The first time I heard bassist, guitarist, and singer Tonina Saputo, her voice stopped me in my tracks—her delicate phrasing and heart-wrenching poignancy brought Billie Holiday to mind, except that she was singing in Spanish as well as English. The song was a cover of “Historia de un Amor,” a torchy Panamanian bolero written in the 1950s by Carlos Almarán that’s beloved throughout Latin America, and I wasn’t the only one impressed by her version—Barack Obama listed it among his top songs of 2018.…
The first time I heard bassist, guitarist, and singer Tonina Saputo, her voice stopped me in my tracks—her delicate phrasing and heart-wrenching poignancy brought Billie Holiday to mind, except that she was singing in Spanish as well as English. The song was a cover of “Historia de un Amor,” a torchy Panamanian bolero written in the 1950s by Carlos Almarán that’s beloved throughout Latin America, and I wasn’t the only one impressed by her version—Barack Obama listed it among his top songs of 2018.…