Carlos Hernández Chávez and Los Trovadores: Songs of México (I)

This 1994 JVC World Sounds release has the note on the back tray that "this disc is perfect for novice Mexican music listeners" and that certainly applies to this one.  The trio of principal vocalist Carlos Hernández Chávez, who was a founder of Los Trovadores in 1947 and died in November 2024, second vocalist Jesús de la Rosa, who joined in 1976, and third vocalist Luis Miranda, who became part of the group two years before that, are excellent musicians and made a remarkable record.

There are a few pieces with which we novices are generally familiar, including "Cielito Lindo," "La Malagueña," and "Besame Mucho," but the album is filled with great songs like "La Zandunga," "La Bikina," "Perfidia," the humorous "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás," and the combination of "El Reloj" and "Amor."  It isn't just the great solo singing and harmonizing, but the acoustic guitar work is also excellent, beyond the very high quality of the songwriting.

The liner notes remark that "although the genre of the Mexican vocal trio enjoyed great popularity outside Mexico during the 1950s and 60s," but with rock becoming very popular, "it somewhat disappeared."  Yet, it continued, "although these songs retreated into the background, there has never been any danger that such a vocal tradition nurtured over many long years would ever disappear."  

Let us hope so, especially as in current circumstances with so much dehumanization of immigrants, a great many of them Mexican, taking place, because there is so much to admire and enjoy about Mexican culture, including its musical history and traditions.  This first edition of the Songs of México may have been geared toward novices like this blogger, but it is also a potent reminder of the beauty and quality of this genre of the vocal trio.

México: The Festival of San Miguel Tzinacapan

Issued in 1996 on the great Ocora label from Radio France, which has issued some of the most amazing world music available, this recording from the village of San Miguel Tzinacapan, in the state of Puebla northeast of México City, is a reminder of the importance of going back to the essence of music as a part of some vital human activity.

In this case, the hour-and-fifteen-minute album is a showpiece for the Nahuat people, who live in the Sierra Norte Mountains and merge ancient indigenous traditions with more modern European ones in the annual celebration of the festival of San Miguel (St. Michael.)  It is also good for us to remember that music and dance, as well as pageantry, theatrical presentation and others, are usually not separated in much of the world.

The performances here reflect Christian themes, as well as those relating to Spain of centuries ago, so the Santiago dances concern the Reconquista in which Spanish Christians battled to reclaim their land from the Muslim Moors, who conquered most of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century.  This is reflected in dialogues in the sons, or the compositions, between St. James and Pontius Pilate, but there is also the syncretic aspect of words in Nahuatl, a language of the broader indigenous Uto-Aztecan family.

There are also dances related to bullfighting, to St. Michael the Archangel battling evil angels the voladores invoking indigenous gods of water and the negrito concerning a Black teenager's treatment for a snake bite with African rituals.  Drums, flutes and bells are the main instruments and, while there was an indigenous clay flute, the ones used in the recording seem more European.  

Listening to music from other parts of the world feels educational as well as entertaining and this one is a transport to a place that holds on to ancient native traditions while adopting those of the colonizers, even as these are now from five centuries ago.

Mexico: Fiestas of Chiapas and Oaxaca

Recorded for the amazing Nonesuch Explorer series in 1976 by David Lewiston, who traveled the world to capture the music of indigenous peoples and musical traditions, Mexico: Fiestas of Chiapas and Oaxaca is a great document of those mestizos of the southern part of the country who have been clinging to historic musical styles and performance techniques blending native Indian practices with those emanating from the Spanish conquest and afterward.

Flutes, marimbas, harps, guitars, violins, brass instruments and a variety of percussion instruments are featured on the fourteen brief selections, which provide an overview of the types of musics to be heard in local fiestas in villages and hamlets throughout the two states.  The music tends to be somewhat medium waltz-like tempo, often with a martial beat, and the performances on marimba and flute, in particular, are striking and beautiful.

The remarkable "K'in Sventa Ch'ul Me'Tik Kwadulupe," a ritual in Chamula, a village in the mountains of Chiapas, features chanted and sung prayers, a flowing harp and rhythm guitars, with a concluding set of prayers to the instruments and an invitation for the musicians to rest after the ritual.

A highlight of the disc is the lengthier (five and a half minutes) "Christmas in Oaxaca," in which brass instruments, caroling and percussion capture the festiveness of the holiday season, complete with the joyous shouts of spectators.  As recorded in the streets, the piece can almost transport you to a plaza, or zocalo, and place you in the middle of the celebrations.

Chanta Vielma's guitar and beautiful vocals on "Nuoco" constitute another peak of this fine recording from Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, in which Vielma sings the praises of his hometown.  He is followed by an upbeat rendition of a son alegre in which brass instruments are accompanied by an electric guitar and martial percussion, courtesy of musicians from Pinotepa Nacional.

Another gorgeous guitar-based tune is "Cantares de mi Tierra," from Ismael Salud Gonzalez from Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, as he, too, sings, with great skill, about the beauties of his isthmus land near the Pacific.   On a spit of land along the coast not far from Tehuantepec is the fishing village of San Mateo del Mar and the closing piece is a dance featuring martial drums and violin that represents the indigenous Indians on one hand and the conquistadores on the other, with La Malincha, the native consort of Hernán Cortéz as the titular figure.

Sometimes it's the most simple of musics that are the most affecting, honest and authentic and the closer the pieces are to the activities of daily life, the more that rustic performances can bring out the emotional core of what music is.  Mexico: Fiestas of Chiapas and Oaxaca is a fantastic document of rural music from parts of Mexico that are unknown to most outsiders--this blogger included.