NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Ana's summer playlist

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

To celebrate Ana's world premiere as a DJ -- a gig playing for 5,000 people in Central Park, which she definitely, absolutely prepared for -- this week we present her summer playlist. We've got song of the summer contenders (Aitana's "SUPERESTRELLA"), sleeper hits we missed when they dropped (Quevedo's "EL BAIFO"), and bubbly classics-in-the-making we keep coming back to (Rawayana's "Se Vienen Cositas"). Plus, Felix balances the bangers with chill-out room Uruguayan jazz, a psychedelic guitar jam and a trio of sisters from Austin.Artists and songs featured in this episode:(02:23) Quevedo, "EL BAIFO"(05:07) Camilo y los Cruzers, "Descarga Rockeada"(09:23) Aitana, "SUPERESTRELLA"(16:44) Alejandra Gala, "I Dare You"(22:14) Rawayana, "Se Vienen Cositas"(25:51) The Tiarras, "Vida Libre", "Black Sheep (unplugged)"This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin. Is it really Anna Maria Sayer or do you have a DJ name? What is it? What's the deal here? Formally officially, and I'm a little scared to be saying this publicly because I don't want to be sued. Formally officially, I like to say that my DJ name is Gesavija, which I did originally without influence come up with. However, it has recently come to my attention that there is, in fact, a competing gaysa DJ. And let's explain to listeners why you had to find a DJ name.

I recently performed my first, maybe only DJ gig. Maybe TBD. We don't know if there will be another one. I was invited to perform at the summer stage in Central Park, opening for Julietta Venegas. I was asked if I DJ and I said I dabble, which was a lie. I had never DJed in my life. So I thought to myself, well, they asked me with five months of time. Of course, I'll learn. And then I realized the day of that I had never learned.

So I showed up to my gig with 10 songs on my USB that I had downloaded at the Apple store 20 minutes before. Ten songs? Yes. And did I make it work? Yes. And did I play to 5,000 people, Felix? Yes, I did. David Getto, watch out.

Yeah, right. So speaking of, okay, wait. Speaking of, actually speaking of, today we're talking about new music. But I, riding the high of my DJ success, was like, forget new music. I'm a DJ now. And I was like, it's time for me to play my songs of the summer. So it's like new music, but more like kind of new music. and with a summer vibe is what I would call this episode.

You sprung this on me at the last minute, so I wasn't able to bring my own summer vibe music. I did that intentionally so that my songs could shine brighter. Yeah. So I have some new music, some new tracks that work fine for summer. Not exactly summer music, but let's carry on. Since it's your, you're changing the theme, you start us off. Okay, so I've decided to start us off with a song that I really have.

I've been listening to all summer long. It's off of the Quevedo album that was released earlier this year. Now, when this album was released, actually did bring on some songs from it, but not this one. I didn't come to this one until, like, two months ago, and it's been a track I've been going back to over and over. The song is called El Bifo.

Pudoh, I was a bifo, because when I'm a binked a lardillo. And now all in the island, I want to sell semio, to buy a cadena, pauc chigio. Oh, you me levante wapo.

Interestingly enough, Felix, most of my songs that are bringing in today are from Spaniards, which I'm like, usually my songs of the summer are very closely aligned with the Caribbean. But I don't know. The Spaniards are really going to town lately, and this song specifically, it's like a complex, nice, bumpy dance song. I mean, Kevedo started releasing music only in 2023 and, like, blew up, you know, that song that's like, Okay, yeah. Ever since then, he's really been blowing up, and he's from the Canary Islands. I brought on a merengue from him. Do you remember that? Yes, I do. It was very cool.

And the connection between that music and the Dominican Republic, which also there's a very interesting connection between the Canary Islands and Chile that we'll get into another time. The point is, I loved the album back then when I heard it, but I didn't come to this song until later, and it's been something. It's kind of just that perfect summer song, and he really is kind of. of an expert in that. So that's my first song in the summer for you, Felix. I can hear it. I'm willing to listen to that for a few more times this summer. That was the song El Baifo from the artist, Keville. I'm going to change it up just a little bit.

Two weeks ago, I hosted an event in San Francisco's Mission District for our station, our NPR station at KQED, with three amazing San Francisco bands, including La Donia, who we've played here on the show. Her band featured a musician, who is a Bay Area veteran, bandleader, producer, musician, guitar player. His name is Camilo Landau. He's a guitarist and a vocalist. He had a cool band a while back called Cardinac Caruda.

I played one of his tracks years ago. He has a new project out right now called Camilo and Los Cruisers. This new single is called Descarga Rockiaada. Check it out. Okay, so it's basically a guitar jam. It is, but it's not at all. Right. Thank you for that.

