Interactive Poll # 6 - Latin America!

Snicolette wrote: First impressions on all of the regular entrants, while I make up my mind on final 3.  And again, you are all so great at this, it is very hard to come to a decision on just 3.  Which is partly why it's so fun.   Francesco Guccini - Scirocco ~ I enjoyed this one, on first listen, the singer sounded a little strident to me, second time around, less so.  I used a translator for the lyrics.  A sort of sad story.  I like the use of accordion or concertina, brings the café feel into the song. I watch clouds a lot (mentioned in the lyrics).  A contender.  Also bonus points for the beautiful Tango video you posted.

It is the bandoneon, a sort of Argentine accordion. The sound of this instrument is, more than any other instrument, the one that gives the sound and mood to the tango.

I have danced tango for years, as an amateur, and I assure you that it is a very technical, difficult dance, the first few months you do not have much fun, you are too busy respecting posture and steps, and many of those who had tried, before dancing tango, salsa and bachata or other Caribbean dances said that tango was very difficult and gave little satisfaction in the beginning. Think: generally when you dance, the man usually uses the arms to move the woman, but when you dance tango the man never uses the strength of the arms to move the woman: the man only shifts his weight, or rotates the pelvis asynchronously with respect to the axis of the body, and only by these small gestures does the woman react with a move that restores the weight of the couple in balance, until the man still shifts the weight etc.

I said to my female friends who loved salsa and bachata that these are dances as teenagers, cheerful, extroverted, carefree, where love and physical contact are sought explicitly, with fun. Tango, on the other hand, is an adult dance, where love is something that is reached only after having suffered a little, and seduction is an elegant, never explicit seduction, made of small gestures, the passion that the tango expresses is very more intense than that of salsa and bachata precisely because it is less explicit, it is introverted, and so every slight movement and gaze is full of passion. And this mood of passion, seduction combined with a concept of suffered love, which creates a melancholy, is given supremely by the bandoneon, which with its sound expresses all this feelings.

Here Juan Joeè Mosalini, who plays in the Guccini's song, on the bandoneon:

The Anders wrote: Lula Cortes & Ze Ramalho - Trilha de Sume ends very abruptly. I suppose it is because it crossfades into another song on the album it is taken from?

Well noticed. I listen to the album as a whole and then one does not have the aprubtness. On the album it does not stop abruptly, but in fact the percussion continues and leads into the next part. It's a double album and each is better listened to in its entirety. Side A is called Terra and ha the designations Trilha de Sumé (6:30), Culto a terra (2:11), Bailado das muscarias (4:34). Side B is Air and also three sections, Side C is Fogo, and Side D is Água.

To hear how the transition works (it starts with Trilha de Sume).



It does work much better in the context of the album -- an album that I've seen described as better than the sum of its parts.

Hi,

moshkito wrote: Hi, Mine is an album ... because it is so diverse, and has some classical and jazz'y things in it ...  EGBERTO GISMONTI -- NO CAIPIRA "Songs" are not what I listen to in general, but this guy, in the 60's and 70's was the best guitar player around, and some of the things he did, most could not even conceive of it. This particular album, is "classical" compared to his solo guitar albums and his albums with Charlie Haden and Jan Garbarek. And, it is truly "progressive" specially at the time it came out ... when no one had ever heard anything like it! But then, "progressive" has never been "ahead" of its time, has it?

12) Chicoria Sanchez: goog instrumental piece on the guitar, very technical on guitar, however it is difficult for an instrumental piece on acoustic guitar to excite me very much.

My final votes and some more in-depth thoughts on the pieces I chose.

Doug Sahm - Medocino ~  This one, going to not vote…..although I’d said I might.  Still, it’s own place somewhere above the Top 3, if there was a heaven above 1.  Thank you for bringing Doug Sahm to the party, I almost did, myself.  Extra points for using “Mendocino,” mentioned elsewhere a family favourite summering spot from the 1950’s into the 1970’s and beyond.  Great aunt & uncle owned a 100 acre ranch there since the 1930’s.  Obviously, this got a lot of radio play there, locally, so sentimental for me. And I know the “real,” Mendocino he was referring to, before it became a tourist destination.  It was a hauntingly, beautiful coastal town, almost, but not quite, a ghost town, except for a few artists who’d settled there. Also enjoyed your potentials.  And especial thanks for Nuevo Laredo on Friday.  Lampshade?  What lampshade?  That was a Folklorico skirt.  

1.       Inti Illimani - A La Caza del Nandù ~ Oh, I just love this.  Complex guitar work, lovely ornamentation with the violin, the Andean pipes, brass and flute, punctuated by the percussion  Dynamically engaging.  Perfectly in my wheelhouse of this kind of music and extra points for something like this that I wasn’t familiar with.  I love hearing music that is so good and hearing for the first time is like reading a wonderful novel for the first time, can’t quite be repeated.

2.       Francesco Guccini - Scirocco ~ I enjoyed this one, on first listen, the singer sounded a little strident to me, second time around, less so.  I used a translator for the lyrics (even though you’d said not as important, I did want to know what he was singing about).  I like the use of accordion or concertina, brings the café feel into the song. I watch clouds a lot (mentioned in lyrics).  Also loved the beautiful Tango video you posted and your review was, as always, very insightful.  Your deeper explanation of the dance was very appreciated as well.

3.    Meta Meta – Logun ~ Enjoyed this one….moved right along and swept me with it.  I was not as fond of the first singer as I was the music…..Until the backup singers came in.  Then I loved that part.  Then the female singer was fabulous.  As expected, this grew on me and I ended up hearing, in my mind’s ear, the various parts throughout the day.  There’s something about those hypnotic kinds of chorus-y voices, the horn section and even the occasional siren noise cutting across that’s kind of addictive.

The Anders wrote: Francesco Guccini - Scirocco: I really like the acoustic bass in the beginning. Then enters accordion and acoustic guitar and a very Italian type of melody. Harmonically I am a sucker for dim chords. Like the previous Guccini entry, the song sounds very literary to me, so I wish I had a translation at hand, but thankfully I can enjoy the melancholic mood. It is a very strong edition, and one I enjoy a lot more than the instrumental one, so there will be more competition for my votes. The song is absolutely a contender.

Edited by jamesbaldwin - June 28 2020 at 09:41

pretty much settled on my top 3.. while all good/great..  two really stood on from the first listen (one loved so much it  became a mobile player addition) and didn't dim on repeat listens.  Finding the third even wasn't that hard. A couple of extra listens separated it from the pack.  Will do one last listen this evening and post my thoughts tonight or tomorrow.

Edited by micky - June 28 2020 at 13:08

Edited by The Anders - June 28 2020 at 17:00