1. Alceu Valença & Geraldo Azevedo: Mister Mistério

2. Alceu Valença & Geraldo Azevedo: Me Dá Um Beijo

3. Alceu Valença & Geraldo Azevedo: Seis Horas

4. Alceu Valença & Geraldo Azevedo: Horrivel

Most of the songs on these records are standards and not much is new in terms of musical form. The vocabulary of popular Cuban music, the mix of European and afro-cuban influence can be heard throughout these tracks. It was more or less the minimal, raw approach taken to the music – a move away from the more orchestrated/sugar-coated mambo sound of the time. Much like American jazz, which similarly began composing “music in the moment”. Theses records had some success when originally released, however it is said that their influence reached many other musicians and genres of Latin American music – from Latin Jazz, Salsa, to Cumbia, to most present day forms of tropical music. Please enjoy.

1. Cachao y Su Ritmo Caliente: Cogele el Golpe

2. Cachao y Su Ritmo Caliente: Descarga Cubana

3. Cachao y Su Ritmo Caliente: Sorpresa de Flauta

4. Cachao y Su Ritmo Caliente: Estudio En Trompeta

5. Julio Gutierrez: Theme On Mambo

6. Julio Gutierrez: Cimarron

7. Niño Rivera: Montuno Guajiro

8. Fajardo and His All-Stars: La Flauta de Jose

9. Fajardo and His All-Stars: La Charanga

- Sonido Franko

1. Memo Rios: Technotaco

Composed by Lucho Bermúdez, Ropaín’s rendition of Cumbia las Fichitas (also known as Gaiteando), is a beautifully understated piano driven cumbia. The simplicity and class of
Ropaín’s playing bring to mind the recordings of Peruchín or Noro Morales in the Afro Cuban model, stripped of all accompaniment, save the rhythm section and the piano. The lack of brass, woodwinds, or accordion make for a particularly intoxicating and trance inducing cumbia, as Ropaín’s gentle touch on the keys glides effortlessly through the interplay of the maracas, güiro and tambora.  Its energy is substantially enhanced by multiple false endings, which increasingly raise the intensity level. This is a Mexican pressing on Son-Art, licensed from the Colombian label, Discos Tropical. Great for the sala or the salon!

- Marcos Juarez

1. Ramón Antonio Ropaín Elías: Cumbia De Las Fichitas

- Sonido Franko

1. Brown Sugar: Yo Te Quiero Mucho

Of the Trio Select albums, Plein Caille released in 1971 on the burgeoning Brooklyn based Marc Records, is perhaps the most thoroughly satisfying and rewarding. Although the larger ensemble sound of the Konpa Direk of Nemours Jean Baptiste and the Cadence Rampa of Webert Sicot had opened the flood gates in the early 1960’s and on into the 70’s for a slew of Haitian bands performing in that style, Gesner Henry’s Trio Select is firmly rooted in the subdued Cuban Son and Bolero influenced Twoubadou style. The vocal harmonies are sublime giving the slower pieces a beautiful melancholy quality. The guitar work is stellar as well, with substantial soloing. I wish I was able to understand the lyrics.

- Marcos Juarez

Marcos has written a few posts for super-sonido in the past, but for the last year I’ve been bothering him to be a more active participant for this site – which he has gladly agreed to do and which I am totally greatful for. So for future visitiors of this audio blog, please be aware that this is as much as Marcos’ as it is mine. If you have any direct questions for Mr. Juarez you can add him on facebook or you can listen to his radio show every Thursday 3 to 6 p.m. on KALX radio. Amazing music from Haiti, I am completely floored. Please enjoy!!!

- Sonido Franko

1. Trio Select: Juge, Juge’m Bien

2. Trio Select: Plein Caille

3. Trio Select: Marteau

4. Trio Select: Qui Li Bois

I think I’ve run out excuses for not updating this site lately - but rest assured I’m taking care of business. Anyway, more music to follow. Please enjoy!

