Cubanocast

Sometimes I play music for the kids at school. Picking songs whose titles are the same as the names of my students usually gets a chuckle.

Well, there's a girl named "Lolita" in my class. I fired up the Media Center today and searched for "Lola." Here's what I found:

Whatever Lola Wants from Damn Yankees. The title is a killer hook in the song. It lulls in between. I like this better than the more laid back Sarah Vaughn version.

Damn Yankees (1955 Original Broadway Cast)

Damn Yankees

**Information interlude**

"Lola" is short for "Dolores," which is one of the appellations given to the Blessed Mother, "dolores" being Latin for "pain"; it's translated into English as "sorrows," as in "Our Lady of Sorrows."

Detail of altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows in Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena, Italy.

The fact that the name Lolita has come to mean an unchaste young lady is ironic, then. Yet, understandable. Lolita is a popular name amongst Latin ladies and Americans began to associate their southern neighbors with lustiness early after first contact.

OK. Back to music.

Arabs mention Mary in the Koran, although not as the Mother of God. This is from an Egyptian movie called Whatever Lola Wants:

Caramel

Aldemaro Romero has a nice mambo version It's the podcast.

Almendra by Aldemaro Romero
The album has my favorite cover of all time. I used it when I made CDs for my friends.

The great Antonio Machin:

1935 Cuarteto & Septeto by D. J Machin

Antonio's songs have a genuine depth about them. Above, Machin loves his friend, but he takes the love of his life Lola, I think. Ambiguous, in an interesting way.

Carlos Argentino with the Sonora Matancera, again, sings Ave Maria Lola.

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Scott Brown famously advertised his daughters' eligibility during his victory speech.

I think it's sweet that he wants his girls married to a respectable gentleman.

Then, the urbane, intellectual Huffington Post sandwiched a music video with Scott Brown's wife, Gail Huff, between "7 Weird Things Women do to Their Privates" and an issue crucial to the survival of the Republic, Natalie Portman's right nipple.

To prove that I can be as hip as HP, the video:

Any evolutionist knows that a pretty woman is likely to give birth to a pretty daughter (proven in my own family). I searched for the prettiest mother-daughter combination and came upon this, the poorest-written blog post since Levi Johnston gave his reason for supporting a public option. But, who cares? It's a story on the PRETTIEST mother-daughter pairs, not a dissertation on aesthetics.

Carlos Argentino, the charismatic singer for the Sonora Matancera faces the difficult task of choosing between a young senorita and her MILFish mama in the merengue, "La Hija y la Mama."

It's the podcast.

Algo Especial Por La Sonora Matancera

Research, and I found out that the Dominican Luis Kalaff sang it first. I like it better for the funky, punctuating horns and the accordion.

As you can imagine, expressing interest in both a mom and a daughter can lead to trouble.

Comeuppance:

Merengue

King of Merengue

Bailemos Merengue, Vol. 1

Bailemos Merengue Vol.2

One of the difficulties about posting music also happens to be one of its more satisfying aspects: As soon as I intend to enrich the internet culture one song at a time, I start finding connections to historical events; ideas; and other songs, stylistically or thematically.

So it was with "Choucone" by Celia Cruz. With its excellent singing and gentle, rangy melody, I've always loved this song ("always" meaning "Choucoune" was on one of the first Cuban cds I bought). I knew the language was French and thought that it was probably a collaboration with a French singer when Cuban music was popular in Europe, during the fifties and before. I never investigated.

By and by, it pops up on random play a couple of days ago before I go to sleep and decide to post it in the morning.

"It'd take a few minutes," I thought.

I wake up and sit down in front of my laptop.

"Ahh, what the heck, let me look it up."

Wikipedia powers activate.

It turns out that "Choucone" is a composition by Michel Mauleart Monton based on a Haitian poem by Oswald Durand's (below).

Celia Cruz' is the only version I have with the original lyrics, in French, based on the poem. It's the podcast.

Azucar!

"Choucoune" is the first Haitian-flavored song with which I've been acquainted. Of the Caribbean countries, Haiti seems to have had the least musical impact: Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and even some of the tiny islands all have internationally recognizable music. Haiti doesn't. I tend to think that this is due to Haiti's isolation from European influence which has added melody and modern instrumentation to African rhythms.

Other versions include the Hawaiian-flavored "Yellow Bird" by Arthur Lyman, The Mills Brothers, and Chris Isaak, most recently; and Harry Belafonte's "Don't Ever Love Me."

