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details. What

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we're gonna do today is we're gonna kind of have

0:21

a playlist from the the Library

0:23

of Congress and it's called the

0:25

National Recording Registry at

0:27

the Library of Congress. And

0:29

let me explain, okay, let me get a

0:31

little nerdy about this. Because the Library, no,

0:33

because the Library of Congress like the Smithsonian

0:36

here in the United States, they're a collection

0:38

of our cultural heritage collectively.

0:40

It's the world's largest library. It's

0:42

used for research purposes. People from

0:45

all over the world either register

0:47

online or in the old days used

0:49

to come here actually to Washington DC to their

0:51

facilities. And the Sound Recording Registry

0:54

is a reflection really of who we

0:56

are as a country. Who

0:58

we listen to, what we sound like, how

1:00

we celebrate, how we grieve, and how we

1:02

just exist. That's why I

1:04

think this list is important. It's like

1:06

an audio version of this entire country.

1:08

It's a sound recording archive. So there

1:10

are speeches, sounds, other bits of historic

1:12

audio, and of course lots of music.

1:14

And every year they add more to

1:17

the registry and it's a recognition,

1:19

like I said, of our collective cultural

1:21

heritage. And the 25 that they included

1:23

this year include everything from ABBA to

1:25

Notorious B.I.G., to jazz musicians Benny Goodman

1:27

and Lee Morgan. And this year

1:30

they also added two Spanish language tracks. You're raising your

1:32

hand. You in the front desk. Yes, go ahead. Me?

1:34

Are you talking to me? Yes. Thank

1:37

you. You know, Felix, when you suggested

1:39

that we do this episode, I wasn't

1:41

entirely on board. But when you explained to me

1:43

the significance

1:46

of what this means for our music,

1:48

right, for Spanish language music to make

1:50

its way into this physical building in

1:52

DC, onto the online platform. I mean,

1:54

what can you just like explain

1:57

that to everyone else? Why this matters so much? They

2:00

have recordings going back to the 1800s,

2:02

back to the invention of the sound

2:04

recordings. A lot of different sounds and

2:07

speeches, different sound recordings and

2:09

then different types of music. In this case,

2:12

we're talking specifically about Spanish language music as

2:14

opposed to Latin music because that could be

2:16

anything. These are songs that are recorded

2:18

in Spanish. That's why we're talking about the music

2:20

today. So there. Alright,

2:24

fine. Mic drop, Felix. I get it. So

2:27

we're going to talk about the two songs

2:29

that are included this year. And then Felix,

2:31

you pick some from the archive. I pick

2:33

some from the archive and we have something

2:35

special at the end. Let's dig in. But

2:38

first we got to say from NPR Music,

2:40

this is not Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And

2:42

I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the chisme

2:44

begin. What's

2:49

really cool about this year is that

2:51

the two songs reflect two different segments

2:54

of Latino population here in the United

2:56

States. So with that

2:58

fabulous introduction, our first song is

3:01

a performance by the amazing, fabulous

3:04

Solsero Hector Lovell. The song is

3:06

El Canpante. The

3:42

Singular song of Puerto Rican vocalist Hector Lovell was

3:45

released in 1978 from his biggest selling

3:48

album called Comedia, which was produced

3:50

by trombonist and composer Willie Colon.

3:53

Between 1970 and 1973, they

3:55

recorded four albums under their joint

3:57

names that had so many Salsa

4:00

classics that they practically established

4:03

the identity of Salsa on their own. And

4:06

this track now is from his first

4:08

successful solo album. What's so

4:10

crazy to me about this Felix is

4:12

this is actually a recognition for performance

4:14

and for him as a singer. The

4:17

song itself was written by Salsa vocalist

4:19

we all know and love, Ruben Blávez,

4:21

and he gave the song to Laveau,

4:23

which is crazy to me

4:25

because the soul and the energy of the

4:27

song, he communicates it

4:29

like it's his own suffering. The story of

4:32

it is kind of tragic. The lyrics say,

4:34

I'm the singer who helps make all of

4:36

your troubles disappear for a while, who brings

4:38

you joy and celebration, but no

4:41

one really knows my own pain and

4:43

suffering offstage. And I have to believe

4:45

that Ruben Blávez knew that Hector could

4:47

sing the real tragedy and pain of

4:49

the song. I mean, it was kind

4:52

of prophetic because the end of his

4:54

life was tragic. It included an attempted

4:56

suicide, the loss of his son, his

4:58

father, and his mother-in-law in quick succession.