1. Tabaco y su Sexteto: Mi Pueblo

2. Oscar D’Leon: Bravo De Verdad

3. Oscar D’Leon: Tu Son

I met Eamon (and his rad wife and fellow artist Gina Osterloh) at a bar in Pasadena during Euro ’08, and since then I’ve watched him put on excellent solo art shows, release the killer Cruzando album (get it here), and organize great events like a screening of El Mundo de Los Pobres, the rare 1986 film that stars chicha legends Los Shapis. So it’s an honor to have such a busy person take the time out to make a mix for EPR, and “Acid Sonidero” is fantastic, a mad mix of drowsy drops, washboard rhythms, and bass for hips, ending with a sample from Dr. Dre. It’s a crazy flight through the  Andes up to Mexico City, with a trip back home to California. Thank you Eamon!

Taken from Echo Park Records

1. Chucho Avellanet: Jamás Te Olvidaré

1. Los Supersonicos Del Ritmo: Escucha Juventud

2. Panamérika.fm: Programa 142 (large file)

Eartha actually didn’t like the outcome of these recordings she did with Perez Prado, on account of her being sick throughout the entire session. Nevertheless, both Kit’s highly distinctive style of singing and Prado’s brand of mambo are apparent throughout these two amazing tracks. I prefer the B side myself, but I’m a sucker for the slower jams sometimes. Please enjoy!!!

1. Eartha Kit and Perez Prado: Fredy

2. Eartha Kit and Perez Prado: Sweet and Gentle

Before all that, there was a true king of this genre: Peret - the Spanish Romaní singer, guitarist and composer, who was pretty much the embassador of the Catalan Rumba sound. If you are interested in this music please do check out the articles Soul-Sides has about Peret and Los Amaya (O-dub always has the finger on the pulse). What I wanted to add was that I found this in the KRMX lot of 45′s I have. So even though Peret is Spanish, his music was still heard in Latin America, although I am not quite sure what impact it had, if any. Either way, two really solid tunes from El Rey de La Rumba Catalana. Enjoy!

1. Peret: A Mi Las Mujers, Ni Fu Ni Fa

2. Peret: Lo Mato

Nevertheless, Uriel showed up at my house - and yes, on time. Please go check out my interview at Panamérika.fm if you can. I had the great pleasure of hanging out, drinking, talking, and listing to some great music with Mr. Waizel and his wife. His love for really obscure cumbias made me like this Chilango instantly. Anyway, I wanted to take the opportunity to drop some of the more obscure tracks that you can hear in the interview. Also, I want to take the time out to thank them for coming over, braving my freezing flat and listening to me rant for 3 hours – you guys are awesome. Enjoy!

1. Los Bobby Soxers: Aguardiente y Limon

2. Tita Duval y su Cumbianba: Cumbia a Go Go

3. Lemaire y su Klan: Mar y Sol

4. Los Teen Agers: La Gaita Marciana

Born in Güira de Macurijes, as a young child, Rodríguez was blinded when a horse kicked him in the head. It is said that his musical roots come from the Congolese rituals of his family, instilled in him by his grandfather, who was apparently a slave. There probably hasn’t been a bigger influence in Cuban music than Arsenio Rodríguez. His sound can be heard in the rustic streets to the large Salsa brass arrangements to this day. Even listening to the first 5 seconds of Cambia El Paso (change that step), you instantly recognize the sound of son, something which has almost become a national symbol for Cuba.

On a side note, Andy Harlow does a really good version of Cambia El Paso and his brother Larry does a whole tribute album to Rodríguez. Also, I think it would be cool if someone knew what the word bochinche means. I think it’s Cuban slang for “gossip” – anyway peep the Cubans yelling at each other at 1:35 minutes into the song. The Tropical/Secco label was like the Putamayo world music label of it’s day. The actual album is probably from the 60′s, but this is a collection of Arsenio’s 78′s of the 50′s. Enjoy!

