Leyla McCalla

A classically-trained cellist, multi-instrumentalist, and accomplished folk musician, Leyla McCalla initially performed as a member of the Caroline Chocolate Drops before leaving the group to pursue a solo career. She was born to Haitian parents in Queens, New York, on October 3, 1985. Although largely praised in nearby Maplewood, New Jersey, she spent a pair of years in Ghana as a teenager. She later returned to America, where she studied music at Smith College and New York University before relocating to New Orleans in 2010. She joined Carolina Chocolate Drops one year later and appeared on the band's fourth album, Leaving Eden, in 2012. Leaving Eden peaked at Number 1 on the US Top Bluegrass Albums chart and Number 6 on the Folk Albums chart. Despite its success, McCalla left the band in 2013 to focus on her own music, ultimately making her debut with 2014's Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes. The record's blend of Cajun, jazz, and Haitian folk influences was well-received, and Leyla McCalla continued her solo career with 2016's Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey and 2019's Capitalist Blues. She also reunited with Rhiannon Giddens, her former bandmate in Carolina Chocolate Drops, to form the folk supergroup Our Native Daughters. The group released its debut, Songs of Our Native Daughters, one month after Capitalist Blues. Leyla McCalla then returned her attention to her solo career, presenting a diverse blend of jazz-fusion, global folk, and Americana on 2022's Breaking The Thermometer.

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