5:01

And he died of cardiac arrest due to

5:03

complications from AIDS. And

5:05

when I think of the song or of Hector Laveau, I

5:07

don't think of all the painful details at the end of

5:10

his life. Instead, what I

5:12

think about is the creativity behind the

5:14

song, the lyrics, the musical arrangements on

5:16

the album, and that period of time

5:18

when Salsa was king. I mean, everything

5:21

Fania touched turned to gold. Like Regaton

5:23

right now, it was popular beyond the

5:25

Afro-Caribbean community, and it influenced all kinds

5:27

of people all over the United States,

5:30

including this young Chicano kid from Sacramento,

5:32

California, trying to learn everything he could

5:34

about Salsa. This record

5:36

and this whole era was something

5:38

that completely changed the way

5:40

people thought about music. And this song

5:43

in particular was one of the guiding

5:45

lights of that movement. And that,

5:47

to me, Felix, is the beauty of so many of

5:49

these songs. And I'm going to talk about this again

5:51

later in the show, love to point out a theme

5:53

early, but

5:56

the fact that so many of these

5:58

artists so perfectly and massively. Masterfully encapsulated

6:00

this pain and joy that we always talk

6:03

about that's so integral to so much of

6:05

the music we talk about on

6:07

this show I mean, that's what it is.

6:09

Right and that's universal and that's the Latino

6:11

experience in this country It's not just the

6:14

Cuban experience or the Mexican experience. So

6:16

that's your connection there. That's my connection

6:18

there. It's really amazing I mean

6:20

they hit it on the nose with this one and it's

6:23

again It's a recognition of how all

6:25

of that you just said is part of the cultural

6:27

fabric of this society of the country We live in

6:29

boom mic drop number two Felix. You're

6:31

on a roll. That was a canton

6:33

from Hector Lovell from the album comedia

6:35

released in Okay,

6:39

the next song on the list is I'm

6:41

gonna try to get through this without crying. I'm You're

6:45

excited. I'm like, okay gotta hold it together gotta hold

6:47

it together The next

6:49

song on the list is a more

6:51

eternal by one Gabrielle And

7:18

I wonder how many people hear the

7:21

beginning of the song and immediately tear

7:23

up What

7:25

do you think? Let's

7:29

let them hear what we're talking about You

8:01

Oh my god,

8:10

I can't look at you crying

8:15

because that makes

8:21

me cry. Okay,

8:25

let me just get back to the script because

8:27

it's really difficult. The facts

8:29

of the song was written by El Divo

8:31

de Juarez, Juan Gabriel, one guy. He's

8:34

one of the most prolific Mexican composers and

8:36

vocalists of the modern era. And

8:38

he wrote this song for his mom who died in

8:40

1974. He

8:42

never had the kind of childhood and family life

8:44

that many of us take for granted, the stability,

8:47

single family home, etc. Some say

8:49

despite all of his successes and he

8:51

was incredibly successful, he carried

8:54

that grief and pain around with him

8:56

and it influenced and impacted all

8:58

of the stuff that he ever wrote and he did. It's

9:01

just one of those songs that it

9:04

feels so hard to even talk

9:06

about, well one, because we both just started

9:08

crying, but to encapsulate

9:11

what this means for so many of us, I mean

9:13

it feels like at least to be

9:15

born into a Mexican family. It's like, I don't know,

9:17

you hear your mom's heartbeat and you hear Juan

9:19

Gabriel singing a more eternal. It's

9:22

like, it's your lifeblood, it's who you

9:24

are. Like this song has literally become

9:26

part of the fabric of everything that we all

9:28

are and it's all our

9:30

pain, it's all our sorrow wrapped into one beautiful

9:33

voice. I printed out

9:35

the lyrics. Can you read them? I

9:37

can't. You

9:40

are the sadness in my eyes which

9:43

cry in silence for your love. I

9:55

look in the mirror and see in my face. It's

9:57

a time that I have suffered for your goodbye. It

10:00

sounds better in Spanish. Oh yeah,

10:02

always does. It's been

10:05

covered by so many people. Rocio Durcal has,

10:07

again, one of the most popular Bongas

10:09

versions from the 1990 album, L'Ivere

10:11

de Palacio de Besartes in Mexico City. I

10:13

think it's definitive. I think that is the

10:15

definitive. Because at the beginning he says that

10:17

it's more than a song, it's a prayer.

