Cantina

Lila Downs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 4, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Narada
• ASIN: B000EHQ7WY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,624 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #37 in Music > Latin Music > Regional Mexican > Mexican Cumbia
  • #46 in Music > Latin Music > Tropical > Cumbia

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As a follow-up to her 2005 Latin Grammy win, Mexican-American diva Lila Downs has chosen to release a loving tribute to canciones rancheras, the heartfelt ballads ubiquitous in cantinas throughout Mexico. With their merry accordion riffs and perky snare-led rhythms, the tunes can be reminiscent of Cajun music or Colombian cumbias, but even the cheeriest numbers harbor fate-haunted undertones. The singer’s darkly sweet, resonant voice interprets each the fifteen tracks to a fare-thee-well. Her fiery South-of-the-border exhibitionism and touches of dry humor are mirrored by assorted comedic whiz-bang sounds that surface amid the mostly acoustic mix. Third generation accordionist Flaco Jimenez, the doyen of Tex-Mex conjunto (a working class style descended from an older but still extant groove known as norteño,) weaves in and out among bass, harps, mariachi-like fiddles and assorted guitars. Peppered with antique-sounding bytes, dramatic spoken poems and even an in-your-face rap (during "Tu Recuerdo Y Yo", track four), the album plays like a slightly surreal movie that is no less affecting for being nearly untranslatable. --Christina Roden

Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: World Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 4-APR-2006

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, July 17, 2006

By 

J. Marquez (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cantina (Audio CD)

I agree with the other reviewers.... this is one is also my favorite Lila Down's album...quite surprisingly. I am more taken by the proposal of other albums like Tree of Life, with their emphasis on less well known regional music from Oaxaca. Conversely....when I saw the song line-up, I thought...what a joke - these songs & styles have been done over & over again.... the last thing I need is another Ranchera & Norteno CD. But then I listened....was impressed....and bought it.

My favorites are the two cumbias she wrote (Cumbia del Mole & Agua de Rosas), the lyrics are smart, the arrangement is tight, and alive with dark, ominous harmonies.... light years away from the sappy cumbias put out by the mainstream conjuntos.

And then the Jose Alfredo songs.... well I might dare to call hers the definitive versions. I think we all understood that the magical surrealism of Juan Rulfo's body of works and Jose Alfredo's rancheras had a common influence...but at the same time, the sappy Mariachi accompaniments that condemed them (in the commerical sphere) robbed them of their soul. In this album... they are laced with an austere, nostalgic acoustic guitar acommpaniment (like a Ranchera should be interpreted)... much in the vein of Bribiesca & Chavela Vargas...but with the timely inclusion of a short surrealist poem.... overall works to the point that you really think this is the way these pieces of music should have been interpreted all along.

Finally, I am very grateful to her for the inclusion of a cancion cardenche (Yo Ya Me Voy)...a truly rare, almost extinct gem of Mexican musical traditional. I first came across a cancion cardenche in an album by the great folk band Los Folkloristas... and it was a definite deja vu experience...I immediately recognized the influence of this polyphonic, acappella music (think Gospel like) on the melodic construction of songs from the Laguna region & the mining towns in Northern Mexico. My next exposure to it was a CD produced by Mexico's INAH (Instituto Nacional de Arte e Historia)...and had not encountered another version until this album. From my understanding...there are still some old timers that remember hundreds of songs....I am hopeful that they are cataloged, recorded, preserved & refreshed.

Overall...I am quite pleased by Lila's singing on this album... its more natural, less exhibitionist... and less of the trying too hard syndrome which diminished her previous album's "listenability"


Para mi gusto, este es el mejor album de Lila. Empezando por sus dos cumbias con toques oscuros...muy pero muy superior a lo que nos ofrecen los conjuntos conocidos.

Luego en las canciones de Jose Alfredo...logra imponerles un toque del surrealismo magico de la obra de Juan Rulfo, en base a un acompanamiento nostalgico, simple per satisfaciente a la Antonio Bribiesca y Chavela Vargas. El escuchar estas versiones se me occure que haci es como se deberian ser interpretadas las Rancheras.

Finalmente nos regala una cancion cardenche (Yo Ya Me Voy), tradicion casi muerta cuyo origin es de la region de la Laguna... y los pueblos mineros del norte. Estoy muy pero muy agradecido por su esfuerzo para difundir esta impresionante muestra de nuestra tradicion musical.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With a few tequilas more..., April 6, 2006

By 

A music fan (Teaneck, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cantina (Audio CD)

... I can give five stars.

For me, discovering the music of Lila Downs has been like discovering the Beatles, Elton John or Bob Dylan some twenty years ago. It was an awakening to a whole new world. Her first four studio albums, La Sandunga, Arbo de la Vida, La Linea and Una Sangre have proven exquisite milestones in the history of ambitious latin music; frankly: if she would have done nothing else, her place in latin- and world-music history is already cemented and secured.

Here in her new effort, she deviates from her previous approaches. She leaves the socially critical words largely at home, and also some of the unique lyrical qualities of many of her interpretations are coming short. Instead, it's party time, and she puts her dance shoes on. Always hip and with a mix of sentimental undertones in her voice, and adding some slightly psychedelically distorted e-guitars, she delivers are strange mix of carricature, easy listening and clichee; but it is the ever lingering sonoric charme of her fantastic voice, paired with the irressistible harp, that in my mind save the day (or better, the evening in the cantina). And if you are traditionalist who loves ranchera classics the classical way, you are going to drop your Cohiba: In Tu Recuerdo Y Yo, she hip-hops her way through the macho bar like a Mexican storm pulling out the roots of their own heritage.

Two notable exceptions do exist here, of course: the polyphonic Yo Ya Me voy, and Amarga Navidad; these are in the best tradition of the Lila we know, the one of La Sandunga or Tree of Life.
Especially the incredible quality of Yo Ya Me Voy makes me think: Maybe next time a more demanding a-capella-album?

Looking forward to more in her so far all in all fantastic journey.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the very soul of Mexico, May 22, 2006

By 

Linguist-wannabe "Xav" (Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cantina (Audio CD)

Lila's new album is undoubtely one of her best.. She's ironic, sad, exhalarating, all at the same time. It reflects perfectly the way we Mexicans act and think, always moved by deep-rooted feelings. I loved this album. Y sí, como buen mexicano uno se siente identificado con este disco... con la pena, la ansiedad, la angustía, la alegía y el regocijo que son parte del alma mexicana y que nuestra oaxaqueña universal canta como ninguna. Mueve mucho por dentro. Es perfecto. Gracias Lila por este regalo a tu México y a tu gente.