Latin Music

Subterms

    Latest story

    163 Shares14 Views

    5 Songs by Rubby Pérez, the Merengue Singer Lost in the Roof Collapse

    by

    The musician, 69, got his break in the 1980s and continued releasing albums through 2022.Rubby Pérez, the singer who was performing on Tuesday when the ceiling of the Jet Set nightclub collapsed in Santo Domingo, claiming at least 124 lives including his own, spent his long career devoted to merengue, the signature style of the Dominican Republic.Wilfrido Vargas, the band leader who gave Pérez his big break in the early 1980s, called him “the best singer the genre has ever produced” upon learning of his bandmate’s death. At the outset of their collaboration, Vargas dubbed the singer “the loudest voice of merengue,” an appellation the vocalist wore proudly. An enthusiastic performer, Pérez brought high spirits even to ballads, but he specialized in rousing, spirited numbers where his clarion voice commanded attention over a dance band’s bustling rhythms.Music was Pérez’s second choice for a career. As a teenager, he harbored hopes of baseball stardom, dreams that came to an end when his right leg was fractured in an auto accident when he was 15. During his convalescence, he found solace in the guitar, which he called his “new bat.” He started singing in a church choir and, by the end of the 1970s, he dedicated himself to music, studying at Santo Domingo’s National Conservatory of Music.Initially drawn to bolero, he embraced the widespread popularity of merengue in the Dominican Republic (it has also gained a significant foothold in Venezuela). He made his professional debut as part of Los Pitagoras del Ritmo, sang in Los Juveniles de Bani, then replaced Fernando Villalona in Los Hijos del Rey, spending three years with the outfit before joining Vargas’s orchestra in 1980.Vargas provided the launchpad for Pérez’s career, giving him a pair of signature hits in “El Africano” and “Volveré,” which allowed him to embark on a solo career in 1987. His last album, “Hecho Esta,” arrived in 2022, but he made his mark in the 1980s, when both he and merengue broke out of the Dominican Republic. Here are five of his signature songs. (Listen on Spotify or Apple Music.)‘El Africano’ (1983)Pérez made his recording debut as the lead singer in the band led by Vargas, and the single “El Africano” from Vargas’s 1983 album “El Funcionario” was a Latin hit. It’s a brassy merengue, with Pérez’s high vocals punctuated by saxophones and a raucous trombone. The lyrics may strike modern listeners as offensive (“Mommy, what does the Black man want?” Pérez repeatedly sings, from the perspective of “a little Black girl”). The backing vocals answer, between mock-African interjections, “He wants some.” The track was later sampled by Pitbull for his 2007 single “The Anthem.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 113 Shares83 Views

      in Music

      Selena’s Killer Is Denied Parole 30 Years After Murder

      by

      The Tejano music icon was fatally shot by the founder of her fan club, who has been serving a life sentence in Texas. On Thursday, a panel denied her first attempt at parole.A panel in Texas on Thursday denied parole for the woman who killed Selena, a 23-year-old trailblazing Mexican American singer who was making it big in the popular music scene. The decision came a few days shy of the 30th anniversary of the killing, which shocked her fans and spurred a cultlike following.Yolanda Saldívar, the woman who fatally shot her, was the founder of Selena’s fan club; she killed Selena after a confrontation in a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995. A jury convicted Ms. Saldívar of first-degree murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.Ms. Saldívar’s case had gone into the review process approximately six months before she was to first become eligible for parole this Sunday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole said in a statement. She won’t be eligible for parole for five more years.“After a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panel’s determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030,” the statement said.The panel cited the violent nature of the killing as the reason for its denial.“The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety,” the statement said.When she was killed, Selena had just come off a Grammy Award win. She was on the verge of making a breakthrough that could have brought her songs about heartbreak and new love to wider Spanish- and English-speaking audiences.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Jason Isbell’s Bare-Bones Breakup Tune, and 7 More New Songs