10:21

And that's exactly it. I never heard

10:23

that. That's exactly right. And it's been

10:25

played so many different times, and

10:28

what really helped,

10:30

I think, was after

10:32

the 2019 shooting in El Paso. The

10:36

mass shooting? That's it. It's awesome.

10:39

It's awesome. Hello!

10:49

Oh, so scared! Okay,

10:51

that was... You

10:54

got something to get us dancing again? Yeah,

10:59

well, I mean, just, you know, as an afterthought, I

11:01

did play that at my mom's memorial, my mom's funeral.

11:03

So yeah, it touches everyone. And it's appropriate

11:07

that it's included in the National Registry of Recording.

11:09

Okay. As

11:12

my mother would say, let's pick up the pace a little bit. All

11:14

right, now we're going to... Because she

11:16

did. She loved to party, she loved to dance. And

11:18

so we're going to go back into the archive now,

11:21

because there's a long list of songs that have already

11:23

been included. So let's start with

11:25

your selection. What do you have? Oh,

11:27

okay. I'm really excited about this one. This

11:31

is more in your wheelhouse, Felix, but it's significant

11:33

to me as well. So Buena Vista Social Club.

11:35

Mm. Oh, of course. They

11:39

recognize the full album, so it's

11:41

literally Buena Vista Social Club. Let's

11:43

play a bit of the most popular song from

11:46

the album. You've definitely heard it before. Ten-Ten.

11:48

Ten-Ten. Is

12:13

J PERíucking sh

12:31

coverage all

13:00

of this music is very different Felix but I

13:02

didn't necessarily grew up with a lot of

13:04

latin jazz cuban music any of that kind

13:07

of stuff but this album made its way

13:09

even into my home I mean it was

13:11

something I still remember when my dad first

13:13

put the CD on and

13:16

I was like I perked up I had never heard

13:18

anything like it before and I think

13:20

for a lot of people that's what this

13:22

record was I mean they recorded it in

13:24

six days they brought together all

13:27

kinds of musicians from all across Cuba some of

13:29

the best that they had they made it in

13:31

six days but it was generations

13:34

of work it was an example

13:36

of the old being new again right

13:39

the story behind it was that the music

13:41

producer right Kooter was going to bring in

13:43

some African musicians to record with some Cuban

13:45

musicians some of the musicians that were assembled

13:48

that eventually made it to the record to

13:50

the Buena Vista record but the African musicians

13:52

had visa problems and they never made it

13:54

to Havana so the Cuban musicians they were

13:56

going to record with musicians who

13:58

had their brightest moments back in the

14:01

1940s and 50s, they took advantage of

14:03

the studio time and took a musical

14:05

trip down memory lane to play traditional

14:07

Cuban son and boleros and that became

14:09

the Buena Vista Social Club album. This

14:12

is a look back into the past of

14:15

the glory early early

14:17

days of Cuban son, Cuban music,

14:19

Cuban huaracha, all of these different

14:21

styles that eventually became

14:23

salsa, right, we just talked about

14:25

Fania down the line but these

14:28

are the roots and so all of these musicians

14:30

were celebrated and brought

14:32

out of retirement. It was really a

14:34

fantastic event. The timing

14:37

of it too Felix, I mean this record

14:39

was published in 97. Can you like two

14:42

second spark notes the significance of that

14:44

timing in relation to the history of

14:47

the island? And

14:51

I do a heavy sigh because there was a documentary about

14:53

the production of this album which I saw at

14:55

the Miami Film Festival in 1999.

14:59

The politics of southern

15:01

Florida and Miami in particular was a

15:03

relation to Cuba is very very touchy

15:06

and very sensitive and this

15:09

was an opportunity for that community

15:11

to embrace the time before the

15:13

Revolution, a time in the music

15:15

and memories so that the success

15:17

there sort of launched it worldwide.

