Vicor Jara

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter, and political activist. He developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, ranging from locally produced plays to world classics, as well as the experimental work of playwrights such as Ann Jellicoe. He also played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric musicians who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement. This led to an uprising of new sounds in popular music during the administration of President Salvador Allende. Jara was arrested shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, which overthrew Allende. He was tortured during interrogations and ultimately shot dead, and his body was thrown out on the street of a shantytown in Santiago. The contrast between the themes of his songs, which focused on love, peace, and social justice, and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a "potent symbol of struggle for human rights and justice" for those killed during the regime of Augusto Pinochet.

Tunog Pinoy is a 1977 album by Filipino guitarist Wally Gonzalez. He is known as one of the founding members of Pinoy blues/hard rock band Juan dela Cruz. It is a mixture of songs sung in Tagalog along with some amazing instrumentals, fitting for the era. This was released salavalat by Vicor Music in 2005.

He is a versatile composer both in traditional and computer-assisted composition. His pieces can take listener from the old-school orchestral sound to exotic electronic scores and the combination of both. He finished his studies at Royal Conservatory of Madrid (Spain) As a composer, he has worked in award-winning short films such as “Peck Pocketed” (Student Academy Award winner), “The colors of evil” (Student Academy Award nominee), Nitro Warriors Afterburner (Best Low-budget short film ….), as well as documentary films, video-games, commercials and musicals.

His sound is so visual that the best chance of getting it, is to paint it with other artists as the ingredients. So take Sly Stone, George Clinton, Prince, Bootsy, Rage Against The Machine, Fishbone, Nini Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Musiq Soulchild and throw it all into a blender ……..and it somehow came out structure and made total sense. Now dumb it into one man and you would have Jara. Its literally everything from Jazz to Funk, to rock, to alternative, to R&b……. and it's all played, written, produced and performed by one Jara Harris……..ONLY!!!!!

American classical guitarist Xavier Jara has taken first prize at numerous international competitions, including the prestigious 2016 GFA International Concert Artist Competition. This release stands out not only for the sheer musicality and technical brilliance of the performer, but for his imaginatively structured and adventurous programme. It balances the poetic beauty of John Dowland and Alan Rawthorne with the broad appeal of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Variations across the Centuries, technically challenging works by Dušan Bogdanović, as well as intriguing discoveries such as young composer Jeremy Collins’s Elegy.

This record was made available for me by my prog-buddy Erik Neuteboom, who's affection for the Prog Andaluz genre is contagious. The prog andaluz garden has some nice fruits, one of them is the fusion oriented Vega. It's hard to find bands of the genre. Somehow all prog bands from Spain were placed in odd categories like prog folk, symphonic prog and other strange places.