NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Songs To Move By

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Hosts Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras discuss the best music Felix unearthed while moving out of his apartment.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

Honan, did I tell you that I had to move? Did you tell me? I was there. Can I tell everyone? No, Felix and I, we get in the U-Ha. I'm sitting in the middle illegally. I'm just going to put it out there. We drive 40 minutes to his storage unit.

We get out that truck and he goes, ha-ha, I hope I have my keys. And you're like, no, no, no, I have them. So I go to find you a card. I come back and you go, yeah, so I don't have the keys to the storage unit. Oh, that was a long day, man. Yeah, I'm honestly surprised you to survive. So this kind of the theme for this week, because one of the things that happened is I'm packing up all this stuff and they'll have tons of vinyl and tons of CDs and accumulated from work and all that.

An entire shelf of Grateful Dead content. An entire shelf of Santana content. One of the things I discovered was there was a bunch of stuff that I never really got a chance to listen to that I got sent. emailed, delivered, etc. for the show. So what we decided to do this week is feature some of those things that I rediscovered. And my side is just the songs that I've been playing to bring myself peace during Felix's movie. I got a massage after I left you, Felix. I do have to say that.

I'm due for one now. From Mfior Music, this is all Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria C. Let the Chisemay begin. Not that I didn't already start the Chisme, but let's hit it off with you, Felix. Okay.

So one of the CDs I found was by a group called Duo Gis Branco. And, you know, it's really a very, very great record because it reflects the depth of the musical spirit of Brazil. Okay, it's Claudia Castello Branco and Bianca Gizmante. They described themselves as Brazilian music for two pianos and two voices and they've been together since 2005. Some music fans might recognize the last name of Gizmante. She is the daughter of Brazilian icon,

major Brazilian musician, Alberto Gizmanti. We're going to play some music from an album that they put out in 2021 called Passaros, Omanachim a Chico Cesar, who is a Brazilian composer. Again, my Portuguese, sorry. But this is a track called A Primera Vista. I'll tell you a little bit more about the duo because it's a fascinating group

and also a really interesting song. With this, again, is A Primera Vista. You know, being the offspring of a famous musician is tricky, and we've seen it many, many times. And it raises the expectations to either be a copy of the parent or be your own thing. And the most successful musicians who would come from that situation reflect that parent, but is also their own person. Again, Bianca Gizmante has to walk in the shadow of her dad, Egberto Gizmante. I have lots of his vinyl from over the years with guitar, piano, voice, percussion, sounds of nature,

his compositions, everything about it, mind the rich musical folklore of Brazil into his own singular expression. And get this, Bianca, accompanied her dad on tour on piano at age 10. They formed this duo in 2005. They've gone off and done their own things, little trios, chamber music, all this stuff.

But when they get together, they create this own little special magic. or this CD that I found in my pile of stuff, it's just, it's magic. It really does set the tone. It just helped me. You need music to calm down after the move. It really helped me during the move. There's really two things that I'm hearing here.

One is it actually kind of, her voice kind of reminds me of the vocal quality of Portuguese singer Mado, which I do think it's beyond just the Portuguese. There's something about the richness of their tone, and maybe it is the melodious. expression like is the actual expression of the notes vocally um that feels similar here and the other part of it too is there's an emotionality here that reminds me of father in a way not so much in the actual sonic expression of the sound right it is distinct obviously from what a phalo sound is but there is something i think in the emotionality here and that's why i was curious i'm like what is that folkloric thing they're tapping into and

And is there a common thread there? That's something that's only answerable by listening to their records together. You know, and then trying to following those breadcrumbs. You're going to make one of your back-to-back Spotify playlist. I already did, man, with these guys. And I want to talk a little bit about the track because it's from an album that's a tribute to another great Brazilian musician, composer and poet, a guy named Chico Cesar.

And I want to cite the lyrics of this tune because I really like the way he nods his head to what's going on in contemporary music right now. The lyrics say, When the letter arrived, I opened it. When I listened to Prince, I danced. When your eyes shone, I understood. When I grew wings, I flew. The whole song is this really beautiful love poem.

And then in a later verse, he does the same thing, but instead of Prince, he refers to this musician from Mali named Salif Keta. So I just, you know, I don't know how often. Often, if ever I've heard Prince referred to in Portuguese lyrics from a Brazilian musician. But it's there, and it's beautifully performed. The name of the track was A Prima Vista. It's from Duos Gis-Branko. It's called Pasaros, Omenager, a Chico Cesar. So speaking of calming the spirit, I'm going to get really emotional up in here, Felix.