15:20

So it's the history of this

15:22

record in that particular time is really

15:24

surrounded by what was happening in South Florida

15:26

and how it was embraced and then

15:29

like I said all over the world people just really

15:31

flock to this record. I think

15:33

this record did more for Cuban music than

15:35

anything else. Well and my

15:37

understanding too is there was it made

15:39

a much more significant splash outside of Cuba

15:42

than actually within. I mean this was

15:44

music that was a lot more familiar

15:46

to people living within the country but it

15:48

was really an introduction for so many

15:50

people in this country and

15:52

beyond. Most definitely and like I

15:54

said it was it was a reminder of some

15:57

of these folks who had been forgotten like Ruben

15:59

Conte. Gonzales, the piano player who

16:01

was called in to do it, he hadn't played piano

16:03

in like a decade because his piano fell

16:06

apart. So he went in and

16:08

just started playing and just like was

16:10

immediately absorbed in. All of his greatness

16:12

just came right out. You mentioned

16:14

this idea of kind of an ode

16:16

or an homage to a

16:19

pre-revolution Cuba. And I did read

16:21

a little bit about there being

16:23

some level of controversy around, oh,

16:26

maybe a glorification of past Cuba or

16:28

not a representation properly of modern Cuba,

16:30

which is interesting to me because listening

16:32

to the record, and I've heard so

16:34

many of the songs so many times,

16:36

but there are a lot of sleeper

16:38

hits that I had not heard. Like

16:40

Pueblo Nuevo is really nice. I really

16:42

liked that one. But I

16:45

gave it a really good listen through and

16:47

there's a lot of contemporary sounds to

16:49

me on this record too. I mean,

16:52

you definitely take a track like Orgo

16:54

Ya Sida and it sounds almost like

16:56

ragtimey to me. It sounds so old. That

17:23

electric guitar is almost reminiscent to me of

17:25

like a Rokero Santana

17:28

kind of vibe. It really moves

17:30

the record forward. So it's not

17:32

all just Chan Chan and what

17:34

people take it for at face

17:37

value. Well, that electric guitar is

17:39

actually the music producer, Rike Hutter,

17:41

who he played in the session.

17:44

It's very, there's some American

17:46

influence for sure, is what I was hearing.

17:49

And it reflects a guy named Manuel Galvan,

17:51

a guitar player, but we're getting too geeky.

17:54

Stop me. Stop me. Well, I'm not

17:56

going to be the one to hold you back. I brought it up. I

17:58

was, I was geeky. over this

18:00

record, Felix. I mean, the

18:02

way that it moves, the way

18:04

that it's so incredibly unassuming in

18:07

such a delightful way, I

18:09

brought it up earlier. But it is

18:11

that perfect balance of what it means

18:13

to be Latino really in this country.

18:16

Like, to be collective in that way,

18:18

it doesn't just pull from straight Cuban

18:20

music. There are other influences there that are

18:22

really beautiful to hear. Well

18:25

said. That was Chan Chan from

18:27

the album Buena Vista Social Club. It

18:29

was included in the National Registry in

18:31

2022. We're going to take a

18:34

break. We're going to come back with

18:37

more history, more music. I promise

18:39

it won't make it too geeky. We're going

18:41

to take a break. We're going to take a break. You

18:44

sounded very ira-glass. This

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you get your podcasts. And

20:51

we're back with more picks. Felix,

20:53

it's your turn. Okay. Occasionally,

20:56

the people at the Library

20:58

of Congress will include entire

21:00

albums. And in 2015, they

21:02

included Santana's Abraxis album, right?

21:04

The second album. They

21:08

included the entire album. I have a lot to say

21:10

about it as usual, but I'll try to hold

21:12

it back a little bit. But let's hear

21:14

a little bit of the signature song from

21:16

that album. This is their version of Tito

21:18

Puente's Oya Comova. This

21:52

is their second album. It was released in 1970.

21:54

This is the first album that

21:56

really crystallized what their

21:58

vision was. collective vision because

22:01

every member of the band at that

22:03

time brought their own musical influences. A

22:06

Braxis is the kind of album where you can say that

22:08

there was a sound of Latin music before and

22:10

then the sound after. Okay. And

22:39

it's important to make a distinction about what

22:41

was going on on the East Coast because

22:43

Fanya was started in 1964, right?

22:45

So they had been recording traditional stuff and then

22:47

they started to get a little bit more experimental

22:49

around this time. So that was on the East

22:52

Coast and on the West Coast you had these

22:54

guys, they're African Americans, white Americans. There was this

22:56

Mexican guy playing guitar and there was a Puerto

22:58

Rican conga player, there was a Nicaraguan timbale

23:01

player, there was all of this mix of people. And

23:04

what they did was with this song,

23:07

it's an exact note for note duplication

23:09

of the Tito Puente original and where

23:11

the Oregon, you hear the Oregon, those

23:14

were Tito Puente's saxophones, right? It's

23:16

brilliant. It's brilliant in this concept

23:18

because they didn't change a note.

