I am a big fan of South American bands like: Fulano, Los Jaivas, Inti-Illimani, Angel Parra Trio, Los Tres, La Banda del Gnomo, Los Blops, Congreso, Joe Vasconcellos, etc. I have an old Beta tape of a live show Los Jaivas did for Canal 13 in Chile , in the mid-eighteis titled En las Alturas de Macchu-Picchu, in which this awesome jazz-meets psychedelic folkrock performance live in the incredible mountain top mountains of Macchu Picchu in Peru, in which they perform their album of the same name. A very orchestrated visual array very much influenced by the magical realism vein that started around that era, as well as probably very much inspired by like efforts of live conceptual albums for Hippies as Pink Floyd's Live at Pompei and Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same. My mother used to work for Canal 13 in Chile doing variety shows in the eighties when I was en elementary school I very well remember staying up late at night one weekend my parents where out to dinner, and I was amazed by the performance I did not know then that they would last as long as they have over the years, and although their current line-up is not as good as the original, they still remain an extremely great live performing band with popular mass attention in their homeland of Chile, all the Time, for their departed iconic members like frontman Gato Alquinta and the late drummer Gabriel Parra, of the continuing Parra family members and Mario Muttis, great base lines and of their intricate but sometimes chaotic relationships with the political history, have gonne through political exile during the early pinochet years, to their re-apparition during still-Pinochet government of Chile in the 80's when they did a number of live performances and television specials for the Catholic Church owned station at that time of Canal 13. At that time even though the Los Jaivas mega stars of the 80's where still living in europe , they started rumors that eventuallye became a reality of Los Jaivas returning to live in Chile after the Government of General Pinochet, changed hands to a new government to Democrat presidente Aylwin. After that a lot of onced "banned" musicians came back to live once again in thair home-lnd (like fellows like Inti-Illimani, Illapu and Quilapayun came back also during this time), and made a lot of money in come-back tours and future new projects. Yet the sadeness of the deaths of Chilean Musicians like Jaiva's Gato Alquinta, Claudio Parra to the passing away of Chile's Fusion premier band Fulano's and at times Congreso's keyboardist Jaime Vivanco. The show must go on and although Los Jaivas are now legendary, new Chilean Bands as Los Tres, Angel Parra Trio, Joe Vasconcellos (ex-Congreso member), are still carrying along the torch for Chile as a still running contender.
|