      by

      Hear tracks by I’m With Her, Nathy Peluso, Car Seat Headrest and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Jason Isbell, ‘Eileen’Jason Isbell’s new album, “Foxes in the Snow,” is decisively unadorned: just Isbell singing over his acoustic guitar. It arrives following his divorce from Amanda Shires, who has her own songwriting career and was a member of his band. Over bare-bones fingerpicking in “Eileen,” Isbell sings about separation, regrets, self-deception and how “It ended like it always ends / Somebody crying on the phone.” He contends, “Eileen, you should’ve seen this coming sooner,” but adds, almost fondly, “You thought the truth was just a rumor, but that’s your way.” It’s not about blame — it’s about getting through.I’m With Her, ‘Ancient Light’The virtuoso string-band supergroup I’m With Her — Sarah Jarosz, Aiofe O’Donovan and Sara Watkins — has reconvened with the intimately ambitious “Ancient Light.” The verses are in a gently disorienting 7/4; the instruments mix acoustic and electric, juxtaposing fiddle tune and math-rock; the lyrics lean into the metaphysical. As the song begins, Jarosz sings, “Better get out of the way / Gonna figure out what I wanna say / I been a long time comin’,” and it only gets more cosmic from there.Car Seat Headrest, ‘Gethsemane’Will Toledo’s band Car Seat Headrest has announced its first album since 2020, “The Scholars,” and it’s a full-scale rock opera. The first single, “Gethsemane,” is an 11-minute suite that ponders faith, morality, creativity, free will and love as the music unfurls with stretches of kraut-rock keyboard minimalism and roaring power chords that echo the Who’s “Tommy.” Toledo sings, “A series of simple patterns slowly build themselves into another song / I don’t know how it happened,” but the structure is ironclad.Illuminati Hotties, ‘777’Sarah Tudzin — the songwriter and producer behind Illuminati Hotties — cranks up distorted guitars and harnesses quiet-LOUD grunge dynamics in “777,” a song that nearly explodes with joyful anticipation. “I wanna figure you out,” she declares, but she’s already sure that she’s won any gamble: “You’re my spade / lucky 777.” All the noise doesn’t hide the pop song within.The Ophelias, ‘Salome’​​”I want your head on a stake / I want your head on a platter,” sing the Ophelias, an indie-rock band from Cincinnati, turning “I” into a peal of vocal harmony. “Salome” adapts an incident from the Bible into a seething, churning, implacable crescendo of guitars, drums and voices, calmly announcing, “The knife sways heavy in my hand.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Paquita la del Barrio, Whose Songs Empowered Women, Dies at 77

      by

      In unflinching ballads that spoke of the pain men can cause women, the Mexican singer often relied on what she learned in her own relationships.Paquita la del Barrio, the prolific Mexican vocalist and songwriter known for her powerful feminist ballads, died on Monday at her home in Veracruz. She was 77.Paquita’s social media accounts made the announcement on Monday, but did not list a cause of death.“With deep pain and sadness we confirm the sensitive passing of our beloved ‘Paquita la del Barrio,’” the statement said in Spanish. “She was a unique and unrepeatable artist who will leave an indelible mark in the hearts of all of us who knew her and enjoyed her music.”Paquita broke through in the Mexican ranchera genre, a field typically dominated by men, demonstrated through intense songs centering on love, revenge and nationalism. Songs like “Rata de dos Patas,” “Me Saludas a la Tuya” and “Tres Veces Te Engane” denounced male macho culture and became anthems.A 1999 article in The New York Times highlighted Paquita’s place in Mexico City, where she had begun her career as a local performer, describing her as “something of a patron saint” of a place where her songs resonated.Paquita’s passing caused an outpouring of grief among celebrities and fans on social media.Alejandro Sanz, a singer and composer, wrote in Spanish that her music was “capable of capturing a feeling and turning it into a song” and that she is a “part of the eternal culture.”Thalia, a popular singer and actress, shared a scene of the pair starring on “Maria Mercedes,” a soap opera that aired on the Mexican broadcaster Televisa in 1992. Initially, Thalia expressed nervousness about sharing a stage with Paquita.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Music

      Angela Alvarez, Great-Grandmother Who Won a Latin Grammy, Dies at 97

      by

      Her only album made her a media star after she had raised four children and worked as a house cleaner — proving, she said, that “it’s never too late.”Angela Alvarez, a Cuban-born singer and songwriter who, at age 95, became the oldest performer to win the Latin Grammy Award for best new artist, died on Friday in Baton Rouge, La., where she had settled after immigrating to the United States in the early 1960s. She was 97.Her death was confirmed by her grandson Carlos Jose Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez, a film composer, produced his grandmother’s first and only album, “Angela Alvarez,” released in 2021. Its 15 tracks echo the sounds of a Havana nightclub in the 1930s or ’40s — a jazzy fusion of Caribbean, African and European rhythms.Sitting with her grandson at the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony in 2022, Mrs. Alvarez was stunned when she heard her name. (The vote was actually a tie: She shared the award with the Mexican singer and songwriter Silvana Estrada, 70 years her junior.)“I looked at him, and I said, ‘Carlos, that’s me!’” she told the Baton Rouge lifestyle magazine inRegister. “I couldn’t believe it.”She became a media star, with English- and Spanish-language publications chronicling her long and improbable journey to the awards stage after raising four children and working as a house cleaner.“Although life is difficult, there is always a way out, and with faith and love you can achieve it, I promise you,” Mrs. Alvarez said as she accepted the award. “It’s never too late.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Music