23:20

It's exactly the same. The guitar

23:22

part is the flute part from

23:24

the original album. It reflected that

23:26

magic moment in time. Late

23:29

1960s San Francisco, that's sort of

23:31

the end of the hippie era where genres

23:33

were completely ignored and people were experimenting

23:35

with all kinds of music. They

23:38

had this magic, amazing moment of

23:41

like a modern day PR campaign,

23:43

right? Because it just happened because

23:46

they played Woodstock 69, August of 69. This

23:50

album came out in September of 1970,

23:53

but by then the Woodstock movie

23:55

and album came out and that's

23:57

what made everybody superstars, the movie. because

24:00

up to then only people who had gone to

24:02

the concert knew about Woodstock. Their

24:05

place in the film right in the middle of the film and

24:07

right in the middle of the album that

24:10

launched their careers. It launched the band, it

24:12

launched Santana, it launched everybody in the band,

24:14

it launched their careers because it was so

24:16

dynamic and so they had the film, they

24:18

had the album, they had this record that

24:20

was out in the charts and all of

24:23

a sudden people are interested wanted to buy

24:25

Santana records and they were touring non-stop. So

24:28

it was a viral moment before they was viral,

24:30

right? That's exactly what happened.

24:32

That's what this record was. And it

24:35

also captured this moment where Latinos

24:37

of all cultures and backgrounds, all

24:39

of a sudden we could

24:41

see ourselves in the mainstream. Felix,

24:44

do you feel like, because

24:47

the way you describe it, the energy of it,

24:49

I want to be living in that moment. And

24:51

I'm like it's so romantic. But the way that

24:53

you talk about it, I mean, was

24:56

there something that was happening in the world that

24:58

the world was ready to receive this kind of

25:00

music or was Santana just so ingenious that

25:02

the way they did it or how they did

25:04

it or I don't know what, something about their

25:06

presence made it possible for music like

25:09

this to live in the mainstream. This is

25:11

an example of musicians not

25:13

really reacting to the times but incorporating the

25:15

times because this is 1970, 1969. This is

25:17

still part of the Chicano

25:22

movement, the self-identity, the understanding ourselves,

25:24

the tail end of the civil

25:26

rights movement. This

25:28

is the Chicano version. So there's some

25:30

of that. But then also these guys,

25:32

they weren't political, they weren't taking all

25:34

that stuff but they were absorbing all

25:36

the energy that was happening in society.

25:38

So they took this stuff and then

25:40

created their own thing. And it's important to

25:42

say that it's, certainly Carlos Santana is the

25:45

musician that's the focus of all this, but

25:47

it's really important to say that that whole

25:49

band really contributed to this

25:51

sound and to that moment because they

25:53

all brought all their own experiences. And

25:56

I think that that's why it's important that the

25:58

Library of Congress included that whole album. because

26:00

they still play more cuts from this album

26:02

than any other album that they did. Right?

26:05

And that's more than 50 years ago. That's how

26:07

impactful this record was. That

26:09

was Oya Komova from the album A Braxis

26:12

included in the registry in 2015. So

26:16

this one, Felix, you also

26:18

know and love and have talked about

26:20

a lot. This is Lydia Mendoza with

26:23

the song Malombre recorded in 1936. You

26:31

know, I was very fortunate

26:33

to have seen her perform

26:36

this in Fresno. You

26:49

are not serious. Yeah, I did. Yes,

26:51

she came. She came to perform in

26:54

Fresno. This is like when you told me you saw Elephant's

26:56

Darrow live. She came to Fresno

26:58

to perform at one of our street fairs that we

27:00

had there. Yeah. So she was, you know, dressed in

27:02

the night and the costume and all that. But she

27:04

sang the song. It was significant.

27:06

And it always stood out to me because

27:09

of the story behind the song and the family.