As you know, I love to do. A friend of mine recently showed me a song called Yeah Manana by the indie artist Recordatorio. I actually didn't know him at all, Felix. Super, super small, not a big project, not super well-known. But this song, oh my God, it hits me straight in the Corazon, Felix. It is truly soul medicine for me. I need you to hear a little bit of yeah manana. It's got an elado negro feel to it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's because it's a lot of negro feel to it. little ethereal. It's always a little sad. This is off of his 20, 22 album, Thomas Verdes. This is the second album he ever released. Has not released one since. But this song to me, Felix, has a real staying power. I mean, I've been listening to it over and over since I first heard it. And I could probably listen to it over and over a million more times because it has that essential, powerful energy of truth to me. His artist's name, Recordatorio, literally translates to reminder.

And never has an artist been more aptly named to me. Okay, this is the part where I get a little emotional. So Felix, you know I went through a pretty big breakup a couple years ago now, which is crazy. Everyone listening, if you've been listening since I joined Felix on the mic, whether you know it or not, you've been going through it with me and been listening to music through it with me. And I remember at some point during my process thinking to myself, for all these years, I lived based on these things of like, okay, there's two truths in this life, the sun always rises, and you love this person. And the second I realized that I had to reestablish my new truths, what's my new anchor. This song, it reminds me of what I had to realize, which is that the sun always rises and also it always sets.

You need that other piece. And this is something that you start to hope for, right? Like this desperation that he describes where he says, I need a break from who I am here. Let it be tomorrow already. That's a desperation for the sun to set, for tomorrow to come. And I think everyone kind of knows that feeling. And when you first feel that feeling, you kind of like,

it's kind of a sadder thing. And then it becomes actually a little more hopeful and a little more joyful. And I think in the end, it becomes a gratitude. for tomorrow. And gratitude, I think, is it's understanding the fullness of something, the pain, the joy, appreciating all of what something truly is. It's kind of like what you talk about with Buddhism, Felix, where it's like you have to have both sides to really appreciate something.

And this song 100% reminds me of that. Wow. So much back to a guy with a guitar, man. That's what I hear. I heard a nice little tune with the guitar. One, it was just a tip of the answer. And I heard the answers to light.

That was Yeah Manana by Recordatorio. Okay. We're going to move to Spain because one of the things I found and I was moving, I have a couple of vinyl albums, as you know. Really? I have too many. Another thing about Felix's vinyals. Felix says he's trying to pare down.

He's like, I'm trying to get rid of things. I'm like, join me my minimalist lifestyle. He's like, that's what I'm trying to do. And he's like, no, not my vinals. You can't touch my vinyals. They're kind of a sacred thing. But anyway, so one of the things that happened was I found a bunch of stuff, like I said, I never listened to. And there was this record that was staring out at me.

A guy named Raul Cantizano. He's from Spain. He's from Sevilla. The album's called Zona Accordona. And it's from 2021. You know, saying that Raoul is, Cantizano is a guitarist only scratches the surface because what he does is he explores, he mines, he digs deep and he stretches the limits of the guitar, the flamenco guitar. And honestly, I didn't

know him until I found the vinyl that had somehow made its way into my stack. So I was listening while I was packing and my mind was blown. I'm going to play two tracks, one to show his mastery of traditional flamenco. And then I'm going to play a little bit of the second track to show how his musical mind works as a musical explorer. Okay, the first thing is called Taranta Sin Fin and the second one's called La Suerte De Resorte. We're going to hear Taranta Sin Fin first. Check this out.

Okay, so straight ahead Flamenco, right? Very, very talented. He's one of the leading guitarists out there in Spain doing this stuff. And check this out. Check out what happens when he opens up the idea of what a guitar is and how to play it and where it fits in the flamenco tradition. Okay, that's all. I'm going to play because the album sort of alternates tracks from like traditional sounding flamenco

and then all the other stuff that he does. And he does this thing where he has these prepared guitars. He has this one guitar where he has these like three or four or five string, like spring sticking out of the bottom of the face of the guitar where you play. And he plays it and it sounds like a marimba. And then... I was going to say very horror movie. It depends on where you're coming from, right?