      5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Brazilian Jazz

      by

      When the term “Brazilian jazz” arises, one might think of bossa nova, or Sergio Mendes (its most popular purveyor), and stop there. But there’s a world beyond those sunny instrumentals and bright vocals, where artists like Hermeto Pascoal, João Donato and Leny Andrade show that Brazilian jazz can be funky, soulful and esoteric. This type of jazz had deeper resonance beyond the oceanfront views it conjured.The origins of Brazilian jazz are often traced to the late 1950s, to the advent of bossa nova by the composers Donato and Antônio Carlos Jobim. Blending samba (a style of music born out of the Afro-Brazilian communities in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia) with American jazz, bossa nova — which means “new wave” — reached its apex in 1964 when “The Girl From Ipanema,” sung by the Brazilian vocalist Astrud Gilberto, hit the U.S. singles chart, and won the Grammy for record of the year in 1965. Yet before the song’s success, American composers like Quincy Jones, Herbie Mann and Dave Brubeck recorded bossa nova albums, which stoked the curiosity of U.S. listeners.Thanks to the contributors below, a mix of musicians, writers and scholars, we get to hear Brazilian jazz beyond the gravitational pull of bossa nova and samba, from its height in the ’60s to the present day. And while you’ll see familiar names pop up more than once, they’re often in conversation with others from the broad space of the genre. Traces of bossa nova and samba emerge, but these selections also take fusion, ambient and psychedelia into account. You can find a playlist at the end of the article, and be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments.◆ ◆ ◆Jeff Caltabiano, writer and historianSão Paulo Underground, “Jagoda’s Dream”Brazil, a country rich with Indigenous musical traditions, has had an ongoing dialogue with the (North) American jazz tradition since the 1950s. That dialogue has broadened well beyond the breezy straightjacket of bossa nova. The visionary American composer and cornetist Rob Mazurek spent eight years living in Brazil, and has been in musical conversation with the São Paulo-born musicians M. Takara and Guilherme Granado for two decades, with the group São Paulo Underground. Takara and Granado go back even further, having met as teenagers in the city’s punk scene. Granado’s hazy keyboards open up “Jagoda’s Dream,” from the band’s third album, “Três Cabeças Loucuras” (“Three crazy heads”), from 2011. The song was written for their friend’s daughter, with a melody and harmony by Mazurek and an infectious cavaquinho rhythm pattern by Takara. The cavaquinho, a miniature guitar with a bright sound, is prominent throughout. During the recording, Takara played cavaquinho with his hands while playing the drums with his feet. Richard Ribeiro played second drums. The song is a firecracker that represents São Paulo’s creative music scene and its hybrid of sounds. A chorus of voices takes us out, wordlessly repeating the rhythm pattern, about to wake from Jagoda’s magnificent dream.Listen on YouTube◆ ◆ ◆Joyce Moreno, singer and composerTenório Jr., “Embalo”In the early 1960s, bossa nova was at its peak in Brazil and was also growing worldwide. Some Brazilian musicians who were fluent with both bossa nova and jazz began to organize themselves into instrumental groups, mostly trios, but adding horns on occasion. They created music — samba-jazz they called it — with inventive improvisation, sultry rhythms and creative harmonies. One of the most brilliant pianists to emerge from the samba-jazz movement was Tenório Jr. In 1964, at 23, he recorded his one and only album as a leader, “Embalo,” which is now widely acknowledged a classic of the genre. On the title track, a composition by Tenório arranged by the alto saxophonist Paulo Moura, Tenório’s solo is a gorgeous example of the heights that made-in-Brazil jazz could achieve. Unfortunately, that recording is the only taste of Tenório’s genius we still have. In Buenos Aires in 1976, while on tour as a sideman for the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes, Tenório mysteriously “disappeared” in Argentina on the eve of that country’s military coup (a story told in the excellent animated film “They Shot the Piano Player” by the Spanish filmmakers Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal). Tenório’s music, however, lives on forever.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Best Albums of 2024: Charli XCX, Mk.gee, MJ Lenderman and More