1. Arsenio Rodriguez: Cambia El Paso

2. Arsenio Rodriguez: Se Formo El Bochinche

- Sonido Franko

Mas Exitos is a monthly Los Angeles event that traces the connections between the music made on both continents of the Americas by exploring the various migration patterns through sound. Think of it as a National Geographic documentary on sound that will take you from the Andes of Peru to the East Side of LA. From fuzzy cumbias, to jumping boogaloos, to funky soul oddities, to disco aztecas, rock n’ rolleros, a-go-go latino, paisadelic-psychedelic freak outs and janky electro beats… * Mas Exitos: Dj Ganas, Dj Enorbito, DJ Lengua *

MAS EXITOS: “Menudo Mix” (DJ ENORBITO + DJ GANAS)

1. Memo Rios: Memocotorreo

Anyway, I was in Nicaragua for about a week visiting family and came across some bootleg CD vendors – which is the pretty much how Nicaraguans get down with their music. I didn’t dig for any vinyl because I only had a smaller carry-on suitcase. Plus it was so fucking hot that I really didn’t want to stray to far from my cold beer. But I did get a few contacts for vinyl collections in both Managua and Leon, which I will exploit the next time I go back (October perhaps).

Despite all that, Nicaragua doesn’t really have a large music tradition like Mexico, Brazil or Colombia. I still did find some pretty cool stuff from the 60′s and 70′s. Most the music is 60′s rock, but I did manage to find a pretty dope descaraga track from Leon’s Los Hermanos Cortez, a group which was featured in Adam’s Musica Del Alma audioblog. Also, I found some music from the Atlantic coast, palo de mayo stuff, which I wrote about a while back aswell. I was going to throw up some Carlos Mejía Godoy (famous Nicaraguan folk singer), but COMMUNIST MUSIC IS BORING. ¡a la gran púchica!

1. Los Hermanos Cortez: El Apolo 9

2. Los Barbaros del Ritmo de Bluefields: Canción Desconocida

3. Los Pancho 5 Hippie: Cocktel Margarita

4. Los Rockets: Tema de William

1. Carlos Guzman y los Fabulosos Cuarto

Opening Scene Japan meets Peru from SONIDO LENGUA on Vimeo.

Mauka Zapato from SONIDO LENGUA on Vimeo.

This is a video of my uncle Glenn Ore de la Fuente playing his guitar in Japan. He is playing the style of music I did a post on earlier called “Guitarra Ayacuchana”. The lyrics he sings in are a mixture of Quechua (indigenous language of Peru) and Spanish. The story goes that he married a Peruvian woman of Japanese decent and they moved to Japan. When my dad got this DVD from Glenn he thought it was a CD of his music, not realizing it was this amazing video of him playing musica Ayacuchana in Japan of all places. We haven’t heard anything about Glenn for a while and my dad has been trying to find out his whereabouts. I looked up this statue and it seems to be called Ushiku Daibustu, in Ibaraki Prefecture. From what I saw online it was one of the areas hit hard by the tsunami/earthquake. I hope there is an end in sight to the suffering they are experiencing right now and that Glenn and his family are safe. Big love to our Japanese Super Sonido readers!

-DJ LENGUA

I summed up Los Tigres pretty well in my last post – I wrote about how Norteño music and corridos formed the sound-tract to the social problems and successes of the Mexican people. But it was the number Contrabando y Traicion (contraband and betrayal) that had catapulted not only the band, but the whole Norteño genre to massive success in the early 70′s. A lot earlier than I had previously indicated.

The gritty tune Contrabando y Traicion is a song about a couple who smuggles drugs across the US/Mexican border. Lyrically, it is a cover of an older corrido, which is kind of like a country ballad which can have a parable of some sort at the ending. As the story goes, Emilio Varela and Camelia the Texan smuggle marijuana in their tires from Tijuana, Mexico to Hollywood, California. But as Emilio wants to leave the business and follow a more sobering life in San Francisco, he is murdered by his female partner.

Ballads about anti-heroes, drug dealers, immigrants, and the modern ills of society were nothing new at the time. The Mexican corrido is a musical tradition that lasted over 100 years. The only difference was the approach Los Tigres Del Norte had taken musically to the genre. The combination of instruments, the use of the accordion, the loud/heavy use of the electric bass, and the nasal singing style were the subtle differences that modernized the corrido sound into what is now called Norteño. These guys popularized this sound, an approach which was copied by nearly all of Los Tigres’ contemporaries of the time.

