NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Why we love Joaquina. Plus, Felix is chismeless

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Do not come on Alt.Latino if you don't have good chisme! Ana and Felix talk about their favorite songs of the week, including some psychedelic cumbia, Cuban folk music and more.Songs featured on the episode:•Combo Chimbita, "Dímelo"•Cortadito, "Yemaya"•Joaquina, "desahogo"•Joaquina, "aeropuerto"•The Altons, "Waiting"•Thee Midniters, "It'll Never Be Over For Me"•Majo Aguilar, "el beso"•Carrie Rodriguez, "Miles Away"Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Simon Rentner. Editorial support from Hazel Cills. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.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

From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisemet begin. Felix, bring me something good. What chisemate you have for me? I'm looking for something juicy. It's so cold out here in Washington, D.C. that it's too cold to go out. It's too cold to talk to people. It's too cold to do anything. I stayed home. I've been working from home, man. So I got no chisemet. That sounds really depressing. The goal was to get undepressing me.

Well, if we're going to get undepressed, we've got great music to do that. It's a new music show this week. This is true. What do you got? Okay, so, you know, I always try Felix to get you on board with my music, and there's two ways I try to do that. One is my, I swear I can trick Felix into liking this bucket, and the other is I know Felix is a fan, and it's 100% slam dunk. He's going to like it, and I'm starting this week with one of my slam dunk songs. So get excited.

This is from the band Combo Chimbita. They're kind of like a psychedelic cumbia band coming out of Colombia. This is their new single, Dimelo. You know, Anna, I saw Combo Chimvita at South by Southwest. God, I can't even remember, maybe five, six years ago. They've been around for a while. I've been doing really great music. This sound is a little different than the sound I remember.

It seems to have a little bit more of that West African guitar thing. that they do. I liked them before. I really like this new record. They came together. It's kind of like they are your favorite Colombian group chat, made it into a band in New York kind of crew.

They very much are friends that organically started jamming together, viking together. They all have kind of independent projects. But when they come together as combo chimbita, it tells a different story. And it's really amazing to me how the magic just keeps growing. I mean, Carolina Oliveros has the most magnetic, gorgeous, magical voice that kind of just really communicates, I think, what everyone in the band feels, but also her own personal journey. I mean, this specific song is her kind of trying to navigate choosing herself and finding herself.

And I think that's something that they all can relate to. You know, I've met these guys. I've heard them play live and they really are like a fun group, a kind group. And also just one that I think represents a lot of the feelings of kind of this. Colombian crew in New York. So it's really, I'm so excited to hear the rest of the record. What they really intentionally try to do is represent what is an incredible diversity of indigenous sounds that are kind of moving and shaping the rhythms of Colombia have always been.

And I think they're one of those bands that are now taking those sounds and being like, we need them to be front and center of what we're doing. You know, I think of them alongside contemporaries like Lido Pimienta, for example. people who just so seamlessly include these sounds that otherwise could be lost in a very, very organic way. Big fan, big fan right here, always have been. That was the song, Dimmelow by Combo Chimita. Okay, speaking of tradition, I'm going to continue with the track that came in. This is a band called Cortadito.

The track is called Yemaya. And the album is called The Wahiro Triangle, Havana, Miami. Santiago. And what the band is doing is tracing the evolution of Cuban son, which is the song form that is the basis for just about all Cuban music, from its roots in Santiago de Cuba to Miami with Havana as a bridge. The band is called Cortadito. The track is called Yamaya, and the album's called the Wahito Triangle, Havana, Miami, Santiago. I'll tell you a little bit more about it after we hear some of the music. These guys are dedicated to Cuban folk music. This a band from Miami. The Wahino triangle in the title traces the evolution of the Cuban

song, which is basically the song form that is the basis for all, just about all Cuban music. From its roots in Santiago, the Cuba in the east, to Miami with Havana as a bridge. The leader of the band is a guy named Jose Elias, and he is the Cuban dress player, the guitar player, that little guitar sounding instrument that's very, very specific to Cuba. And in full disclosure, I have to say that I met Jose Elias when I lived in Miami and I played in a band with him. And it was a band. Of course you did. It was a really cool band.

The singer was Lily Blanco and she had assembled all of these people, an African-American, a Chicano from California, Cuban-American, a Dominican guy, a Dominican guy from Mariel, a guy from Mariel, who came over in Mariel boat, left on playing Congo. I was playing Timbales. And it was really like this nice mixture of stuff. but I got to appreciate all these different strands and the different roots of music and even then Jose was really dedicated to preserving Cuban music and he sent me this link to a record that they have coming out and I'm just so in admiration of still, after all these years,

that was 20-something years ago. He's still out there working and promoting Cuban music at a grassroots folk level and this record I think is some of the best stuff he's ever done. I love the name of the band, Cortadito. Remember when we were... Nothing more Cuban, Felix. Nothing more Cuban.

