A month after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, leaving its residents without electricity and little food and clean water, rains continued to pour over the small island.
Singer-songwriter iLe is coping. While her San Juan home has some power, she’s well aware how fortunate she is and how desperate the situation is worsening for family members, neighbors and all of Puerto Rico.
“I have my days,” she said recently by telephone.
To make those days as bright as possible, she volunteers her time to help others in this humanitarian crisis and she writes her songs to ease the pain.
“The only way, the best way, is to compose music,” she said in Spanish.
And if her debut album is any indication, iLe’s forthcoming songs, moved by emotions of despair and hope, will be worth waiting for. Because it is not so much the heartbreak that is motivating her to write her heart out, but the response and resilience of Puerto Ricans in the hurricane’s wake.
“We are starting a new life, a new period,” she said.
Ileana “iLe” Cabra, who is touring the U.S., recently earned a Grammy for her debut solo album ‘iLevitable.” The album won in the “Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album” category. She will perform at the Rialto Theatre Saturday, Nov. 11.
Most Latino music enthusiasts will not recognize her name, but they already know her voice. She was the fierce female voice with Calle 13, Puerto Rico’s widely known and acclaimed alternative/hip-hop band with her brothers Eduardo José Cabra Martínez, known as Visitante, and René Pérez Joglar, known as Residente.
But her new recording is far afield from Calle 13’s hip-hop sound. Her songs are rooted in traditional bolero, melodic compositions, including a duo with the late Puerto Rican crooner Cheo Feliciano, and old school boogaloo and mambo.
“I’m not a rapper,” she said. “My expression is to sing melodic and popular songs.”
Her songs are full of romance, sadness and hope. And while she has a Latino retro sound, she is anything but retro. Her compositions advance and propel forward the classic Latino bolero sound. And she’s having a lot of fun looking back while moving forward.
“I want to continue to explore,” she said. “I have much more to learn.”
