American Negra

Album released in Spain, compilation of 20 works selected from the 300 subjects who recorded the Mexican actor and singer Pedro Infante Cruz (Sinaloa, 1917-1957). Pedro played throughout his career varied styles, from waltz to chacha, bolero and traditional Mexican ranchera song, but most of their focus on successes ranchera and mariachi music. Her vocal style, lively and engaging and his representation of gay and love Mexican and of 'charro' cantor, made him very popular with the public in Mexico.

Accordionist Richard Galliano did for European folk — specifically, the early 20th century French ballroom dance form known as musette — what his mentor Astor Piazzolla did for the Argentinian tango. Galliano reimagined and revitalized a musical tradition, expanding its emotional range to reflect modern sensibilities, opening it up to improvisation learned through American jazz. In fact, Galliano was more of a jazz musician than a folk one, although he blurred the lines so much that distinctions were often difficult to make. Born in France of Italian stock, Galliano began playing accordion (as his father had) at a young age. He later picked up the trombone, and studied composition at the Academy in Nice…

North American Latin jazz audiences were knocked out when this LP came out, for it was the first idea many of us had of the explosive power of this Cuban jazz/rock band, which had been let briefly out of Cuba to tour. Columbia taped them live at New York's Newport Festival and Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival, and the result was a noisy, ambitious, frenzied, tremendously exciting mixture of everything but the kitchen sink. Co-founder, keyboardist and arranger Chucho Valdes was as thoroughly attuned to the thumping electric bass, the careening buzz of a synthesizer and bell-like electric piano as he was to his homeland's complex rhythms and his own classical training – and despite the cultural embargo, the 11-piece group was in touch with then-current developments in American jazz/rock.

Hits back to the '50s from Colombia's Disco Fuentes label, with history sweeping consistency aside–any gringo can tell Conjunto Tipico Vallenato's accordion side-closers are country and Rodolfo's coffee commercial isn't. But even if the accordion stuff belongs on a vallenata comp, it passes muster on a collection where at least half the songs bristle with the exigente hooks that sell classic pop the world over. And the unmistakable beat runs down a consummate South American groove, halfway between Euro clomp and Afro hipshake.

Omara Portuonda is the grand old lady of Cuban music. While her early recordings made her a star in Cuba, her participation in the 1996 album and video documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club, brought her to international attention. Her solo album, The Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo, released in 2000, reinforced her status as one of Cuba's greatest musical ambassadors.
A native of Havana, Portuondo was one of three daughters born to a baseball player on the Cuban national team and a woman of Spanish heritage who left the comfort and support of her wealthy family home to marry the man she loved. Her parents' singing provided the soundtrack for her early life. As a youngster, she sang in school choirs and music classes.

Maria Dolores Pradera - Éxitos de DP
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 165 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Zafiro # 50400099 | Country/Year: Spain 1992
Genre: Folk, Chanson | Style: Latin

María Dolores Fernández Pradera is a Spanish melodic singer and actress, and one of the most prestigious voices in Spain and Latin America. As a singer, she has specialized in traditional Spanish and Latin American music: bolero, copla (music), ballad, ronda, vals, and folk music (Peruvian, Argentinian, Mexican, and Venezuelan).

CD album by te label 'Sarabandas' within the collection 'Saludos amigos' that offers a collection of 16 songs selected from the great successes of Cuban singer Celia Cruz, especially his long golden age with the Sonora Matancera (the marriage lasted 15 years ). Title assigned to the CD, 'Merengue', is misleading because it only includes a dance track with that style, others rhythms are distributed between rumba, guaracha, mambo, salsa, son and bolero.