Chavela Vargas, who attained legendary status through her renditions of Mexican ranchera music throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world in her final years, died on August 3, at the age of 93. Born Isabel Vargas Lizano in Costa Rica, before being abandoned by her parents as a child, she moved to Mexico aged 17, in 1936. Her arrival coincided with the rise of ranchera music, which like country music in the United States, was initially a celebration of rural values, but soon became a format to explore themes such as the hopelessness of love, the sorrows of which are best drowned in the bottle. Vargas soon became part of the circle of artists and hangers on associated with painters … [Read more...] about A life in song
Music
The Serrat–Sabina generation: sitting comfortably
Looking back over the last 50 years of so of popular music, it’s probably a safe enough conclusion to draw that at least one of the secrets of a performer’s enduring popularity is to be inexorably associated with fast-changing times. For most of us, however banal it might seem to the rest of the world — and we may ourselves not even realise it at the time — there is always a moment in life after which things are never quite the same; a high point or an event, a moment, after which events overtake us; when we grow up and settle down to earning a living, raising a family; that sort of thing. For the more Romantic among us, the times leading up to that high point in life, otherwise known … [Read more...] about The Serrat–Sabina generation: sitting comfortably
The Outsiders!
Music doesn’t generally create history, but accompanies it for better or for worse. Same tides, same flow: rising with human comeuppance, or descending alongside a collective human crash. And the human race itself is like water: slowly flowing to the lowest point, changing its composition to rise to the top, only to fall down again. So that music is like water, we can’t live without it but it also celebrates our funerals. Horace Silver and Paul Gonsalves were two Portuguese Cape Verdeans, who made an enormous contribution to American Jazz by creating beautiful rhythmic flow, just ask Duke Ellington. I’m not a Fadista so I don’t know if there were any outside influences on the … [Read more...] about The Outsiders!
Wilco’s Spanish honeymoon
Has a rock band ever been as consistently lauded for its live performances as Wilco has by the Spanish press? “At times they seemed more adventurous than Radiohead, at others, as legendary as Bob Dylan and The Band; as fast and powerful as The E Street Band….” gushed Pablo Gil of El Mundo after the Chicago band’s November 1 concert at Madrid’s Circo Price. And Gil’s not the only gusher. In El País, Fernando Neira reported that “right now, one can’t imagine a more intense performance on a stage, no magic spell is as superlative as this.” Last year, a colleague of Neira’s on the same paper had told us: “It’s official: no one sounds better than Wilco.” And state broadcaster RTVE was at … [Read more...] about Wilco’s Spanish honeymoon
Spanish music mourns passing of Pacheco and Morente
As 2010 comes to a close, the Spanish cultural firmament has been dimmed by the loss of two of its brightest stars: in November record producer Mario Pacheco died, and then in December flamenco singer Enrique Morente passed away. Pacheco, who died of cancer aged 60, founded Nuevos Medios, the groundbreaking record label behind the “new flamenco" scene in the 1980s. The label, which has a catalogue of more than 900 records, launched the careers of many of Spain’s most original musicians, making flamenco fashionable, and shedding the genre's image as tawdry spectacle or the preserve of experts. Best remembered for reviving the fortunes of flamenco through its stellar roster of artists … [Read more...] about Spanish music mourns passing of Pacheco and Morente
Farewell to the restless soul of Madredeus
During the now-legendary beginnings of Madredeus in the late eighties, the group rehearsed in the wing of an old Lisbon convent. For anyone who has heard them, this was a perfect venue for their fado-influenced folk music. After those modest beginnings, Madredeus would go on to sell millions of records and become a success not just in their native Portugal, but worldwide. Yet founding member Francisco Ribeiro, who died on September 14 at the age of 45 from liver cancer, gave the impression that he would rather play his cello back in that old convent by the River Tagus, than tour the world as part of such a wildly successful group. “(Ribeiro was a) fragile person, in the most hardworking … [Read more...] about Farewell to the restless soul of Madredeus