      by

      Charli XCX, Mk.gee and MJ Lenderman top our pop music critics’ lists this year.Jon Pareles | Jon Caramanica | Lindsay ZoladzJon ParelesConcepts, Craftsmanship, Sensuality and Tidings of ApocalypseThe agendas for 21st-century musicians keep getting more complicated. They can try to out-game streaming and social media algorithms, stoking the celebrity-industrial complex or steadfastly ignoring it. They can lean into idiosyncratic artistic instincts and intuitions. They can channel the zeitgeist or defy it. Of course, listeners have choices as well. For me, there was no definitive musical statement for 2024, no obvious pathbreaker. But there were plenty of purposeful, heartfelt, exacting and inspired individual statements. I gave the top slot to a project that strove mightily to unite a glossy sonic (and online) presence with surprising confessions. But song for song, the rest of the list can easily stand alongside it. And if there’s more than a little apocalyptic gloom in these choices, well, that’s 2024.1. Charli XCX, ‘Brat’ and ‘Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat’The year’s conceptual coup belonged to Charli XCX. “Brat,” the album she released in June, used dance-floor beats, blippy synthetic hooks and meme-ready graphics as she assessed just where she stood as a pop striver in her 30s, more than a decade into her career: pushing, partying, wondering whether to set it all aside to have a baby. Somehow, “Brat” landed as a full-fledged hit — and by September, Charli XCX had rewritten all the tracks and added star collaborators, dispensing hooks while trying to keep a level head about success. Amid all the hyperpop gloss and online chatter, she still sounded honest.2. Brittany Howard, ‘What Now’Brittany Howard’s second solo album tackles the contours of a relationship that is fizzling out.Ariel Fisher for The New York TimesBrittany Howard lays out the ragged emotions of a crumbling relationship on “What Now”: numbness, mourning, second-guessing, guilt and furtive glimmers of relief. While the tracks are rooted in soul, rock, R&B, funk and disco, they turn familiar styles inside-out with targeted distortion and surreal, displaced mixes. The songs capture all the disorientation that comes with a life-changing decision.3. Vampire Weekend, ‘Only God Was Above Us’Vampire Weekend’s once-meticulous musical universe gets punctured by noise on “Only God Was Above Us.” Its fifth album grapples with how what used to be called indie-rock can face a new pop landscape, and how determined innovators can keep pushing themselves. The answers include history lessons, quasi-sequitur lyrics and constantly morphing studio arrangements — a running, enlightening battle between strict song structure and an unruly world.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares179 Views

      in Music

      The 25th Latin Grammys Showed Their Age

      by

      While Latin music looks ahead, its biggest awards show, broadcast live from Miami on Thursday night, looked back.The 25th annual Latin Grammy Awards, broadcast live on Univision from the Kaseya Center in Miami on Thursday night, consciously looked backward. Frequent winners collected more top awards. Clips from past shows bracketed live shots. There were fervent tributes to departed superstars and nods to musical dynasties.In an era when many Latin musicians are experimenting and gleefully warping genre boundaries, the Latin Grammys flaunted the familiar. Perhaps that’s inevitable for an institution marking a milestone. But that earnestness cut back on the old Latin Grammy carnival spirit. The show still had some visual flair — particularly in the surreal, asymmetrical dresses worn by women who appeared as presenters and attendees. But its music held back.The Dominican songwriter Juan Luis Guerra and his group 4.40 won awards for album of the year for “Radio Güira,” a six-song EP, and record of the year for the single “Mambo 23.” “Radio Güira” also won the award for bachata/merengue album and “Mambo 23” for tropical song. Guerra has won 28 Latin Grammys, dating back to two at the first event in 2000.Jorge Drexler, who won song of the year on Thursday night, now has 15 Latin Grammys.Zak Bennett/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Uruguayan songwriter Jorge Drexler’s “Derrumbe” (“Collapse”) — a brief, poetic ballad with turbulent studio undercurrents — was named song of the year. It also tied with Kany García’s “García” for cantautor (singer-songwriter) song. Drexler now has 15 Latin Grammys.The Latin Grammy broadcast, like the Grammy Awards show, focuses on performances, not presentations. Only nine of the 58 Latin Grammy categories received awards on the broadcast; the others were presented earlier Thursday afternoon on a webcast. Edgar Barrera was named both songwriter and producer of the year, and the Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso won three awards. The Portuguese-language categories included two awards for the Brazilian songwriter Jota.Pê and a third for the engineers of his album “Se o Meu Peito Fosse o Mundo” (“If My Chest Were the World”).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      Grammy Nominations 2025: See the Full List of Nominees

      by

      Artists, albums and songs competing for trophies at the 67th annual ceremony were announced on Friday. The show will take place on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.Beyoncé is the top nominee for the 67th annual Grammy Awards with 11 nods for her genre-crossing “Cowboy Carter.” The LP and its songs will vie for record, song and album of the year, as well as competitions in pop, rap, country and Americana categories.The superstar — who has already won more Grammys than any other artist — leads a pack of contenders that includes Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone (all with seven nods apiece), followed by Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift, who have six each.The ceremony, which is scheduled for Feb. 2, 2025 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, will recognize recordings released from Sept. 16, 2023 to Aug. 30, 2024.Here is a complete list of the nominations, which were announced on Friday by the Recording Academy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More