When little Leyla McCalla proudly chose her instrument for her school’s mandatory music program, there was a detail or two that wasn’t perfectly clear: the difference between a piccolo and a cello. It’s an important distinction.
But Leyla’s hilarious choice led her down a marvelous path, and with an odd instrument in tow, she’s developed a very unique musical style, too. As daughters of Haitian immigrants, early on, Leyla and her sister Sabine heard the languages and sounds of the Caribbean islands and extremely Deep South, despite being far removed in their New York home. That physical and emotional distance combined with an intimate ancestral respect gave the sisters a freedom to experiment with those sounds, and shape them into their own extraordinary songs.
In addition to her fated cello, Leyla plays tenor banjo and guitar, and sings in English, French, and Haitian Creole. Her most recent album even blends all of those elements with zydeco and both New Orleans and Haitian jazz.
But “Little Sparrow” is technically a cover. It was originally written and performed by Ella Jenkins, a prolific African-American writer and performer known as “the First Lady of Children’s Folk Music.” After experiences with southern African-Americans “very disconnected from their history because of years and years of racism and systematic oppression,” Leyla included “Little Sparrow” on her album because it “reminded me of the stories I’ve heard of displaced people globally, especially the inevitable adjustments that have to be made in a new home.”
“Home” is a word with such high esteem among a people torn from theirs and displaced all over the world. But if home had a voice, I picture it as the one humming on the porch at sunset while you lay with your head on its knee, and it strokes your hair until you fall asleep to cricket songs. And home sounds a lot like Leyla McCalla.
Blessed be.
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘:
“Wake up, wake up, little sparrow
Don’t make your home out in the snow”