Skip to main content

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Music


Bienvenidos to another week of Al compás del mundo. Welcome to my world. Being that RadioactivaTX, out of Tequisquiapan, Queretaro, in the heart of old Mexico, is a streaming station, I’m not sure if I’m the only inhabitant of that world, or not. If there’s a way of measuring audience size and feedback for such programming, I’m not aware of it. Doesn’t matter. If the station allows me, I’ll continue throwing together yet another hour’s worth of eclectic global sounds until they wrest the musical inspiration from my cold, dead brain. 

This week’s program arrives on the island of sunny, green Puerto Rico. A bountiful land of abundance (except when there’s not) and fair governance (except when there’s not)...


Al compás del mundo 205, 10-30-25 – Puerto Rico Listo

01 Isabel Dávila y German Rosario - Mujer dominante

02 Andres Jiménez - El Pobre Sigue Sufriendo

03 Grupo Mapeye - La Cultura y La Tradición

04 Ecos de Borinquen  - El alma de Puerto Rico

05 Taoné - Verde luz

06 El Trio Juventud - No Llores Cuando Muera

07 Cuarteto Marcano - Compay, póngase duro

08 Cortijo y Kako y Sus Tambores - Yo No Bailo Con Juana

09 Noro Morales - María Cervantes

10 Tito Rodríguez - Óyeme Antonia

11 Bobby Cruz y Ricardo Ray - Jugar Bembé

12 Willie Colón - Calle Luna Calle Sol

13 Eddie Palmieri - Revolt-La Libertad Lógico

14 Haciendo Punto en Otro Son - Si Yo No Hubiera Nacido

15 Roy Brown - Oubao-Moin


This week’s program arrives on the island of sunny, green Puerto Rico. A bountiful land of abundance (except when there’s not) and fair governance (except when there’s not). There is a sizable percentage of the population that would like to see Puerto Rico an independent nation and, apparently, an even larger number that prefer to keep it a commonwealth of the United States. There are several strains in this playlist but politically my sympathies lie with the former, evidenced in the choice of a song by Andres Jiménez – (as translated) “The Poor Continue Suffering.” 

And again, by the late, great Eddie Palmieri (RIP), proclaiming in Spanish “Don’t treat me that way. I’m a human being. Liberty is on the rise. Don’t take it away” (are you listening, Trump?) A second direction leads to patriotic portraits of the motherland. Taoné, mostly noted for their anti-establishment protests, sings of the island’s beauty in “Verde luz.” Haciendo Punto en Otro Son announces “If I hadn’t been born here, I would have regretted it.” 

Throw in examples of jibaro country music, trios singing of love lost or gained, a little salsa and the big band dance music of the 1940s and 50s, and one gets a snapshot of the disproportionately influential sounds that have garnered respect throughout Latin America and the world at large.-JH

     


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Funk and Soul

  Al compás del mundo - programa #169, 2-27-25, Funk and Soul   01 The Commodores - Brick House 02 Tower of Power - Drop It In The Slot 03 Parliament - Ride On 04 Sly & The Family Stone – Frisky 05 The Webb People – I’m Sending Vibrations 06 Ruby Delicious - Rock Steady 07 Mandrill - Git It All 08 The San Francisco TKOS – Herm 09 Ohio Players - Fire 10 Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child) 11 Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie 12 Chico and Buddy - A Thing Call the Jones 13 Little Ann – Possession 14 Lafayette Afro-Rock Band - Time Will Tell 15 Parliament - Ain't Nuthin' But a Jam Y'all   What did James Brown mean when he said “we’re gonna have a funky good time”? This “funky” of which he spoke, was it strictly musical (and danceable), or maybe sexual, sociable, or even political? Or maybe a little bit of each? Funk, funky, funkify, funkadelic, funkalicious…all pointing at the pleasure principle…a new dialect for the “blue...
Post a Comment
Read more