Yeah, because, you know, remember, I came to Put some respect on your music's name, I feel like. Well, you know, remember, I came of age listening to music in the 70s where, you know, lead guitar players were the gods, were the big deal, sometimes even more so than the lead singers. So I'm always a sucker for these kind of guitar grooves, these long jams, these things, but with this curious, very interesting, a lot of fun, rhythmic interplay underneath. You know, I actually played with him a few years ago, many years ago, pre-pandemic here in D.C.,

and I've watched him grow and develop and he's become this very, very expressive and creative player. But the song also reflects this really cool scene that's happening in the Bay Area, which has always been the case, even when I was living in California and going to hear music and playing stuff up there. Like, everybody plays with everybody

in different genres and different styles. It sort of reminds me very similar to what happens in Puerto Rico when people cross-pollinate from different genres and styles. The same thing happens in the Bay area, the East Bay, Oakland, San Francisco, all over the place. Camilo's one of these guys that's played with a lot of different bands. Like I said, he was playing with La Donia, and she had a, oof, that thing was like Afro-Cuban,

Cumbia, it was all kinds of stuff, and he was right there nailing it the whole time. This track includes the conga player from Santana, CalPerazzo, laying this really funky kind of Afro-Cuban thing underneath. You know, when he sent me the track, I just immediately, like, oh, I've got to find a place for this. The other thing about this is that it's also produced by Greg Landau, who's his uncle. He's a very important figure in the Rock and Español movement in San Francisco in the early 90s. He produced a lot of pioneering music in the 90s in the earliest days of rock and Spanishol in California. That is a track called Descarga Rochiada and the artist is Camilo Landau, Camilo and Los Cruisers.

Very Felix-Coded pick and I love it. It fits into my summer playlist, actually. I will accept its admittance. I would have played it at my DJ gig My specialty was picking really, really, really different songs To transition between I don't know if that's how you're supposed to do it But that's what we do on the show here every week, man

Maybe that's why I have it like programmed in my brain I'm like, oh, let me pick something really random and different Like let me go from like teenage dream to like a really deep cut cumbia Yeah, they're too similar We're not playing them one after another Okay, so speaking of now it's time for me to really pivot. But in a way that feels like not that hard of a pivot to me because also a bop, just a different kind of bob. This is a song that I have been hearing literally everywhere.

I don't know what happened why it blew up. It's off a 2025 album, but it is like probably they verified official song of the summer. It's from Spanish singer Aitana and it's called Super Estreya. I was in the next My next error I was in the car with some friends the other day and we were listening to the song for the fifth time in a row a row. And every time you sing it louder than the last time, so it's like a whole new song.

And we were talking about how, I mean, this really does sound just like one of these classic early 2000s, just like chest opening pop songs. And we're like, I think that I've, that's just at all anyone really wants right now. Like don't make it complicated. Like let's just have like a really singable, fun, straightforward melody that just like opens up into this big thing that everyone can sing and feel good about. Like, that just feels, I think, really nice. And these things are always cyclical. And that feels like where we're headed right now in some areas, right?

We also have these, like, really complex, like, interesting rhythms and whatever, pulling from all parts of Latin America. But that's, like, the other side of it. It's just like a fun, chest opening big chorus song. Man, that's really going to think about that. That's really very true about where we are right now and the duality of it and things that make you go home. Things that make you go home. And this is Spanish singer Aitana, who weirdly enough, Felix, do you remember how I told you a Maya, other Spanish singer, got famous because she was on a reality TV singing show in Spain?

Same thing with Aitana. I don't know what it is, but she had the exact same thing. She was on this reality TV show in Spain. She got big off of it. She's been making music since 2017 when she was on that show. Her debut album was 2019. She's also from Barcelona, which again, a really interesting thing that I don't know what it is. Lely, Barcelona has really been having its moment with the artist from there, which is really interesting.

It's not all that common or it hasn't been in the past. And now repeatedly, same thing with Amaya. Obviously, Rosalia is a great example, but I keep going back to that Barcelona scene. So she's a great representative of that. When Spain won the World Cup, she got on stage with them, and the whole team danced while she sang this song. So it really is. No, it's like the Spanish language world defining song right now. Like, everyone knows it and everyone is singing it.

So I had to bring it on as a verified song of the summer. That is allowed. And I'm going to give you one more bonus one because I figured, why not give you a little more itana? This one is actually from 2021 and I found it because of Super Estrella, but I want to play it because also a great song of the summer. It's called Mon Amor, and this is the remixed version. I'm going to go to the

I'm to gritty I'm going to gritty I'm going to I'm really With that's on That's I'm really that I'm gonna

When I'm No, imagine's the rest That if it's No, I'm gonna get direct to I'm I'm gonna

And like I'm gonna See I'm gonna say And I'm You're And you're

You're gonna I'm gonna' I'm gonna' So I'm Can't do you That was a couple of the Spanish singer Aitana. And I think it's break time already. Let's take a break.

