Rita Payés: Tiny Desk Concert

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an El Tiny takeover. Anamaria Sayre, October 2, 2024 Admiration is the spellbinding tenor of Rita Payés Tiny Desk performance. Flanked by mother Elisabeth Roma and husband Pol Batlle, the Spanish multiinstrumentalists presence at the Desk reflects the way she creates and lives her music: in the cradle of familial love. Payés performs a variety of Spanish jazz that is contemporary and nimble in its delivery, yet leans heavily on tradition. Born to a musical family in the same coastal town in Northern Spain where she now resides, she was raised surrounded by deep, musical tradition which she was able to identify as ripe for revival. Across earlier, softer songs composed alongside her mother, to her now more grandiose stringladen, percussively rich arrangements, authentically representing her home and creating music fit for intimate exchange is always central to Pay