Set for release in April 2026 on Lulaworld Records, Por Amor finds Toronto-based Cuban-Canadian singer Marta Elena delivering her most focused and emotionally resonant work to date—an outstanding follow-up to her debut album, De La Habana a Toronto. Deeply rooted in Tropical, Afro-Latin music, but open to broader Latin American influences, the album reveals an artist fully in command of her musical identity, honouring tradition as a dynamic force and a living source of renewal.

Tropical, Afro-Latin music is the album’s backbone, shaping both its rhythmic drive and expressive core. But Marta Elena approaches the genre with an expansive vision, blending in the romantic depth of bolero, the syncopated rhythms of changüí and rumba guaguancó, touches of funk, and regional nuances that reflect Latin music’s evolving presence on the world stage. These stylistic elements are integrated with care, enriching the album’s narrative without compromising its stylistic coherence.

Captured at RHC Music Recording Studios in Toronto, Por Amor channels the vitality of the city’s Latin music scene through poised, fluid performances by Canadian and Cuban-Canadian musicians. The ensemble playing is confident and nuanced, combining rhythmic precision with an easy sense of flow that gives the music both elegance and immediacy.

A central guiding force behind the album is pianist, arranger, and producer Hilario Durán, who also appears as a special guest. His influence is felt in the album’s arrangements, the refined harmonic structures and its seamless blending of Afro-Cuban tradition with contemporary sensibilities. Durán’s mentorship provides clarity and balance, allowing Marta Elena’s voice to remain front and center. Vocally, she is expressive and assured, moving effortlessly between powerful, rhythm-driven passages and moments of intimacy.

On Por Amor, Marta Elena presents a thoughtful collection of eight tracks that prominently feature her own creative voice. The album is built upon a strong foundation of six original compositions, showcasing her distinct songwriting talents. Complementing her original work, Elena pays homage to two monumental figures in Latin American music with a pair of carefully selected covers. She offers a heartfelt rendition of the classic bolero “Tú mi delirio,” a standard penned by the iconic 20th-century Cuban composer César Portillo de la Luz, and closes the album by reinterpreting “Yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón,” the beloved continental anthem by celebrated Argentinian artist Fito Páez.

As the title track, “Por Amor” captures the essence of the album. This is a project shaped by love—for music, for collaboration, and for the communities that nurture artistic growth. Marta Elena’s acknowledgements, including support from the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council, underscore the collective nature of the recording and the shared commitment behind it.

A deeply personal undercurrent runs through the album, shaped by Marta Elena’s gratitude to her collaborators, faith, supporters, and especially her mother. That emotional honesty gives Por Amor its resonance, making it a confident, expansive statement where tradition and innovation meet—propelled by a profound sense of love.

Track Listing

1. Café Con Leche – 2. No Es Cuestión De Suerte – 3. Me Quedo Con Lo Bonito – 4. Por Amor – 5. La Maleta – 6. Tú Mi Delirio – 7. Solo Sé Que No Sé Nada – 8. Yo Vengo A Ofrecer Mi Corazón

Album Credits

Marta Elena – vocals
Joaquín Hidalgo – percussion (congas, bongó, gúiro, batá drums and clave)
Dyalis Machado, Elizardo Santos, Luis Orbegoso, Luis Anselmi – back-up vocals
Elmer Ferrer -electric guitar
Alexis Baró – trumpet
Colleen Allen – tenor saxophone
Luis Deniz – alto saxophone
Dánae Olano – acoustic piano
Daniela Olano – violin
Frank Martínez – drums and timbales, percussion
Yoser Rodríguez – electric bass
Chris Overton – trombone

Special guest – Hilario Durán: piano, producer, arranger

Passionate devotees of music, especially Spanish flamenco music [and dance] and the Hindustani and Carnatic music of India, would be immediately attracted to Confluencias by guitarist Melón Jiménez and flutist Lara Wong. Their expertly produced repertoire will transport you to quite another world; one aglow with the descriptive grammar of red earth seared by the sun by day, kissed by a silvery moon at night.

This is the fabulous world inhabited by both Ms Wong and Mr Jiménez. Theirs is a most impressionistic series of works, full of shimmering and diaphanous textures evocative of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla, of Hariprasad Chaurasia, D. Ghodkindi and D. Madhusudan. The febrile imagination of this flute and guitar duo takes on the wings of the wind through Andalucía and the plains of India like the fabled peripatetic Romani who trace their origins to the very sun itself.