For people who don't know, it's the little bit of coffee that you get that just about everybody starts their day with. They call it a Cortadito. That's how you start your day. The name of the band is Cortadito. The name of the album is the Wahiro Triangle, Havana, Miami, Santiago, and the track is Yamaya. This is one of those that I'm really jazzed about, Felix.

It's in the bucket of Felix's going to love it because I'm going to convince him to. So Joaquina, have you heard about her before? No, but I already liked the name. My son's name is Joaquin. Exactly. And my middle name is Joaquin. Well, and you're a Joaquin, too. So Joaquina, she's 20 years old. She's from Venezuela. She won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist last year. The song I'm going to play is off of her debut album, Aromper La Bourouca. So it's safe to say that it's really is highly anticipated. I know we use that term all the time. But for someone who won Best New Artist, we're pretty excited to hear this. It comes out in two days, but we're playing a special preview of this track today. It's called

This Aogo. It is just a really good straight ahead pop record, right? Like, we don't have, you know, as many Olivia Rodriguez or Taylor Swift's or whatever you want to call it in the Latin music space. And it is just now that we're getting more and more of really good pop artists. I'm thinking of her with contemporary Ella Tobert, who won actually best new artist this year at the Latin Grammys. This record, she's talking about heartbreak. She's talking about things that matter to teenagers. But at the same time, of course, throughout the record,

she starts to kind of represent what it is to be what she is, which is a Venezuelana. She moved to Miami when she was eight years old. She's part of this generation that has only seen a Venezuela in crisis. So she's representing so much for a generation that is looking for a voice for that as well. We've seen Latin Grammy best new artist winners make a big splash, and then unfortunately not hear a lot from them afterwards. Oh, this girl is actually going to blow up.

I chose this track because, again, it's just her talking about heartbreak in a nuanced, complicated way. But what does it feel like to be a teenager who has watched people you love move and has to be separated from the family and all of these things, how does that work into just the normal, typical heartbreak? There's all kinds of young people around the world who are grappling with that specifically, who are going to see themselves and hear themselves in Joaquina

and the way that she's making her music. Again, the name of the artist is Joaquina off her new album, Aromper La Bourouca. You are listening to Alt-Latino. We're talking about new music. We're going to take a break and then come right back. And we're back with new music. Anna, I'm going old school today.

Okay, old school but new school. Exactly. Thank you. Old school, new school, old school, actually. You're right? This is the band The Alton's. This is a song called Waiting. There's a whole group of bands in Southern California that are reviving the Chicano

Oldies thing that was going on in the 60s and the 70s. I am so there for it. I love this sound. I love this sound, man. Every time I hear these guys, part of this whole crew of L.A. Chicano, all these people, I'm like, is Felix somehow metido in this? Like, I feel like this is Felix's fault somehow. Let's hear the music we can talk about it.

This sound, it just reminds me of like these crust velvet tuxedoes at Kinsellias. You know, with the big shirts and the puffy things and coming in, you know, wearing your tuxedo. and doing the Hokkien sienna thing. It goes back to probably post-World War II Los Angeles. When a lot of soldiers came back from fighting in the war, the Chicano neighborhoods and the black neighborhoods, they were all mixed together, and everybody was listening to each other's music.

And if you listen to this, the guitar parts, the heavy reverb, the falsetto, that's all duop, that's all early rock and roll stuff, but mixed together in this cool. cool amalgamation of cultures and sounds. It was cool then, and I love that it's happening again now. I'm going to connect this to the Bad Bunny record, because this to me is a manifestation of exactly what is being talked about in the record, because while people are feeling

the way that they are in so many different parts of Latin America, in Los Angeles, there is a movement to preserve what is a genuine organic Latino. Mexican American, Chicano, culture, and these guys are doing that. It's the same kind of idea of, Yo Me Kido Here, like, they want to perseguid with what they're doing, with their sound, with the culture of East Los Angeles. That has experienced a lot of gentrification, a lot of movement. And they, you know, they've created their studio actually out there in Boyle Heights is where they record a lot of their stuff.