Now the story of Contrabando y Traicion may very well be an exaggeration of some sort, but one can almost see this song as a lament to the trails and tribulations of the Mexican immigrant, a reflection for some, of how much bullshit one has to go through just to cross a border. On a side note, a few movies in the 80′s were made about this ballad. Probably one of my favorite songs of this entire genre. Please enjoy!

1. Los Tigres Del Norte: Contrabando y Traicion

The history of rocanrol Mexicano is pretty extensive, something that is carried over and still lasts to this day. It’s apparent that some of the best rock/garage bands of the 60′s era hailed from border towns like Tijuana (Los Rockin Devil’s, Tijuana 5, Los Hermanos Carrion ect). I suspect they had easier access to what was happening north of the border. And most these acts do justice to cover songs and bands they were influenced by.

I’m not going to delve too much into that, these songs are what they are – cover songs. What I wanted to mention, and what is worth noting, was that most these groups ended up being part of the onda grupera in the early 70′s - a mixture of cumbia, norteño, rock and ranchera. Groups like Los Freddy’s and Los Yonics are great examples of this. Bands that left their rock roots and blended it with a more northern/traditional type of sound. But the whole tradition of covering an American song, how the band is set up, and instrumentation is very similar in the norteño style to this day (sans the accordian). Enjoy!

1. Los Rockin Devil’s: Gloria

2. Los Rockin Devil’s: Loco Me Patina El Coco

3. Los Americans: Al Final Del Dia

4. Los Freddy’s: Vuelve Mi Amor

5. Los Belmonts: Brinquen

6. Los Belmonts: Enciende La Luz

7. Los Rockin Devil’s Juego De Amor

8. Los Yaki: Vuelve A Mi

1. Julio Gutierrez: Last Tango In Paris

From the 50′s to the 70′s the MaG label was putting out some very gritty hard-edged sounds from South America. From the tune O-dub dropped, to the songs here, you can see the wide range of influence on this label. There is even a Bobby Cruz and Ricardo Ray cover. But from what I gathered, it was pianist Lucho  Macedo who was the record labels most popular artist (sorry I don’t have any 45′s of his on MaG). In fact, most musicians posted here played in his Sonora at one point in time, almost like an Alegre All Stars for the MaG label of sorts. Nevertheless, all these musicians really capture that 60′s Antillean sound very well. Please Enjoy!

1. Los Kintos: Tema

2. Coco Lagos y sus Otares: Guajireate

3. Mita y su Monte Adentro: Mita Descarga

4. Carlos Muñoz y su Sonora: Oye Mi Descarga

The song melds together so many beautiful styles of music at once it’s hard to know where to begin with a description.  It starts off with a great guitar line that sounds equal parts NYC boogaloo and American Rock n’ Roll, but before long the Cumbia rhythm comes in and the great vocalist starts to give a shout out to the Muchachas Lindas from various regional Panamanian cities.  The song then switches up nicely to a “Guaracha Tipica” while the vocalist, not content with the ladies from his own country, then gives daps to all the fine females from countries across South America.  The vocals and accordion are the real stars of the show here!0

The record itself looks like it has been rescued from it’s geographical namesake: the impenetrable, sogging wet jungles of the Darien Gap , the only major break in the Panamerican Highway, so thank god the info on the label is still readable.  Anyway, I hope you folks enjoy this great Boogaloo Guaracha de Panama.

-Adam Dunbar aka DJ Slim Jenkins

Thanks again Mr. Dunbar!!! If you don’t know Adam already, he runs the Musica Del Alma audioblog spot. Go check out his site. Also, if you’re in the Oakland California area come check us out djing @ the Layover in Oakland on Feb 24th (Adam is a pretty dope dj aswell) – for more info, just add me on facebook @ facebook.com/josephfranko – Enjoy

