Hurray For the Riff Raff: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Feb. 5, 2018 | Bob Boilen -- Alynda Segarra’s unamplifed voice in this Tiny Desk performance had no problem rising above the drums, congas, cello, violin, bass, keyboards, and an electric guitar. The passion for her Puerto Rican roots feels boundless. As Soul Captain for Hurray for the Riff Raff, she and her band weave tales of man’s inhumanity to fellow humans, often from bigotry, intolerance and ignorance. But the spirit that arises out of her ancestral roots and its clash with twenty-first century cultural insensitivities inspires the brilliance that is Hurray For The Riff Raff’s latest album, The Navigator. This 2017 release and the songs that grace it are at the heart of the fervency Alynda Segarra sings about so animatedly at the Tiny Desk. The song “Pa’lante,“ one of the most articulate songs of a generation, speaks of being colonized and hypnotized, sterilized and dehumanized, with the refrain, “pa’lante“ which translates as “forward.“ I think of it as “onward.“ To continue the fight to freedom and r