More Marias

Maria Jesus Vazquez – Mis Canciones Favoritas
Ariel International Records, serie Hispana
ALP-6002, Empire Rec. Corp., New York City

The part of my record collection labeled Just South of Texas is rapidly approaching the magical number of 1,000 LPs. Part of the latest additions of my Latin collection are 8 Peruvian records picked up at a Goodwill in Miami. One of these is yet another Maria, the most prominent first name of all these Latin records. And this Maria is the second Maria I'll pay attention to in the series presented here. The singer is María Jesús Vázquez (1920-2010), known as La Reina y Señora de la Canción Criolla. She is a national treasure of Peru and her music is said to "had the feel of Peruvian creole taste". I have quite a bit of Peruvian music, both popular and traditional, but the Vázquez record sounds to me more general Latin than specifically Peruvian. To hear music that is totally Peruvian in flavor make sure to check back in next week when I will post a song from a record of the most exciting huanca music you will ever hear.  

The song I picked from Mis Canciones Favoritas is Si Pensaras Volver .

Le Mystère des Voix Serbe

Serbian Folk Music
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
RTB Records, 2510057, Belgrade, 1981

That the unique brand of polyphonic singing that entranced the world since 1988 didn't solely belong to Bulgarian state choirs has become clear to me since my record collection of Eastern European traditional music has stretched well beyond the iconic Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. All throughout the Balkan and well into Russia examples can be found of groups of singing women (and men as well) in that same spellbinding style that won The Bulgarian State Television Female Choir all those music awards in the early 90s. Case in point is this Serbian Folk Music album I picked up at the Kiwanis Thrift Store in Cape Coral, it is one that could be considered authentic. You know it's authentic when you hear side B open with a shepherd woman calling to a group of young women on another hill in another part of the village, you can hear the sheep too. But for the song of this week I chose a song by two groups of three women, all in their fifties and sixties, and all from the village of Gornji Krčimir near Niš. It's a harvest song called Граδајте, Да граδамо that translates as "You grasp a big bunch, and we do too".

Carlos Gardel

Largaron... Carlos Gardel
Colección Musical No. 174
EMI – Odeon 4174, 1973
Impulsa la Música Argentina

As promised last week I would pay homage to the legendary Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel. I selected two songs from a handful of albums I have of his. The first is ¡Leguisamo Solo! from the album with the beautiful cover Legaron... Carlos Gardel, the second is Mi Buenos Aires Querido from Memorias de Carlos Gardel, an album with an ugly cover. Every major metropolitan city has its signature song it seems (New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, Aan die Amsterdamse Grachten, Oh Champs- Elysées, and so on) and Mi Buenos Aires Querido is the one for Buenos Aires. A beautiful instrumental version of this can be found on Gato Barbieri's El Pampero, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971. (Listen to Barbieri's version of Mi Buenos Aires Querido below as well). ¡Leguisamo Solo! was the opening number on my first mixed tape I made in 1999 consisting of Latin American music. It was then that I considered my Latin American thrift store record collection large enough to start making these tapes. I called it Just South of Texas, it was around the same time I compiled Just South of 1600, filled with Medieval music, again because I considered that (thrift store) collection large enough as well.

Carlos Gardel, the King of Tango, was born as Charles Gardes in Toulouse, France on December 11, 1890. His mother moved to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina because of the gold rush. Gardes spent his childhood in Buenos Aires and became an Argentinian citizen in 1923. In 1915 he was wounded as he was shot by, rumor has it, Che Guevara's father. On June 24, 1935, at the height of his career he died in a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia.

(source: Wikipedia)

Memorias de Carlos Gardel
Arcano DKL-3146
RCA Records, 1964
Manufactured in U.S.A.

Tango

Juan D'Arienzo y Alberto Echagüe – El Raje
Aquellas Canciones, Collectionista
RCA Victor 05(0131)01569
Made in Medellin, Colombia

There are plenty Argentinian steakhouses in Miami and therefore plenty of Argentinian Music in their thrift stores. I only visited one during my weekend in the big city but it yielded five Argentinian records. And when you mention Argentinian records you're talking tango. As a coincidence I had found another five in my hometown of Fort Myers just a week earlier. 5+5=10. Three by Carlos Gardel, two by Astor Piazolla, two of Juan D'Arienzo, two compilation records, and a record with music by Anibal Troilo. There's not a female to be spotted on none of those records but they're all good, without exception, they all carry that strong emotional heaviness that make you feel that Argentinians are higher in the spiritual hierarchy than you and me. More machismo for sure. Next week I will pay special attention to the music of Carlos Gardel, whose music I adore, but this week's song is from Juan D'Arienzo from an album collaborating with Alberto Echagüe. I had never heard of either of them but that doesn't mean anything. In fact they're both kings: "El rey del Lunfardo y el rey del compas". D'Arienzo (1900-1972) is the compas (beat) and Echagüe the Lunfardo (a dialect of Buenos Aires). D'Arienzo is the band leader and Echagüe the singer. The music must have been recorded in the 1940s but the record I have in front of me El Raje is much newer. The song Barajando is a tango, they all are, save for two milangos. Listen to Barajando.