came up with this idea of just chasing your dreams. I had originally thought, actually, a butterfly and he is like, "If it's a bedtime story, how about a firefly?" I'm like, "Ooh, magical." It's that. It's chasing your dreams as the sun is setting. It's a story. The sun is setting, starting to get a little darker so the fireflies are coming out and you're chasing this firefly.

You're going past all these beautiful things outside and you're wondering what all these animals are doing to go to bed. What do the birds do? What do bees do at night? What are they up to?

Tiffany Hanssen: I have no idea.

Lucy Kalantari: It's this wondrous story, but always moving, always going until finally the firefly guides you home to bed, so that you can dream the dreams.

Tiffany Hanssen: Let's hear it.

Lucy Kalantari: Imagine that you're in that backyard or forest and the sun's coming down.

[MUSIC - Lucy Kalantari: Firefly]

Tiffany Hanssen: Lucy Kalantari, the album is Creciendo. Lucy, thank you.

Lucy Kalantari: Thank you so much. That song is the last song on the album in Spanish, and I just played the English version since it's a story that'll be out in one month from today.

Tiffany Hanssen: Appreciate that. Thank you. If you're wondering who that maestro was on the cello, that was Darius. Darius, thank you for joining us as well.

Darius: Of course.

Lucy Kalantari: Thank you so much for having us.

Tiffany Hanssen: Thank you.

 

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