Boleros y Baladas – Super Sonido

DEEJAYS: Next time you’re looking for a closer for your deejay nite, throw on a mariachi joint–preferably à la Vicente Fernández or José Alfredo Jiménez–and let ‘er rip. Always kills. Granted, I don’t usually throw mariachi records on the turntable at home, but I like to keep a couple 45s handy when deejaying…just in case […]

I was gonna do a post about love songs, but I found that the music for the broken-hearted was way better. I figure for every love song I pull from the KRMX lot, there must be about 10 songs about sorrow, torment and agony. With titles like A Quien Vas A Engañar (who are you going to fool?), No Quiero (I don’t want/love), Lagrimas (tears) – it would appear […]

In 1991, when I was 20 years old, I took a bus from the Oakland Greyhound to San Diego. From Tijuana I took a direct 52+ hour bus ride to Guanajuato, Mexico (the 2 lane highways really sucked back then). If I had a nickel for every time I heard Yndio‘s Sin Tu Amor (without your love) on the radio, […]

I did a short post about Los Tigres Del Norte over two years ago, but since then, drug smuggling in Mexico has since slipped into epic proportions; therefore, I thought I’d do another. I summed up Los Tigres pretty well in my last post – I wrote about how Norteño music and corridos formed the […]

Formed in 1956 by harpist, Osvaldo Ganoa, Los Comuneros de Paraguay were one of the more successful conjuntos de arpa that came out of Paraguay in the mid-twentieth century.  They toured extensively throughout Latin America and enjoyed a substantial degree of international notoriety, as evidenced by this El Salvadorian pressing of their recordings of Anahí and […]

Long before hack singers were carried to award ceremonies in gigantic plastic eggs, there was the Ranchera singing tradition – usually accompanied by some of the greatest divas of the golden age of Mexican music. With the advent of radio and television in Mexico, people in urban settings were now able to recapture the sounds of their rural towns they had once left. […]

Here on Super Sonido we tend to focus on cumbia and the more costal/tropical sounds from Latin America but in this post I want to shine some light on music from the Andes of Peru, specifically the region my family is from, Ayacucho. Located in the central province of Huamanga is the capital city of […]

I’m not sure if these 45’s belong to Colombian crooner Rodolfo Aicardi or if there is some other ballad singer on the Discos Fuentes label solely named Rodolfo. If I had to put some money on it, I’d go with the former guess rather than the latter. According to a few biographies I’ve read, Aicardi has been associated with various musical genres within his […]

The arrival of Tropicália on the Brazilian music scene began in 1968 with the seminal collaboration album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis. Although this new genre was also embraced by the visual arts community, it was largely seen as a musically driven movement. The key to the Tropicália manifesto was antropofagia, or the cultural cannibalism of all societies. […]

Brazilian singer and composer Nelson Ned sort of carved out a niche in the 60’s and 70’s by singing sentimental ballads in both Spanish and Portuguese. Almost like the Brazilian Roberto Carlos did. However, his songs of suffering and sentimentality were probably taken even more seriously since he was so small in stature, him being a midget of course. During […]

The Chilean band Los Angeles Negros (the black angles) probably wouldn’t be so familiar to North American ears if it wasn’t for the sample used off the Beastie Boys “Hello Nasty” album. But who can blame them for copping a beat like “El Rey Y Yo” (The King and I). Psychedelic bolero break-beats? Anyway, long before the any popularity was garnered from that Beastie Boys record, Los Angeles […]

I can’t think of one Latin female singer that took in so much and put so much out with her heart, singing, and energy than the Cuban born Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond, aka La Lupe. From exile, to fame, to drug addition, heartbreak, a waning career with Fania, to Santeria, and to an eventual life as a born-again Christian. This complex and often […]

 I suffer because I love you. Happy Valentines Day! 1. Son Tropical Yumuri de Juan Torres: Sufro Porque Te Quiero

Leo Dan is kind of like the Tom Jones or Neil Diamond of Latin America. Born Leopoldo Dante Tévez, this Argentinian crooner would go on to be a huge singer/songwriter in Latin America, especially in Mexico. Sacha from futurefunk.net was kind enough to drop the first track on this post. Yo he looped the intro also. AWESOME!!! A lot of sugar-coated top 40 Latin American […]

I read somewhere that Víctor Hugo Acuña heard a song from The Doors and in turn created the ballad rock group Los Pasteles Verdes (The Green Pastels) in the early 70’s. Founded by both guitarist Victor and his keyboardist brother Cesar Acuña from the industrial fishing port of Chimbote, Peru. Even their web-bio indicates that they were moved by a number of American, British to South […]

Gorgeous bolero style Batchata from the Dominican Republic. The album is a split artist record between Rafael Encarnación and Fabio Sanabia and is mostly over the top romantic love songs. Lyrically I am reminded of Julio Jaramillo, vocally I think of Jamaican Desmond Dekker, and musically it is more or less similar to Cuban guajira and Puerto Rican jibaro music. The mixture of Rafael’s hypnotic voice and the amazing […]

I’m anticipating a busy September so I thought I’d toss up a bunch of music while time was on my side. Discos Musart is a label from Mexico and I kind of scrapped together 10 little gems for you people. The great part of Musart was not only their home grown acts but they would also license music from various other Latin […]

1. Mercedes Sosa: Gracias A La Vida I’m kind of a sucker for Latin American folk music. It’s almost like a gateway into what activism would be like in 1970’s South America. Very passionate, hopeful, and heartfelt music. And it was the hugely popular Argentine Mercedes Sosa, with her progressive and politicized lyrics, who would […]

1. Los Yaki: Cenizas This one I recorded for Dj Lengua for sampling purposes. I like recording obscure breaks and beats for friends. Also, I have the illusion that someday I’ll do something with it, but I end up just lying to myself. Nevertheless, I like this tune a lot, I like Los Yaki.  In fact, I intended to keep this little gem until […]

Possibly one of the best indicators of a economic recession is when I start selling records on ebay.  Wall Street should use that as an economic barometer of some sorts. Anyway, it was around November when I first drafted this post, business was slow, I was bored, and I had an urge to unload some wax. I tend to slang vinyl when I start thinking […]

1. Los Tigres Del Norte: Cesar Chavez There is probably nothing more Mexican than Los Tigres Del Norte playing a  norteño (northern) corrido. And there is probably nothing more Mexican American than farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. This is a perfect 45 for a day that symbolizes Mexican pride and heritage. […]

1. Edilio Paredes: La Mama Y La Hija Bachata or Bolero Campesino (peasant love song) is a style of guitar music that is often overlooked when you think of other more popular Latin American musical genres. In fact, for a long period in the Dominican Republic (where it originated) it was marginalized, denigrated, and usually associated with the lower classes. The music began in the rural areas as a […]

1. Los Bukis: Casas De Carton I first heard this song while living in Nicaragua in 1993. At the time I probably would never have guessed that is was Los Bukis performing this song, let alone Marco Antonio Solis who wrote it. It was the romantic ballad like their 1975 debut “Falso Amor” (a. side)  which I am aware of, what made […]