Good idea. And we're back from break. So Felix, you were supposed to show up at my DJ gig. But you told me you were too busy. So what's up? You better have a good excuse. I do have a good excuse. Our friend and colleague, Isabella Gomez, Sarmiento,

and I have been working on, all summer have been working on this project about the Grateful Dead. You know, as you know, both she and I are very, very big Grateful Dead fans, and our editors, Jacob Gansson, Hazel Seals, suggesting that we take a look at what happens to Grateful Dead music and fans now that the last principal member of the band, Bob, Weir, died in January. We're doing three written pieces. There's lots of social media.

We did a call-out podcast. And we're running it during August 1st and August 9th, which are called the Days Between Grateful Dead World, because August 1st was when Jerry Garcia was born. August 9 was when he died in 1995. So there's lots of stuff to listen to and to read. Issa and I actually did a road tour. We traveled a bunch of places to talk to deadheads,

go to festivals and stuff. We did our own summer dead tour. So we have all of this really amazing stuff. We've been working very hard, which is why I haven't been answering your tech. where I didn't go to your party. That's why I've been absent for a little bit. I'm going to have to listen to it,

and then I'll let you know if your excuses accept it or not. Well, you know, our friend Robin Hilton, who's the host of All Songs Considered, just was a never fan, and he thinks we move the needle on him a little bit. Robin's a tough cookie to crack. Is that the saying? It's close enough, Anna.

Okay, the next track I'm going to play is, since that banging club track you had last, I'm going to take us to the chill-out room, okay? See, there's always a connection. Anna, have you noticed recently, within this year, there have been several references to Uruguayan Kandombay music and culture, right? Yes, yes.

We referenced. I have one more that I found on social media. I'm really proud of myself. This is Alejandra Gala, who is a trumpet player and guitar player from Uruguay. We're going to hear more about her in a minute. But this is a jazz interpretation of Kandombay, and the song is called I Dare You. And there's a story behind the title, too.

But let's hear the music first. I guess I'm wondering where you found this, first of all, actually. I found it on TikTok. Everybody teases me because I spent so much time on TikTok. But I saw this video of her talking about this particular song and the use of Kandobai drummers and stuff in her music. then I saw her playing trumpet. It was just like a 30, 45-second video, and I tracked it down.

I wrote to the people on TikTok, and it was her record label, and they, blah, blah, blah. They sent me all this other stuff. But that's how I found out about her. And I'm really glad I did because it's one of these musicians that I've been featuring,

musicians from Latin America who are interpreting jazz through their own cultural lens. And this is one of the standouts. That is like the most authentic form of music discovery on TikTok I've ever heard of. Like the whole thing about discovering music on TikTok is that like people game the algorithm and that's how you find it.

And this was just like inauthentic. Like, oh my God, I found this thing I love. The other thing I was going to say fee is the reason I asked is because recently I was talking to some friends who decided to make an album and kind of like a, I told you about this and more of like a jammy communal everyone contributes style classic for how albums were produced in the past, much less classic now. And I immediately thought of the way that Jorge Drexler had described to us his way of producing his very candombe-based record. And the fact that he went to these rumbas, these circles in Uruguay in these very jam-style experiences.

And that's how he ended up creating the album. And the way that you find a really natural meeting point between jazz and folk, folkloric, especially styles like candombi, is in the actual production of the thing. Right? Like they're both produced in a tit for tat dance kind of give and take community experience. And so this style is like actually made perfectly for each other. And I've got to tell you about Alejandra Gala's backstory. She is a former synchronized swimmer on Uruguay's national swim team. Wow. She also worked as an acrobat in a circus.

Felix, this is like all of your favorite things. I know, right? It's like percussion and athletic. And she picked up a guitar and trumpet along the way. She was the first ever Uruguayan accepted into the Berkeley School of Music's Global Jazz Institute. And she studied there with the biggest names in jazz, including pianist Danilo Perez, who's from Panama, and famously played for many, many years with Wayne Schorter and his quartet. The song I played you, I dare you, is Wayne Schorter's very, very Zen answer to someone who said, hey, Mr. Shorter, how do you define jazz?

And he says, jazz is, I dare you. That's the essence of everything about jazz. And she named that her song based on his answer. Wow. She has a full album coming in November. It's called Bajo del Arbol, Un Tambor. The email for the record label says it's developed from her thesis at Berkeley, and her thesis was titled, Tradition and Gender,

a Story About Symbols, Women, and Rhythm. Again, the artist is named Alejandra Gala. This track was called I Dare You, and Anna, it already feels like it has a spot on my end of the year list. I'm just saying. And maybe on my summer playlist, too, Felix. I don't know. It was a bit of a party. It's a nice little chill room experience, right?