how you hear it. And the album also has this booklet where he shows how he works his prepared guitars. And it's something that he does. He does this multimedia presentation with film, with all this visual stuff in the background of music and these other musicians, ambient musicians,

other flamenco musicians. He does this whole thing. I was playing this thing while I was packing. I ended up stopping and sitting down and listening to it because it was just overwhelming. It was just so different and so, I thought, just innovative and mind expanding. I was just in a conversation, I told you, Felix,

right before I got on here with our colleague, Tom Hidesinger, who covers a lot of classical music. And we were talking about, you know, the dynamics of classical music and how you really can't put it on in the background because you just have to listen to it. Like, it's so captivating and specific. And I think that something about this, too, the way that that sound is so unique,

it's very demanding of the attention. No doubt. Yeah, I mean, I think people who don't understand classical music, not that I'm an expert, but of course Tom has shown me a lot just from me, the conversation or the work he does here at NPR, really show me a lot about ways to get into classical music, where to dip my toes into that magic, magic ocean

that is classical music or symphonic music. So, yeah, I totally get it. There's a lot to pay attention to. And this album falls into that category, Again, the album's called Zona Accordona, and the musician is Raul Cantisano. Okay, how are you going to follow that? Well, Felix, luckily, I don't have to because we're about to take a break. We'll be right back.

And we're back. I'm up, and this is a song I've been listening to a lot. Guatemalan singer, he's kind of off-sides pop art. Jesse Bayes released an album last November called Henry. I didn't actually have a chance to listen to it till recently. And this song in particular really struck me. It's called Persona Favorita. My persona favorite are most.

Your persona favorite is so you. My persona favorite are some most, That's We're In the Many times That's Like

You're To be There's There's Different To think Many I've

I've Many times I've You're You're You're what I'm You're

To be I'm I'm Fed did not go where I thought it was going to go. What did you think it was going to go? Well, it would sound as kind of like a twangy guitar, western something. Oh, that's funny before the Dembo comes. Yeah, man.

Yeah. Well, and the guitar is always there, right? And that's what kind of creates this interesting texture to it. I have a friend who calls that varietal of Dembo regettone romantico, which in reality, I think it's reggaeton Triste. Like every time I hear kind of like a dropped down tempo like that, even if it's a love song, which this one is, this is a pure love song.

It's like, wow, I can't believe that I found this love, da-da-da-da. And yet, why am I sad? And I think that there's something really magnetic about being able to pair that beat along with kind of like this, like what you're describing, this kind of like twangy little electric guitar that keeps coming in and out. And then with that bass, like,

it creates this kind of emotional confusion that I love a sad love song. It's so perfect to me. And of course, he brought the sad love song experts on to do this track with him, Latin Mafia. I've talked about them before, Felix, young group of brothers from Mexico. They did a collaboration with him earlier in 2023 called Se Fu'i La Luce, and it's been one of my actual favorite songs from them for a long time. So I don't know. There's something about that energy

that I think he works really well with. He does great as a collaborator. I think that's him at his best. And to me, this song just worked really, really well. It was definitely not what I expected, like I said. And one of the things that I really liked about it is the casual approach to the vocal, everything about it. So reggaeton Triste is what you're saying, right?

Regetton Triste. That's it. That's the rebrands. for me. All right. You heard it here first. It's again, it's the casual vocal, too,

with such an intense messaging and a sad beat. It's like, oh, I don't care, but like, you're the love of my life. And it's like, oh, okay. It always takes me back

to Leonard Cohen in the Chelsea Hotel. Like, oh, but, you know, whatever, you got away, but I don't care. I don't even think of you, but you're the love of my life. That's the reference point.

Always. All roads lead back to Leonard Cohen. Wow, look at that. Right here on All-Latino. Great Latin artist that he is. Leonardo Coenno. All roads lead back to Leonard Cohen says Alt Latino.

Speaking of sad songs, one of the things I discovered on the stack of CDs, man, this goes back to 2013. Let me just paint the scene real quick. I was at the LAMC, Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York. So we had just started all Latino. So we started in 2010. This was 2013. So all these musicians in this hotel and there's all these things going on. And I walked through the lobby and they had this little stage set up where the sound company, some PA, you know, speakers or whatever, set up a little stage so that you can play music and the musicians can come play their songs. And I heard this voice. And I literally stopped. my tracks like oh my god who is this what is this voice where's it coming from her name is irene

Diaz she's from southern california and again it's one of those magic moments that i'll never forget and i found her CD in my stack of stuff that i was moving around and i want to play a track from that record because it's really one of my favorite records and when she's one of my favorite singers the track is called crazy love this is irene deis check it out So I'll never have you Every which way I'm crazy and I can't get in No, I'll never have you

My love So I gotta share another personal moment on this one That year at 2013 was a year that Barbara and the boys came up to join me And then we all drove back to Maryland afterwards So 2013, Alessandro was 13 and Joaquin was 10 and we're all in the car. We're driving back and I put this CD in the car because, of course, I have a CD player in the car.

