Maria Jimena Cortina Baldioceda, daughter of Mexico and Costa Rica, is poised to conquer the world, and Puerto is her launching pad. She has it all: the natural talent, the bel canto trained voice, the make-up, the clothes, the love of the bright lights.
She came to us from Cuernavaca where she had been performing professionally since she was 22. Now at 27, she is tired of being constrained by having to sing the Mexican standards. In Puerto, at last, she has found an international audience of all ages which allows her to sing the songs of her choosing.
What Jimena chooses to sing are her original compositions, mostly sweet love songs, and the music she grew up with: Summertime, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, La Paloma. Her three-hour show at the Split Coconut is one-third original music, and two-thirds American and Latin standards. But it doesn't matter what she sings; it's the voice and the way she connects with the audience that makes her performances so outstanding.
Today it is the Blues Festival - she performed there this year too, again unannounced; tomorrow it's the Edmonton Folk Festival. After that, she hopes to get onto the international folk and world music festival circuit.
Catch her act while she's still here. She plans to leave just before Easter.
Her March schedule is Thursdays at the Split Coconut, Fridays at Sativa,
and Saturdays at Guadua.
- - Barbara Schaffer