[FA Worldmusic] Looking for Contemporary Mexican Music

Wed Aug 8 11:15:08 ADT 2007

Joe's Pub is presenting 2 shows in early September in association with the Celebrate Mexico Now festival that Claudia Norman produces with Celso Duarte, the harpist who you may know from Lila Downs' band - he put out a great solo record - and by a group that was new to me, Sonido Changorama, who play a cool electro cumbia.  Let me know if you need contacts with any of the artists.

Celso Duarte, harpist for Lila Downs, began his studies of the harp and Latin-American music at a very early age with his father, a world renown Paraguayan harpist. Charismatic, talented and deeply profound, Celso Duarte has been recognized as a virtuoso of the harp by main international critics. His expertise extends mainly to the Paraguayan harp, Celtic harp, and Mexican Jarocha harp.  Celso Duarte presents the main exponent of the music of Veracruz "the harp". Since the 1950s when Son Jarocho erupted on the world scene, the harp has had an important role in bringing to the audiences the most representative melodic sounds of this style of music which originates from Veracruz and Mexico.  At the concert level and as solo instrument, the harp is presented for the first time as it interprets the songs in the old way like in the jaranero movement. Celso's band is a mixture of great traditional and classical musicians with jazz players. The beauty of this ensemble consists of both, the execution of traditional music which comes from the baroque and African roots, and the experimentation of fusion between jarocho rhythms and jazz, in which the instruments acquire an extraordinary versatility rarely seen.  http://www.myspace.com/celsoduarte  

Formed in 1907 by David Somellera and Zaratustra Vazquez ( poets and videomakers ), Sonido Changorama is an experimental-cumbia sonidero band.  From within the depths of musical & literary cynicism, they reduce current and historical events of Mexico and the World, to a rhythm surroundeded with profane verses, ritual and electric sounds, absurdism and play. Cumbia y patria!, shouts Sonido Changorama, just a year short of its centennial celebration, from their trance-twisted instruments in the heat of the capital postaztec city. http://www.myspace.com/supersonidochangorama

Last year, we presented Sweet Electra and Album.  I've seen Sweet Electra more recently, and they have gotten more post-punk/less deep house

	From Guadalajara, Sweet Electra's "acid cabaret" explores deep house and trip-hop beats, elements of jazz and bossa nova and "rescued" Mexican sounds from the 504s with songs, with lyrics in Portuguese, French, English, Japanese, and Spanish. A live band on the vanguard of creative Mexican music, led by producer/guitarist/programmer Giovanni Escalera, Sweet Electra made their US debut at Joe's Pub as part of Mexico Now in 2004 in support of their debut album Lying to Be Sweet (Nopal Beat). Their followup, Cama, shows them moving in more of a Brit-pop style, combining  electronic elements besides the new lead vocalist Nardiz Cooke and Latin percussion of Diego Alcazar. "The project of producer Giovanni Escalera, whose peculiarity is packed with presenting different feminine voices that sing the same thing in Spanish as in Portuguese, French or English, in conjuntion with electronic bases, to achieve music of calm intensities" Enrique Blanc (La banda Elastica, LA). "based on the eclectisism of electronic music, of the forms where the genres blend, language, and why not? Music that tries out sound fields, where the multidisciplinary elements forms an essential part of the discourse, it is based on this postulate" (Arturo Tapia (DJ concept)

	www.myspace.com/sweetelectra www.myspace.com/sweetelectracama www.sweetelectra.com

	Making their NY debut, Monterrey's alternative pop quartet Album's blend of electronic beats, rock riffs, synths, quirky sense of humor and warm vocal melodies has earned them comparisons to the Beta Band, Radiohead and Beck. "Eureka Svn," their self-produced debut LP, came out on a 1000 unit run. The band gave away 500 cds and have sold out the rest of the 500 cds, whilst it had also been available for free download from their website all along.  More than a year after it's release, the cd has grabbed the attention of artists, media, and music fans in Mexico, and worldwide, and their follow-up album, "Microbriloages" is earning similar acclaim. In early 2005 Album finished a 6 date mini tour that included opening for Jumbo, and ended at SXSW in Austin, TX, where Jon Pareles of the NY Times wrote, "In a galvanizing late-night set ALBUM merged rippling electronic loops and effects with fierce garage-rock rave-ups." 

	"Brief, densely constructed gems......a warbling, New Order style bass line and a stuttering beat, as keyboards mimic bucolic kalimbas and brassy horns...a whimsically ornate Beatlesque arrangement with a jiving vocal breakdown, which crashes abruptly into glitchy dream-pop ...robotic harmonies that fuse the Beach Boys to Kraftwerk over a taut, jangly Talking Heads pulse. ...the group's confident, polished appropriation of pop detritus from everywhere and everywhen assures that Microbricolages loses nothing in translation ." - Steve Smith, Time Out NY

	www.somosalbum.com <file://www.somosalbum.com>  
	www.myspace.com/somosalbum <file://www.myspace.com/somosalbum>  

________________________________

From: fa-worldmusic-bounces+bbragin=publictheater.org at folk.org on behalf of neal copperman - AMP Concerts
Sent: Wed 8/8/2007 1:15 AM
To: fa-worldmusic at folk.org
Subject: [FA Worldmusic] Looking for Contemporary Mexican Music

A local gallery/museum is doing an exhibit full of site-specific work
with contemporary Mexican artists.  We were thinking it might be cool
to do a show or two in conjunction with the exhibit.  While the
gallery is fairly small, we can do the show at any venue in town, so
we aren't really limited by size though, as usual, we are limited by
budget.

We are pretty open to ideas and suggestions.  We just aren't looking
for anything traditional.  Any cool Mexican bands touring at that
period?  Or any cool Mexican-American groups that might be a good
match?

Rock, experimental, electronic.  Almost anything is fair game.

We are toying with DJ's for the gallery opening, so we could use
suggestions there too.

Thanks,

neal
AMP Concerts
Albuquerque, NM
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