27:12

And that's, you know, one of the things

27:14

about this is that's really beautiful to

27:17

me is a lot of this music. And I said this

27:19

to you earlier about one of us, a social club. The

27:21

recording is really important here. The recording

27:23

and the performance. And she was someone

27:25

who that makes sense. A lot of

27:28

her life, her career was spent touring,

27:30

playing, performing in a lot of

27:32

these songs, especially Malombre, really evolved

27:35

as she toured them. So she was touring

27:38

since the 1920s with

27:40

her family. She came from a musical family,

27:42

the Mendoza family, and they would tour and

27:44

play all of these, you

27:46

know, Rancheras and northern

27:48

Mexican sounds that really appealed

27:50

to the Mexican community in

27:52

Texas at the time. She didn't actually

27:54

do this solo recording. This was her first

27:57

song ever until 1934. spent

28:00

a lot of her early career just touring

28:02

with her family. And then

28:04

she releases this song. And

28:07

it's not really a Mexican song,

28:09

Felix. It's

28:11

Argentinian. But yet, she

28:13

did it in a Mexican style. She

28:15

did it and the more she toured

28:17

it, the more it evolved into a

28:19

more Norteño sound. And she was called

28:21

the singer of the poor and

28:24

the lark of the border. She really did

28:26

kind of encapsulate what it was to be

28:28

part of this Mexican community in a time

28:30

when being a part

28:32

of a Texas Mexican community was

28:34

not something that a lot of people

28:37

thought you could be proud

28:39

of. There was a lot of systemic

28:41

and actual violent racism directed toward the

28:43

Mexican population in Texas during that time.

28:46

And certainly before that. And

28:48

yet here she is, a Mexican

28:50

young woman singing an Argentinian style

28:52

song that was incredibly subversive. And

28:55

I will talk about this later

28:57

too. But she talks about this

28:59

malombre and basically the abuse, kind

29:01

of going through the

29:03

course of the song. She talks about

29:06

how he traps this woman and becomes

29:08

abusive in various ways. He seduces her

29:10

into this. And it

29:12

was really subversive for the time. And

29:15

obviously, as it has been historically always,

29:17

it was an issue in the community

29:19

at the time and in the period.

29:21

And she would go and perform it

29:23

and create unity, not only among a

29:25

Mexican community in Texas, but really,

29:28

I think one of the initial ways of

29:30

Latino community and in her performance of it.

29:32

I mean, she brought it everywhere and did

29:35

it in so many different styles. Tango,

29:37

Foxtrot, Big Band, Polka, Bolero, Country, those

29:39

were all popular in her space.

29:41

And she took this song and she made

29:43

it popular too. And you know what's fascinating to

29:45

me is that she performed

29:47

on a 12 string guitar, not a

29:50

six string. And what do we hear

29:52

right now? Exactly. All of

29:54

the original Mexican stuff right now,

29:56

especially with the Arrita, so Asensia,

29:59

bands everybody's playing a 12

30:01

string man. She was like a hundred

30:03

years early Felix. This

30:05

is 1934 right? Yeah exactly almost a

30:08

hundred years before. And these musicians

30:10

are going back into the past

30:13

and going

30:16

back into the past is sort of recreating it in

30:18

a new way but this is where it starts. But

30:20

it's not even just that Felix because

30:22

all we talk about all day long

30:24

now is all these you know musicians

30:26

today that are playing with all these

30:28

different sounds from all across Latin America

30:30

and maybe they're performing you know our

30:32

Norteño style song but with we just

30:34

talked about this last week right with

30:36

Grupo Frontera. Two weeks ago. We just

30:38

talked about this two weeks ago with

30:41

Grupo Frontera and how they're like bringing

30:43

in Argentinian styles and they're bringing in

30:45

you know reggaeton and da da da

30:47

and she did that way before anyone

30:49

did. Let's go

30:52

to the

30:54

next song.

31:01

Our last song is Monteca. It's recorded by Dizzy

31:03

Galaspi and his orchestra with Chano Fosso from Cuba.

