Cubanocast

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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Happy New Years, compadres y amigas! I wish you a very healthy and prosperous 2009. I have a few songs for New Years.

Grupo con Sabor from Colombia (Columbia) provides us with three songs:

The first one lumps in the singer's mother-in-law with his other 2007 blessings: a goat, a black burro (donkey or ass), and a white llegua, a female horse- heady company. I will withhold further comment. It has a Cumbia beat.

El Ano Viejo is above.

Now for a Merengue romp. Like in English-speaking countries, men and women kiss when the clock strikes twelve.

Ano Nuevo:

Another cumbia, La Vispera del Ano Nuevo. Vispera is "eve."

Super Banda features a beautiful female chorus and a rather emotional male lead pining for his mother.

Cinco pa las Doce:

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Christmas in Medellin, Colombia

What a find! I was looking for Cuban Christmas music (slim pickin's) when I stumbled upon this fantastic collection of Christmas music from Colombia. The disc is divided into traditional Spanish Christmas music geared towards children and and the funky, devout, original songs I present to you today.

Navidad Colombiana - Para Cantar Y Bailar La Novena De Aguinaldos

First, the truly Super Banda:

Ven Ven by Super Banda:

Paranda de Navidad by Super Banda:

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Colombia!: The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes

Sometimes I feel like Alexander the Great (no, not that way- in music) looking upon his empire and crying because he has nothing left to conquer: I've ravaged about six different genre kingdoms and it gets tougher to find music with which I'm not familiar. That changed on Saturday when this Disco Fuentes Cd, The Golden Age Of Discos Fuentes - The Powerhouse Of Colombian Music arrived from Amazon. I'll have to admit that I've always considered Cumbia music as having less depth than Caribbean music- like J. Strauss' Waltz' to L.V. Beethoven's symphonies, if you'll allow me such a gross comparison- a fun dance music with humorous lyrics, but somewhat repetitive and with few examples of instrumental virtuosity. This disk changed my mind. I've spent a week on it and I still slip it into my Clarion.

Of the handful of essential music on this disk, I chose Cumbia en do menor by Lito Barrientos y su Orchesta. What the heck is it? A jazz-cumbia-swing fusion, I guess. Listen to the horn blasts- as good as Beny More's. The clarinet is a wonderful touch and the percussion is different, in a good way.

Listen to Cumbia en do menor

Disco Fuentes is one of the world's great record companies. It's not only the premiere record company in Columbia featuring such great acts as La Sonora Dinamita, but has, next to Tumbao records, the greatest catalog of classic Cuban music. Their Celina y Reutilio and Guillermo Portabales cds are still two of my favorites.

Lady in Pollera

I love Spanish-derived, Latin American traditional music performance for its amazingly beautiful native dress and culturally purposeful dancing. With the femininity to the nth degree of the dresses and the men sometimes wearing machetes and other trappings of manhood, traditional Latin American costume highlights the differences between men and women and the dancing, in which men seek out the women and the women tease before eventually joining their choice, serves as a metaphor for the courtship process (In sexually egalitarian America, distinctions are erased except for the dry hump-like "freak" in which it would make no sense for men to be in front, although I've seen women, to no end except their own, participate in such dancing with each other).

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This news item concerning the capture of the Chupacabras (finally, I can sleep at night), reminded me of a couple of songs from the Salvadorian group Los Cocodrilos. They make funny songs, but unlike Weird Al Yankovic, don't parody, but write their own music and comment on the topics of the day.

One of those topics is the Latino Lock Ness, the Chupacabras, an animal that would suck the blood from goats (cabras).

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One of the most beautiful times in my life was when I taught ESL at Elizabeth Learning Center (whatever happened to just plain "school") in the tiny Los Angeles suburb of Cudahy. I not only enjoyed teaching, but loved conversing with my students. We talked about everything from marriage and children to politics and history, and I'm sure I learned as much from them as they did from me. But, the Army called my number and I had to leave. I miss them.

Anyways, most of the students were from Central America (El Salvador, predominantly, of those) and Cumbia is the most popular rhythm in those parts. Coincidentally, a Cumbia/Central American themed radio station briefly graced the Los Angeles airwaves at this same time and, during its operation, became my favorite spot on the dial. They'd often play the song I present to you today (I learned later that it was called Baila Centroamericano), but when I sought to own it, I couldn't find it anywhere. I tried internet searches, interrogating my students, P2P programs, and even went so far as to call the radio station. They told me it was from Grupo Rana. I drove around Los Angeles and bought every Grupo Rana cd I could find, but none of the cds had the song. I don't know the exact circumstances, but I eventually found it.

Well, here it is. I know somewhere there's somebody who desperately wants this song, but can't find it. Cubanocast to the rescue.

Why do I like it so much? The music is certainly good, although the non-matching bridge is ineffective. The singing is fine. It's the lyrics, however, that make this song a "must have" in my collection. The man discusses what being Centroamericano means to him, but it goes beyond admiration of the countryside or the simple national boasting usually found in these types of songs. It describes a man's moderate, perhaps Stoic or Delphist, not quite Taoist, philosophy. Centroamericanism, for lack of an official term, both advocates a detachment from the world and advocates the use of sensuality as a diversion. It's definitely not pacifist in that it wouldn't allow effrontery without a violent response; it just doesn't care enough to start problems. And, behavior is important.

Lyrics below:

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