They're representing all different parts of Southern California and what is really an authentic Latino experience culture. native to there. And again, this is out on Pemrose Records, which is an imprint of Daptone records, which is based in Brooklyn. They're specializing in classic R&B, most notably Amy Winehouse. The label owner, like you said, started a studio in his hometown of Riverside. So there are bands like The Sacred Souls, Los Yesterday's, Johnny Ruiz and the Escapers. I love that name. The Sincere's, right? The, T-H-E-E, The Sacred Souls and The Sincere's. Of course. It goes back to The Midnighters, like one of the first Chicano soul bands from the 1960s.

I'm going to play a little bit of one of my favorite tracks from The Midnighters. It's called It'll Never Be Over for Me, and it features the classic voice of Little Willie Gee. Check this one out. That's just a little bit of that classic sound, The Midnighters, classic band, one of my favorites. I'm here for it, man. I love that sound. It just feels like a really beautiful community vibe. Some of the members of the Sincere's are also members of the Alton, the man that we heard.

So, yeah, it's community. It's so community. I love it. Which is so classic, too. It's like, oh, you play the bass. Let's throw you in here, too. Didn't they've done that, man. The name of the track is Waiting.

The album is called Heartbreak and Room 14. It's going to be released on February 14th. The name of the band is the Alton's. Check it out, man. You won't go rock. Okay, Anna, your turn. I have been feeling Felix lately so homesick for Mexico And I you know sometimes I just need to put on my banda

My miscorridos like just have it with me And I love spotlighting the women who are doing coridos Because we talk about this Corrido tumado scene Which is amazing and exploding and all this stuff But it's very male driven and there are women who are doing amazing work So this is a song by Maho Aguilar And the track is called El Bessor.

Those horns. Right? Right? Woo. There's so many variations on, you know, I give you my life, my lips, my love, my vessels, my kisses. There's so many variations on it. Going back like decades, right?

And it never gets old, man. It never gets old. You can do it 20,000 different ways. And Mahalo, Aguilar, does. come from that tradition, right? She's got it pulsing through her veins. She's one of those dynasty members, granddaughter of Antonio Aguilar, and Flores Silvestre, both very famous. Oh my God. Yeah, I mean, the Mount Rushmore. I know. And you can hear it, right? Yeah. You can hear it in, in her voice, in her sound, in the color of what she does. Get this, Felix.

This is Mariaci Tumbalo. This is the next wave. The women are carrying the next wave of bring traditional Mexican music to the world, and this is how they're doing it. And this is a single off of an album that will be coming in May. So get excited, Felix. I am so excited. Thanks for turning me on to this. Sidebar, okay? Sidebar, Antonio Aguilar, we mentioned just like one of the biggest mariachi singers along

with Vicente Fernandez, right? I went to school with the guy at Fresno State. His name was Antonio Aguilar. And we used to call him Sin Caballo. Without a horse, right? Oh, here comes Sinkabayo. Who are you with last night? Oh, I was with Sinkabayo.

They ever said his name. It was poor about the same name as a famous mariachi singer. And speaking of Mexico, we're going to end the show today with the track that I brought in. This is Carrie Rodriguez. The track is called Miles Away, and it's from a live theater production that she's working on, that she's written all the music for. It's called Postcards from the border. And the gist of it is that there's this writer from the Rio Grande Valley. His name is Oscar Casares, and he wanted to tell his 10-year-old daughter, and they lived in Austin.

He wanted to tell his 10-year-old daughter, what was it like to live and grow up along the border? He and his photographer friend, Juel Salcido, they traveled the entire 1,400 miles along the border, from El Paso to Matamoros, where the Rio Grande or the Rio Bravo, as they call it, in Mexico, enters into the Gulf of Mexico. And I said Gulf of Mexico, okay? They traveled all the way through there. And initially it was a magazine feast, and then they made this theater production.

It's having this introduction in Austin this month. The first couple of singles are just classic carry, and I can't wait to see the rest of the record. It's coming out in the spring, and maybe perhaps sees a show. But this is called Miles Away from the album Postcards from the Border, And this is Kerry Rodriguez. Be sad. Don't hurry, just wait to see a great hero.

Carrie really does know how to encapsulate so much complexity. I think for her growing up in Texas with her Mexican experience, with her country leaning, I don't know, desires, love, passion. She's always been able to kind of show that in between this in a really, really special way. Got a chance to play with her actually back in September, and she was telling me, when we were driving to the theater, about this project, and it sounded fascinating, and she was in the process of writing the music, and we're both such big fans of hers,

and the lyrics unpack a lot of different things. There's one line in particular about not having to depend on what's being said in the news, about what's going on, because the purpose of the whole project is to show the humanity of the border, that people live and love and work and they have deep roots on the border. And it's not just what headlines say. And I got to say it's especially more poignant now

when you're getting reports that the current administration is sending Army, sending the Pentagon, is sending troops to the border and militarizing the border. So that's again a headline and the headlines miss the humanity. And that's what this project. I hope it raises some awareness, wears us some consciousness and enlightens a few people who attend these performances and when the record comes out. And of course, it's always the arts and the music that give people things to think about.