31:05

It was recorded in 1947. It was included

31:09

on the registry in

31:11

2004. Check out this

31:13

iconic bassline and intro. The

31:28

Latin

31:46

jazz didn't exist before this moment in time and this

31:48

recorded by all of us. Just

31:51

very quickly just think about Dizzy

31:53

Galaspi and all the jazz guys

31:55

in post-world war two they're creating

31:57

that music called Bebop very very

31:59

fast very break from traditional

32:01

swing, completely revolutionized. And they're

32:03

all in their 20s. These guys are so

32:05

young, right? It was all happening

32:07

there in New York. At the same time,

32:10

these Cuban musicians were creating all of this

32:12

new music, bringing people from the island. Chano

32:14

Polso, the conga player and percussionist and singer

32:16

and dancer, was one of the first to

32:19

come to New York and start performing with

32:21

American bands, both mainstream and

32:23

Cuban bands. And they

32:25

got together. Dizzy Gillespie heard Chano Polso

32:27

perform. He said, I want some of

32:29

those. He called them Tom Toms, but

32:32

they're actually conga. I want some of

32:34

those in the band. That's part of

32:36

the story, because the understanding between the

32:38

African-American community and the Afro-Caribbean community, there

32:40

was really virtually no connection. And

32:43

the Afro-Caribbean tradition of the drum wasn't

32:45

really well known among African-American musicians here

32:48

in the US during that time, until

32:51

Dizzy Gillespie, and a few other

32:53

musicians, but principally Dizzy Gillespie, started

32:55

including this stuff. Because the jazz

32:57

and the Afro-Cuban styles and rhythms

32:59

and beats mixed perfectly together. And

33:01

it all started with this song.

33:03

So that's why it's recorded, because

33:05

it really launched not just

33:08

a movement, but also reflected how

33:11

African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans lived right next to each

33:13

other in New York. And it was just

33:15

a matter of time before it came together.

33:18

You know what that makes me think of,

33:20

Felix, is when we were in Cuba

33:22

thinking about the different drum settings. That

33:24

is evidence of the divergence, right, of

33:26

using the same instrumentation, but you had

33:29

a go-go band and an Afro-Cuban drummer

33:31

playing literally in two different styles.

33:33

Remember we went to Callejo and

33:35

Hamo, and

33:37

they were doing the traditional Afro-Cuban

33:39

rumba and the singing and dancing.

33:42

Well, Chano Pozzo did that in

33:44

Cuba, but it was more of

33:46

like a review, like a nightclub

33:48

review. But he used those basic

33:50

elements. And he wrote songs. He

33:53

performed. He was dressed up, right? A big thing

33:55

in Cuba. Then he came here to the

33:57

United States and tried to incorporate some of that into this

33:59

music. but even direct tie to the

34:02

Afro-Cuban tradition. That

34:04

was Monteca from Dizzy Gillespie and Channel Postle from

34:06

1947. We're

34:09

going to wrap up the show by offering

34:11

the Library of Congress suggestions of songs that

34:13

we'd like to hear in the

34:16

collection in the future. Just

34:18

say the name and the title, and I'll do the same.

34:20

OK, I'm going to say the name and the

34:22

title, and also say five seconds of why it's

34:24

really important, because this is Easy Queen's Ghetto by

34:27

Lad. And the reason I think it should be

34:29

included is because she is

34:31

the woman that took reggaeton off

34:33

the island. This song means so

34:35

much. It's a feminist anthem. It's

34:37

subversion. It's women owning their bodies,

34:40

finally talking about the in-between between

34:42

nothing and everything in terms of

34:44

having autonomy over how they want

34:46

to be sexual, be romantic. She

34:49

was as big as Daddy Yankee, this album,

34:51

this record, this single was as big as

34:53

all of those things, so it should absolutely

34:55

be included in the Library of Congress. Agreed.

34:59

Absolutely. My

35:34

pick is a Rello performed by

35:36

Jose Feliciano from his album Mas Exictos

35:38

de Jose Feliciano. This is recorded

35:40

in 1966, a year before he became

35:44

a mainstream success. He did a whole

35:46

album of classic boleros. And I really

35:48

like this one. I like the whole

35:51

album. I actually stole the album,

35:53

the vinyl from my mom, and I never got

35:55

it back. Years ago, I stole it. I haven't

35:57

had it in my collection. I still have it.

35:59

But. What I like about it is in the middle

36:01

section where he's playing guitar He bends

36:03

the note like a blues player and

36:06

early early on that is like that's

36:08

biculturalism in the most subtle form Listen

36:11

to this Okay

36:42

Okay I need to tell

36:44

people that there will not be a quiz so you

36:46

didn't have to take notes on this show today Because

36:49

we laid a lot of history and a lot of

36:51

facts on you, but it is a lot of fun

36:53

And I think again, it's very important that the library

36:55

of congress include all of this music and so much

36:57

more Our project manager is grace chun Our audio producer

36:59

is great walking cotler Our executive producer

37:02

of mpr music is sirea mohamed Our hefian

37:04

chief is keith jenkins vp of music and visuals here

37:06

at mpr. Thanks so much for listening. Oh, wait I'm

37:08

felis cotreras. Oh and i'm on a money essay Thank you

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