Exactly. Okay, now going back to the less chill room experience. This track, I maybe have already played on the show. It was one of at least off of one. one of the first things we played on the show this year, the album from Ravoyana called Donde's a Laughter. This song specifically is the one that I'm listening to all the time because it's just so danceable. It's called Se Vienin Cosita. really quite alternative, actually. If you listen to their earlier albums, Felix, like they really

were kind of doing something that that's not poppy, that's not dancing necessarily in the same way. And they've been moving towards it with this last record being their most like pop regitone electronic record yet. But they do always have interesting rhythms. Like I appreciate that that they keep it kind of a little more complex and interesting and have interesting percussion, a lot of points in this record. The record has stayed. Like I have really consistently heard this. this album in a lot of places for the whole year so far. Inglés in Miami, a song that they did with Minduittuiz, actually just made it onto Barack Obama's summer playlist, believe it or not.

Oh, my God. So, yes, it's dancing, it's poppy, but in a way that has staying power, which if it's like too syrupy sweet pop to me, then it kind of just like falls off really quick. And it was not that. So, you know, they're really making a name for themselves, honestly, Felix. They just signed a remus.

They're doing all kinds of things. They were just kind of a smaller band from Venezuela up until, up until and partially because of, I will say, the tiny dust that they played, which did incredibly well. So I'm always excited to hear what they're making, and this album has made its way into a lot of my summer parties. I'm not going to lie. You introduced me to them, and you're right. It's been fun watching them. It's been fun watching the journey. Yeah.

Go morph into something and becomes, I guess, maybe more true to themselves or just another area of who they are. It's been fun. That was the song See Vienin Cositas from the band Rawaian. Okay, Anna, I'm going to close out with the song again. We connected in a way that we didn't expect. We're always telepathy, dude.

I have an actual song in the summer for you. What? Yes. I'm going to play a track from a group called the Tiaras, and they are a trio of sisters from Austin, Texas. They've been making music for a long time. They started releasing music in 2022. they have a new single coming from their first ever album coming out later this year.

This track is called Vida Libre, and it features a collaboration with Charnaca Cakewalk from Austin. Check this out. Take us to a sweet resonation. Life's a dream. We find us have sin. It's a place where all is forgiven in love. I can see I got some head movement there in a studio from you. Felix, it's not that hard to make me dance.

But I did love to try. Okay, so the tiaras are Tori, Sophia, and Tiffany Baltiera. You know, Anna, I met them, God, at least 10 years ago at South by Southwest, like many, many years ago. And I think they were in middle school, okay? I saw them performing at an unofficial showcase somewhere at a park or something while I was there for South By. And they caught my attention

because they were so talented even then. And we've had this like pen-pill like connection over the years because they would send me videos of their performances over the years and some of the stuff they're working on. And I've got to say, I've been waiting for this moment to play their music for a very long time because I've been watching them mature as musicians.

It's been so impressive to watch them and to look at what they've become, like the command of the instruments, the songwriting and all that. They have an album coming out in August 28th that listen to the whole thing and it really caught my attention because of the maturity of the music,

their approach to music. It sort of leans toward pop as you heard, which is not exactly my wheelhouse, but I've been watching them for so long and watching them get to this point. They can play a mean cumbia, man. They mix it all together on this record. I want to play one more.

It's called Black Sheep and the stripped-down version of what they do and it really features the strength of their songwriting. Check it out. Rock solid as a mystery So I chase down all of my tendencies Like how I look the other way In an unfamiliar place I belong to

Mine racing an epiphany Feels like I've got some work cut out for me Like What's it take for me to stay And make a clean escape I call out to you, you know, black sheep running with the walls in the flowers that bloom. You, who, black sheep running with the walls in the flowers that blue.

You know, the other thing about this record is, as I mentioned, the song that we played first is called Vida Libre, and it features Chattanga Cakewalk from Austin. Chattanga Cakewalk is the project of a guy named Michael Ramos, who's a very, very talented musician, producer, all-around cool music guy in Austin. He's worked on a lot of things. He had a project out called Chiranga Cakewalk for a long time, and they had one of the best album titles of all time called Chicano Zen.

And he added some of his Chicano Zen to their music. Congrats to the TRS for a great new single and a great album coming out later this year. You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our audio producer is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of Empire Music is Sarah Mohamed. Sonali Metta is executive director of NPR Music. We want to hear from you.

Drop us a line. Wherever you're listening to this podcast or send us an email. We'd love to hear what you think. Our email is Altlatino at npr.org. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.