The project is called Postcards from the Border. If you're in Austin in the middle of January, Carrie's a hustler, man. I'll give her that, man. I really admire her for what she's doing. They're working on grants. They're working on collaborations. They're working all these things to move this play around the country. Postcards from the border, so check it out. You know, we're going to take a break, and then we're going to come back with another edition of Songs That Movie. We haven't done it in a minute.

We got something we'd really like to share with. Stand By. Okay, Anna, we're going to finish this episode with another edition of songs at Move You. Una brought in a story about a Mariani singer who found hope in a Mariani version of a famous song. Check it out. As Los Angeles grapples with the recent wildfires, I've been finding solace in the sound that to me is quintessential L.A., mariachi. Growing up in Southern California, it was the soundtrack to life at home or family parties

until a few months ago when it made its way onto the record of one of the most famous rappers in the world. Okay, Felix, get this. It's game one of the 2024 World Series, NY Yankees versus Dodgers. Mexican baseball legend Fernando Valenzuela had just... died. And so to open the game, he's being honored by a sound that many Angelinos mourn to, crying mariachi voices. That voice, that's Valenzuela's friend, who until then was little-known singer Deira Barrera. As luck would have it, or maybe you could say that it's just so L.A.,

Kendrick Lamar happens to be in the crowd, soaking up that morning grito. The L.A. Dodgers would go on to win the World Series, and Kendrick Lamar was so moved by Barreira's voice that he invited her to be the first voice heard on his latest album, GNX. Yesterday somebody whacked out my mural. The energy will make you move to Europe.

And the rest, as they say is history. And for this week's songs that move you, we ask Barreira to tell us about a song that moves her. The song that moves her. This song is like a passage of the life Barrera says the song My Way, or Ami Manera, done by the late Mariachi superstar, Vicente Fernandez, is about the passing of time for each of us. It's about living life your way. The song talks about living life your way. So many things happen, things we let go of, that we didn't understand, at the end, you did what you wanted, your way.

But for her, it's not just a message in a song. It's about who in her life lived on her own terms. She says she grew up watching her mom sing, and it was her who taught Barrera her first chords on the guitar before she continued to study music, vocals, and performance. Like for me, Mariachi was the sense. sound of family for Barrera. She told us she loved just watching her mom play and sing with her guitar.

And instead of playing with the other kids, she watched the adults sing and would say, I want to sing, I want to sing. And she became a singer like her mother. She became a singer like her mother. Today, life looks different for Barrera and her mom. My mommy, who, because, unfortunately, has dementia, and she lived her life very a su manera.

Now, Barreira's mother is living with dementia, but her memory lives immortalized in the emotional delivery of the song she sang. And in Barera's voice, too. You know, Anna, the song can seem like a curious choice for a mariachi singer, but if we trace the musical breadcrumbs left in its wake, it makes total sense. The song is mostly associated with Frank Sinatra. He released it in March of 1969.

And it was his song until the Flamenco group, The Gypsy Kings, did a popular Spanish language remake in 1987, which expanded the message of self-determination and perseverance to a worldwide Spanish-speaking audience. And a Spanish cover of a popular, English language song is not rare. In fact, it reflects the bilingual and bicultural way of life for us Latinos in this country. And while the Gypsy Kings had a hit with their flamenco-tinged interpretation, what paved the way for that was the Mariachi take on it released a few years before.

Barrera's favorite version will always be the king of Mariachis. And as Barrera's mom's memory slips away, she told us it gives her peace, knowing that through it all, her mother, a singer from Sonora, Mexico, an immigrant to Los Angeles, she lived her life her way. It's something that really close to my heart, she said. A lesson to hold on to, from L.A. to the world. Because you'll know that a man at the end, You have been

You have been listening to MPR music Our audio editor is Simon Rettner We get editorial support from Hazel Sills The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung And our executive producer of NPR Music is Siree Muhammad. Keith Jenkins, Heffin-Chief, our MPR Music and Visuals. I'm Felix Contreras.

And I'm Aramadillas Sayer. Thank you for listening.