But while this music flutters and rustles like wing-feathers and falling leaves, it also possesses a hard-edged precision of virtuosity that characterises the prodigious skill and learning of two great traditions – Spain and India. It is animated – almost as vivid as a distant dance. This is not only true of Paraná, Kalima and Finisterre, but also Nuevo Amanecer and – especially – Confluencias and De Sevilla a Kerala.

Together the latter two pieces are shot with a riot of musical paintballs infused with Spanish and Indian colours, not through the precise quotations of specific folk songs, but by melodic and rhythmic lines and the subtle utilisation of effects – strumming chords, incessantly repeated phrases, declamatory unison passages in the whorls of melodic inventions on the flute – which suggest the rhythms and cadences of flamenco song and Indian sangeet, as seemingly filtered through the memory of a dream.

There’s a wholly natural feeling to the way the climaxes and sudden changes of direction are so perfectly judged in this performance – a measure of how well the flutist and guitarist bend and sculpt the music. From the perfumed heaviness that herald the opening of Paraná to the rapturous flute and guitar arabesques of Farruca Opus 1 that bring the recording to a close. The richly mysterious mood is beautifully sustained throughout.

^{Deo Gratis…}

Music – 1. Paraná; 2. Kalima; 3. De Sevilla a Kerala; 4. Confluencias; 5. Finisterre; 6. Un Nuevo Amanecer; 7. Pardo Perdío; 8. Farruca Opus 1.

Musicians – Lara Wong: flutes and bansuri; Melón Jiménez: flamenco guitar, percussion and electronics; Gal Maestro: contrabass.

Released: 2024
Label: Scatcat Music
[larawong.com/en.melonjimenez.org/bio]
Runtime: 39:05

Angela Verbrugge is an artist of the first order. On Somewhere the singer offers a sensitive espousal of show-stopping Broadway tunes and effervescently rendered jazzy works, lending the programme an added dimension of empathetic, soul-searching ballads to boot. These seven songs are natural territory for the Canadian vocalist with a beckoning vibrato.

On this disc Ms Verbrugge displays her ease and clarity of language [English and French] as well as her impressive, instinctive feel for the modes of expression voiced by such diverse composers whose work she shines a light on. Add to that the natural sensitivity to the idiom and the glorious sound of each the inspired choice of performers.

Familiar faces return to add elegance and long-limbed inventions to the instrumental side of things. With pianists Ray Gallon and Miles Black, the inimitable bassists Cameron Brown and Jodi Proznick, drummers Anthony Pinciotti and Joel Fountain and saxophonist Dave Say. Special mention needs to be mentioned of a duet with the ever elegant vocalist Erik Kalaidzis.

Throughout, Ms Verbrugge encapsulates and conveys the spectrum of moods with a wealth of understanding and apt vocal inflection. In the quite different realms of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s Somewhere and on George and Ira Gershwin’s For You, For Me, Forevermore [for instance], the musicians’ discreetly plush instrumental sonority and the warm qualities of Ms Verbrugge’s voice coalesce to create a sumptuous but lucid, luminous soundscape.

The same is true of the sculpted inventions and long inventions of the other pieces on the recording. The musicians’ way with the pieces’ ebb and flow of dynamics and pace from end to end in each work. Their artistry is perfectly matched to Ms Verbrugge’s fluid and eloquently modulated singing.

Ms Verbrugge has the perfect voice for this kind of repertoire. Moreover, the personality of her singing, her agility, and her clear characterisation of a song such as [her original] Je ne veux pas te dire bonsoir, and to the gently floated lyric of Bernard Hanighen and Paul Cates’ If the Moon Turns Green make the music spring to life.

There is never any doubt, whether in Gershwin or Bernstein, or anyone else that Ms Verbrugge has these songs in her heart and has the wisdom and finesse with which to convey their essence.

^{Deo Gratis…}

Music – 1. I Had the Craziest Dream; 2. Somewhere; 3. Born to be Blue; 4. Until I Met You [Corner Pocket]; 5. For You, For Me, Forevermore; 6. Je ne veux pas te dire; 7. If the Moon Turns Green.

Musicians – Angela Verbrugge: vocals; Erik Kalaidzis: vocals [4]; Ray Gallon: piano [3 – 5, 7]; Miles Black: piano [1, 2, 6] Cameron Brown: contrabass [4, 7]; Jodi Proznick: contrabass [1, 2, 6]; Anthony Pinciotti: drums [4, 7]; Joel Fountain: drums [1, 2, 6]; Dave Say: saxophones [2, 6].

Released: 2025
Label: OA2Records OA2 22228
[originarts.com]
Runtime: 29:37