And for the whole length of the I Love You Madly EP, nobody said a word and we just listened and we were all entranced by this voice and the writing and the songwriting and everything about it. And a lot of it is just her and a ukulele was played by her partner

Carolyn Cardoza. That's what I heard when I heard this CD again the other day while I was packed. Wow, that merely makes me want to ask you about the emotions of packing up your house, Felix, but we can save that for later. You can't beat my breakup statement, so... No, I can't. I can't. No, she really, really has a gorgeous, gorgeous voice.

I mean, it's rare that I hear a song that I just, I immediately want to sing it. Like, I immediately want to embody it. It's just that there's something really striking about it. She has two EPs out. She has one full-length album she released in 2022. She has a whole bunch of singles out over the years. And the latest one was just released in December of 2024, just a few months ago. I do want to remind you that she did a tiny desk concert in 2014,

again, with her partner Carolyn Cardoza on ukulele. It was a blast from the past. It took me to another spot, another time and place. I'm just so appreciative of that opportunity to revisit that, but also to revisit that voice. Again, Irene Diaz. Okay, my turn. So you have to be careful with the theme like this, Felix, which is music we're listening to because it gives me open and full opportunity to bring on my artist that I'm absolutely obsessed with. So you're going to have to put a timer on this one because I could talk for 20 years about how much I love Spanish singer guitarica de la Fuente. I have been waiting patiently, Felix, since 2022 when he released his debut album. And now in May, he'll be releasing a second album.

You will be hearing more about this in May. But for now, he released a single. It's called Full Time Pappy. I'm going to let you play a little before I talk about it. I've become a fan of his since you introduced me to his music, man. He's so good. He's one of those that literally came up on YouTube. It is one of those instances where it's like, oh, wow, real talent was able to be put directly

in front of the right audience and they got it. And I'm so, so glad that he was able to find that avenue to rise because he really has a gift. That first album, it's electronic. but it's so string-heavy. He plays with strings a lot. He plays with live instrumentation in like just the right ways and just the right moments to really ground a more like ethereal, twinkly, synthetic sound.

I can't describe it to you, but this man, the grip he has on me, this music, it's really beautiful and I'm not the only one. I mean, Rosalia literally posted this as the song that's, I don't know what you would call it, soundtracking her Instagram post the other day. Pedro Pascal literally had it in an Apple commercial he did the other day. I mean, he is definitely beginning to be discovered and get those flowers, and I'm so excited to see what this next album becomes for him. I have had the absolute luck of hearing the whole thing already,

and I'm absolutely obsessed with it, but this track really still sticks out to me as something special. I think it's really a great encapsulation of, like, all of, like, all of the whole. the best that he does as an artist. I can't wait to hear the record, Matt. Yeah, okay, okay. It's good. That was full-time poppy, not in the way that Felix was thinking of it by Guitarrick de la Fuende. I just love the idea of you, Felix, being like, oh, full-time poppy, that's me.

I was at every single fencing tournament. When I saw the song, inside of. I'm like, oh, he's older than I thought. He has kids. He's talking about. Stop. Oh, man. Matter of perspective, man. It can be whatever you want it to be, Felix. That's art. And while I have you on the line and I have our dear friend, Siriel Mohammed, here across from me, you want to thank you both publicly for helping me move.

Wow, look at that. It was a big deal, man. You guys really came through, man. No, honestly, you know what I'll never forget is walking through your house and being like, no, everything's organized and it has a place. And you'd be like, this is my pile of stuff that's trash. And then you'd be like, okay, great. So everything here, including this is trash. And you'd be like, no, that's my most prize possession ever. You can't get rid of that.

There is no logic here. Why does every room have ten piles? Thank you both. Thank you. We both. I really appreciate that. You have been listening to Alt-Latino from NPR Music. The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung.

Zerah Mohamed is executive producer of NPR music and does a very good job of manning the booth when we're doing an indoor yard sale. Our head-in-chief is Keith Jenkins. He didn't show up to help at all, but he's the VP of music. I'm surprised. I didn't invite him to be clear. We already knew what the response would be. An invite was not necessary.

I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. And I'm Saria Mohamed. Yay. Thank you for listening.