Skip to main content

Al compas del mundo – programa #74 - Andean music of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador

In case there were any doubt, Al compas del mundo presents evidence that the Peruvian huayno (why’-no) is a member of folk music’s crème de la crèmeListen to “Vaca Ratay” by Duo Las Perlas de Hunacavelica. Really….listen to it. There’s nothing more autochthanous and listenable, IMHO, than this burst of bovine exuberance. I doubt they were worried about how high on the charts the song was gonna rise. Rather, whether or not the cow’s were content and giving the milk that would help keep their famiies alive. It’s called “folk music”. And I belatedly discovered the esteeemed Chrios Strachwitz, he of Arhoolie Records, is listed as producer. The hits just keep on coming.

Each of these countries has its own take on a shared musical theme. “Life’s hard up here in the Altiplano, but I’m going to cultivate some 4,000 varieties of potatoes, chew some coca, and we’re going to make it.” Meanwhile, the native people make it known through their music that sex, drugs (or liquor), and folderol help them make it through the night.  

Andean music of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador Run List - First broadcast 4-27-23

 

01 Huaylia Chumbivilcana, title unknown (Peru)

02 Yarina - Llakini Mamita (Ecuador)

03 Bolivia Manta – Chayantenita

04 Los Destellos - Valicha (Peru)

05 Yolanda Hurtado y su conjunto Brisas de Pacayhua - Shagapita Huayta (Peru)

06 Los Montalvinos - Vasija de Barro (Ecuador)

07 Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña - Viva mi patria Bolivia

08 Julio Flores - Conococha (Peru)

09 Duo Las Perlas De Huancavelica - Vaca Ratay (Peru)

10 Antonio Mocho - Allpa (Ecuador)

11 Ayopayamanta - Las Azucenas (Bolivia)

12 Gloria Paredes - Borrachita (Peru)

13 Edgar Ruiz - Danzantes de San Juan (Ecuador)

14 Chila Jatun - Morenita Vanidosa (Bolivia)

15 Karu Ñan - Sisagu (Ecuador)

16 Los Calchakis - Lima Morena (Peru)

17 Winiaypa - Piruritu (Ecuador)

18 La Peruanita - Recuerda Corazón (Peru)

19 Savia Andina - Alas Blancas (Bolivia)

 


                                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

British Invasion - 1960s

I wanted to declare “Kick out the jams, mo’fos!” as a signpost towards the message in this week’s Al compás del mundo radio show, but that actually came about a little later. As humanity descended ever deeper into the Cro-Magnon state, Iggy Pop and the punks claimed that honor. What we have here instead, is a post-WWII let’s shake up the political order a bit, and no, not everyone has signed up to be an unconscious consumer attitude. There’s something afoot with these lads. Not exactly revolutionary fervor, but most certainly promoting a change in the general way of things. Recalling Che Guevara’s famous quote “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, the Animals, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones et. al. pouted and preened – some more than others – in a way that hadn’t quite been done before. Youthful vigor ensued. These groups pushed the evolutionary chain of popular music a step further and we’re all better off for it.  Set list Al compás del mundo programa #183, 6-5-25 - The British Invasion, 1960s 01 Yar...

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic.  But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture.  T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...

Guitarras del mundo

  Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...