Listening: Frida soundtrack

So yesterday I went and spent more (much more) money than I should have on new music. I was listening to some of it last night when I wrote my last entry. I still have more to go. And this was with some retraint! Tower has some megasale on blues stuff by all of the masters and some big names I've been intending to aquire...


So anyway I just got the Frida soundtrack that is part new composition and part traditional songs from in and around Mexico.

Many of the tracks have put a lump squarely in my throat as they remind me of lazy Saturday mornings in my father's house when, after too many hours of morning cartoons our parents would chase us outside. Then the radio would be theirs and likes of Jorge Negrete, Los Sones Veracruzanos and Juan Gabriél would take over the house. My mom cooked to them and my dad listened while he worked on his various projects.


Most Americans I've met have this idea that all Mexican music is the Banda music sometimes called Norteño is all Mexico produces. I've even called it Mexican Circus music. *sigh* Some folks do know about the corridos but often enough it's still lumped in with Norteños.

That's like saying the only music that ever came out of the U.S. is country and gospel is a subsection of country.


Folks forget about mariachi music sometimes, or maybe they can't think of it and banda music at the same time. The influence of mariachi music is powerful throughout Mexico, but its home base of operations is in Guadalajara where my mother's family is from. It isn't dead or shoved to the side like a forgotten form of folk music that only dedicated fanatics still practice. Quite unlike other native forms of this country's music. *cough*bluegrass*cough* Kids that stick out their music lessons often as not leap at the opportunity to join mariachi bands.

And contrary to popular belief the songs aren't just a vocal layer in what is otherwise a musical chance to dance. Mexican balladry comes from the intense passions and equally instense poetry of a nation. There are love songs, but more often they are unrequited, impossible or generally negative. And that's when they're not about politics, war, cynicism or death or a combination of any of the above.

I generally have trouble singing well without a lot of practice. I haven't had a voice class in ages and the longer I go the less I feel like getting back into singing for fear of mightly embarassing myself. I still sing in the car from time to time but I've had enough slights from my passengers to try to keep it to myself. I've never taken criticism well and I like it even less when it's unintived.

But often it's because I'm easily intimidated by music that is on the edges of my range. This stuff isn't. And on top of that it's meant to be belted out. There's no singing a ballad quietly. It generally ranges from mezzoforte to double forte. Also, it helps if you're drunk, in fact many vocal styles of the best singers are done to sound like the singer is drunk.

But anyway I almost feel like I could do some of these. Salma Hayek sings on "La Bruja" which is a very famous tradional song. She's not bad, but she has an instinct to pretty it up. It makes me feel good that I could probably sing it at least as well as she with a little warming up.

Anyway, the music is fabulous. It has classical-ish arrangements that refer to scenes from the movie that are about Frida's paintings (do keep in mind that I thought the movie was spot-on and that I am a devotee of the life and works of Frida Kahlo). There are several instrumentals that are distinctly Latin in feel without having the frenzied energy that people think is the only way we know how to express ourselves. And there are pieces of traditional songs that make full use of Mexican instruments. Folks are often surprised to find that many bands, especially those that perform traditional music, make use of a stylized harp.

European harps came to the Americas with solid wood bodies, weighing easily 80 pounds, with pedals and levers and much painting, gilding and carving. In Latin America they changed and were made hollow, of light woods and very simple. The wood was finished with some bright color and otherwise left alone. In Mexico the levers were kept and pedals were dropped. In South America, especially Paraguay the levers were also dropped. The sound became something that one could dance to and one harp in one take can be made to sound like three guitars of varying sizes in the hands of a master. Additionally, because they were lighter (and shorter), a Mexican harp can be played standing up which adds to a player's agility and precision. Though some practitioners I've known have noted that if the harp is on the same stage as dancers, the vibrations from the dancing can make the harp itself dance about and become hard to control.

I learned all of this from my dad who has learned to make Paraguayan harps after many years and has befriended many folk muscians.

There is also the marimba which is a wooden xylophone which can range from 88 keys to... a heck of a lot more.

I should note, I suppose, that there's no salsa music. Not really, anyway. But that stuff is mainly from Caribbean (and little of the Mexican East Coast). While I can appreciate it, it's not what I grew up with.


This is some serious good shit. If you can just listen to this and imagining the sharp sunlight of a Saturday morning and the smells of pancakes and tamales, you basically have my childhood in a nutshell.