Carla Bradi

When Carla, Nick and I has completed our previous work “The Scale” in 2021, I felt this was such a unique work in its scope and feel – prog, pop, abstraction and chanson – that it would be very difficult to follow up such a definitive statement.

Bahia is Ana Carla Maza's second studio album. It opens with Habana, a tribute to the Cuban capital, where she was born 26 years ago, to a Chilean father, lush musician, Carlos Maza, and a Cuban mother, guitarist, Mirza Sierra. “Cuba is a volcano,” said the father. “Havana is madness,” replies the girl. Of course, Havana is the Malecón, this boulevard on the Atlantic coast, which receives the spray from the Everglades. However, the city coils around a bay, very closed, protected, safe: Bahia, the rear part of a human, port, cosmopolitan Habana Vieja, crossed by mixtures that have spread from Africa to Brazil.

IN 1988 FORMER ROLLING STONES guitarist Mick Taylor began what was to be a significant series of collaborations with L.A. based Carla Olson, first with their “Live at the Roxy” album Too Hot For Snakes, the centrepiece of which is an extended seven-minute performance of “Sway” included on this album. It was followed by Olson’s Within An Ace, which featured Taylor on seven songs. He appeared on three songs from Reap The Whirlwind and then again on Olson’s The Ring of Truth, on which he plays lead guitar on nine tracks, including a twelve-minute version of the song “Winter”. Further work by Olson and Taylor can be heard on the Olson-produced Barry Goldberg album Stoned Again. This is the best of their collaborations.

"Carla" was originally released on Stax Records in 1966 and features performances by Carla Thomas of classic hits such as "B-A-B-Y", "Let Me Be Good to You", and even a cover of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".