-Sonido Franko  

1. Los Alegres de la Costa: Boogaloo Darien (Loyola, 197?)

Formed during the military dictatorship of Stroessner and baring the namesake of an early 18^th century anti-colonial movement, Los Comuneros de Paraguay contributed to the nationalist fervor of the period with recordings such as these two. Anahí recounts the myth of a Guaraní princess, famous for her exquisite singing voice, who was taken captive by Spanish colonizers. She escapes, murdering a sentinel in the process, only to be recaptured and subsequently executed by being tied to a Ceibo tree and burned alive. As the flames engulf her, she transforms into the bright red flowers of the tree. The piece was written in the 1940’s by Argentine composer, Osvaldo Sosa Cordero, as commissioned by the Minister of Education for the declaration of the Ceibo flower as the national flower of Argentina. Regalo de Amor is a beautiful dedication of love composed by Paraguayan composer, Maurico Cardozo Ocampo, who dedicated himself to the preservation of the Paraguayan culture. The piece is sung in Spanish and Guaraní, both official languages of Paraguay, with the latter being the only such distinction of an indigenous language in Latin America that I know of.

Both tracks feature the angelic voice of Nair, the lead vocalist of the conjunto who only went by her first name, and the understated harp of Ganoa, which interplays beautifully with an unknown pianist. The lilting guaranía rhythm evokes sentiments of love and forlornness, giving both pieces an endearing and haunting quality.  I get chills!  Enjoy!

- Marcos Juarez

You can check out my homeboy Marcos Juarez on KALX radio station each Thursday from 12:30 to 3:00 pm for the finest in Latin American music. Trying to get Marcos to be a regular contributor to Super Sonido so please bother him here and tell him to do so. The guy has a totally different approach to the Latin American music that he collects, from Latin funk to that more traditional/indigenous sound you’re hearing now. Thanks Marcos – first music from Paraguay I’ve had on this site and I couldn’t be happier.

- Sonido Franko

1. Los Comuneros de Paraguay: Anahi

2. Los Comuneros de Paraguay: Regalo De Amor  

Nicknamed Lola la Grande (Lola the Great) – Beltrán had similar humble roots as did most of her fans. Hailing from the small town of Rosario, in the state of Sinaloa - Lola ended up working in a radio station in Mexico City as a secretary. From there her list of accomplishments went from being a film actress, marrying a matador, being a telanovela star, to hosting a talk show. However it was always her singing that made her probably the most successful Ranchera stars of all time.

I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I am not a huge fan of Rancheras and Mariachi – but Cucurrucucú Paloma (cooing dove) happens to be one of my favorites of this genre. I put below the English translation of the song below to show how melodramatic, yet how very poetic this music can be. Enjoy!

1. Lola Beltrán: Cucurrucucú Paloma

They say that every night
he was wholly overtaken by tears;
They say he never ate, but only drank.

They swear that even the heavens
trembled to hear his wail,
he suffered for her so,
that even in death, he never stopped calling for her:

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, he sang,
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, he howled,
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, he sang,
tormented by a fatal passion.

They say that in early morning
a sad dove sings to the little empty house
with its wide open little doors. They swear that the dove
is none other than his spirit, hoping still for the return
of the ill-fated woman

Coo…coo… Dove,
Coo…coo… don’t weep.

What do the stones know about love?

Coo…coo…coo…coo…

Little dove, do not weep anymore.

1. Nacho Peredes: El Diablo De La Musarana

2. Carlos Roman: Swing Columbiano

It nevertheless acts as a good substitute for the accordion. Only an organ could pull off the melancholy sound that is given with these 45′s. On a side note,  this sound is very popular in Mexico – especially with the sonideros in Mexico City. More like a hotel lounge acts than anything else - which was probably the case since it would be difficult lugging a huge organ around. Tulio Enrique Leon appears to be Mexican (or his label suggests) – but a great cover song of Colombian Lucho Campillo’s Cumbia Del Monje.

Next few days = guest posts. Stick around, relax, enjoy!

1. Camacho Y Cano Y Su Conjunto: Cumbia de la Melochita

2. Tulio Enrique Leon: Cumbia del Monje

3. Los Picapiedra: La Hossa

1. Pacho Galan: Afinando Los Trombones

1. Maricahi Mexico: La Derrota De Damasco