Customer Reviews

Music From Orinoco

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If you have ever heard an instrument so plain, with only four strings, played by a venezuelan kid (it is said that venezuelans are born with a bottle in one hand and a 'cuatro' in the other), you will never imagine how this young man can make it sound as heard in this album.

Cheo Hurtado has become probably the best cuatro player in Venezuela, and he treats us with a wonderful string of songs from the plains (Llanos de Venezuela). The joropos and pasajes are full of intrincate accords which make your nuckles hurt if you only imagine how he performs them.

His interpretation of Caballo Viejo, probably the best known Venezuelan song that has toured the world nowadays, is one of the best instrumental versions I have heard.

To complement the album, Cheo changes the cuatro for the bandola, a leading instrument derived from the mandolin and the Spanish bandorreon, which sends all joropo dancers to the center of the action. The version he plays in the album is the 'bandola guayanesa', from the southeastern Venezuelan state of Bolivar.

So, if you would like to make a trip into the inner soul of venezuelan music and the national instrument of this country, I think this is the album to plunge in.

Excelente trabajo. Cheo Hurtado es un virtuoso de ambos instrumentos (Cuatro & Bandola). Sus versiones de temas tipicos venezolanos son muy originales y de calidad. Musica maravillosa, maravillosa interpretacion. Comprelo, asi usted no sea venezolano. No se arrepentira. / Excelent work. Cheo Hurtado is a virtuoso in both instruments (Cuatro & Bandola, both typical instruments of Venezuela). His versions of Venezuela's folklore songs are very original and full of quality. Wonderful Music, wonderful interpretation. Buy it, even if you're not a venezuelan. You'll never regret it.

This a fantastic example of Venezuelan cuatro mastery as well as a few terrific tracks where Cheo plays one of the most beautiful instruments of the region: the "Bandola Guayanesa".

Cheo Hurtado es alguien que no conozco porque sali desde hace muchos anos de Venezuela. Debe ser una persona muy joven, pero que aplomo tiene! Escuche tanto 'Bandolas from los Llanos', como 'Music from the Orinoco'. Los dos CD's son muy buenos, pero mi preferencia personal es para 'Music from the Orinoco'. Este chamo tiene un dominio tan genial sobre el cuatro, nada mas pudiendo escuchar dos pedacitos de musica, que pena, quede mpresionadisima. Desde luego que tiene muchisimo futuro, si 'se agarre del cuatro y no del otro', a buen entendedor pocas palabras. En verdad no existen tantos ritmos en ningun pais del mundo. Felicitaciones pue!