CHORRILLOS, Peru (AP) - Susana Baca has traveled the world as one of her country's most famous musicians, but her inspirations are still rooted at home in Peru's little-celebrated black culture.

Baca is arguably Peru's most recognized musician in Europe and North America, where critics hail her as "the voice of black Peru" and "Peru's musical ambassador to the world."

Though she hasn't generated a large following in her own country, Baca, 55, is among the nominees at the Latin Grammy Awards, which will be presented Sept. 18 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.

"There used to be a distortion of our true history. It was as if a group of humans had been left out of reality, or at least out of official history," she said at her home in this seaside Lima district where she grew up.

"Our story wasn't known. We didn't even know our own story — I didn't know about it until college, because the books I read in high school mentioned nothing about it!"

Afro-Peruvian music is a relatively obscure genre compared with other African-influenced music from Latin America such as the Caribbean's salsa and Brazil's samba.

Pop star David Byrne gave Baca an invaluable boost when he sought her out after hearing a recording of her seductive voice. Her rendition of Peruvian classic "Maria Lando" piqued listener interest on his record label's 1995 compilation of Afro-Peruvian music.

Baca's latest album on Byrne's Luaka Bop label, "Espiritu Vivo," was recorded before a small audience in downtown Manhattan in the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

She'll open a 22-date tour of the United States and Canada on Sept. 13, with performances scheduled in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Edmonton and Calgary.

"David Byrne opened the doors of the world for me," she said, flashing her trademark smile. "But he doesn't go onstage with me. I have to fill my own space there."

Baca's captivating voice can handle that by itself.

Dressed in flowing shawls and dangling earrings, her hair cropped short and feet bare, she's enchanting onstage. Most of her pieces are traditional Afro-Peruvian songs rearranged into jazzier, slow-tempo versions.

"It is a very sublime form of singing," said Mabela Martinez, host and producer of the local radio and cable show "Sonidos del Mundo (Sounds of the World)."

"While many singers may be more expressive with the eyes, the face, with facial muscles, she gestures with the soul," Martinez said.

The Spaniards first brought African slaves to Peru in the 16th century to work gold and silver mines in the Andes Mountains. The Africans couldn't adapt to the cold, high altitudes, so they were moved to the coast to work cotton and sugarcane plantations.

It was there, forbidden their traditional drums and percussion instruments, that generations of Afro-Peruvians created a musical genre by mixing old-country rhythms with Spanish and native Indian influences.

A percussion-driven, danceable sound emerged. The lyrics range from flirtatious love songs to beck-and-call chants sung to confront the brutality of slavery.

The ban on drums sparked an ingenuity in creating sound. The slaves turned fruit crates on their side, sat on one end and slapped out a beat.

The instrument's modern-day descendent, the "cajon" or box, anchors the rhythm of Afro-Peruvian music. A donkey jaw serves as a shaker, the teeth loosened slightly to rattle when the jawbone is hit.

Baca — whose lifelong dedication to Afro-Peruvian music has included treks to remote towns to learn near-extinct rhythms and instruments — discovered another percussion instrument after accompanying a historian to Sana, a rice-farming town on Peru's northern coast.

There, she was introduced to a 94-year-old man who played a pumpkinlike gourd as an instrument. Baca recorded his songs and her percussionist learned the rhythms.

A song based on the old man's tunes called "Golpe e' Tierra" or "Stomping the Ground," is included on her second Luaka Bop album, "Eco de Sombras (Echo of Shadows)."

And the gourd is now a fixture in her stage shows.

Baca's repertoire also draws on family traditions that she said were kept secret from the outside world for decades.

Her mother, who worked as a household servant, told her the story of the zamacueca rhythm, which was danced around 3 a.m. after a town festival or family party. At the end of the night, the older women who had cooked and served food all night would gather to dance the zamacueca.

"Those customs were practiced within the family," she said. "It wasn't something you saw on television or heard on the radio."

Baca is still largely unknown in Peru, where her United States-produced albums are imported and cost at least $20 — almost the weekly minimum wage in this impoverished nation.

She has developed a mostly elite following in Lima, Peru's capital, where she sings at diplomatic parties and small nightclubs in upscale neighborhoods.

"Not singing in Peru more frustrates me very much, because I like to. It's my natural audience," she said.

On the Net:

Luaka Bop's Susana Baca Web page: http://www.luakabop.com/susana_baca/

U.S. and Canada tour information Web site: http://www.imnworld.com/baca.html

Latin Grammy Awards Web site: http://www.grammy.com/awards/latin_grammy/

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