The Very Best of Arthur Lyman

"Harry Belafonte - All Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1"

Baja Sessions

The Mills Brothers: The Anthology (1931-1968)

"Choucone's" theme is a common one in Caribbean music: an undistinguished yet dignified woman and her everyday sorrows and triumphs, the significance of which rarely reach beyond a mile radius of her home, but repeated thousands or millions of times by thousands and millions of women has significant anthropological value: the mundane as social commentary.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Colombian example is "La Zenaida" by Armando Hernandez. It's an odd video in that it celebrates the black Colombian yet features obviously non-black dancers, saying, in essence, that black women make a more poignant subject, but white women are the ones we want to see dance.

La Zenaida

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A familiar sight

To follow up on the coffee songs from this post, I will now search my vast Cuban music collection: Round and round...voila!

Our Boricua neighbors' most famous band is the wonderful El Gran Combo. Since Puerto Rico's founding in 1493, they've been putting out world-class Caribbean music. Their Salsa is exceptionally level-headed, with neither the vulgarity that mars today's Reggaeton nor the exaggerated sentimentality of most modern Salsa.

The message in "Azuquita Pa'l Cafe" is one I endorse: God created women to lighten men's coffee. God's gift, indeed. And, such a variety! All bring something to the table (figure of speech, ladies).

It's the podcast.

Rocking that hair clip, one of the girls El Gran Combo might have come across on the beaches of Puerto Rico.

30 Aniversario Bailando Con El Mundo

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Without knowing her by name, I became familiar with Omara Portuondo during my semi-obsessive Cuban music days, when I spent much of my last couple of years of college acquiring and learning about Cuban music. Cuarteto d'Aida is one of the acts on the BMG Tropical Series, which has some great Beny More cds as well as Tito Puente and others.

d'Aida mostly sang covers, so nobody can claim that they were trailblazers. Still, Omara, her sister, Elena Burke, and Moraima Secada had beautiful voices. The first song in this post is a combination of "Yenyere Cumae" and "El Bombon de Elena," a Puerto Rican song. I also like "Carinito Azucarado."

The Cuarteto stayed in Cuba after the revolution and I've heard some of their songs from this period. Similar to their late fifties stuff, but with revolutionary themes. Omara was rediscovered by international audiences with the release of Ry Cooder's Buena Vista Social Club. She sang "Veinte Anos" with Ibraham Ferrer.

The album she won the Grammy for is called Gracias. The lovely Brazilian-style title song is the podcast.

Mercedes Sosa died a couple of weeks ago. I'm OK-knowledgeable with Latin-American music and had heard of her before I read about her death, but wasn't familiar with her music. Neither was my Mexican wife.

(For an analogy, I'm sure many of you know that Tom Waits and Frank Zappa are musicians, but can't name one of their tunes. Mercedes has something in common with them, as you'll see.)

I fired up Rhapsody (great service) and played some Sosa. Her music is similar to that of the Nueva Trova trend in Cuban music in that it lacks those essential elements that make music popular such as easily recognizable "hooks." The music is minimalist, similar from song, and "atmospheric," meaning that it's similar from song to song and somewhat nondescript. And it needn't be "descript," as it's designed to serve as background politically-tinged, high-concept lyrics which I think is this music's main attraction. Sometimes the lyrics aren't obviously political, but cryptic, which appeals to the same crowd.

Better to hear for yourself from what I learned was her most famous song, "Gracias a la Vida" (above).

Now, whatever you think of the song, there's no denying that Sra. Sosa is a talented singer. In fact, when that voice encounters good material, the effect can be quite spectacular.

Mercedes recorded Ariel Ramirez' post-conciliar masterwork "Misa Criolla." She does a very fine job.

(You can listen to Jose Carreras sing it here.)

Kyrie:

Gloria:

Credo:

Sanctus:

Agnus Dei:

A musical tribute to recent events, Cuban fruit songs.

First up is the foundational Cuban Son singer, Arsenio Rodriguez with his much covered song, "Frutas del Caney." It's the podcast.

Duo Los Compadres, one of whom, Francisco Repilado (Compay Segundo), you know from his later work in the Buena Vista Social Club; has a version which uses the more leisurely pace common in most remakes.

Trio Matamoros, above.

Celia Cruz has a wonderful song called "Frutas y Mi Son Cubano." It's one of the many Cuban songs with a patriotic theme.

A pregon is a street vendor's cry, musicalized. Enrique Byron with "El Frutero."

Lyrics/Letras below:

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