Month: May 2011

Diego Garcia Interview on His Debut CD “Laura”

Diego Garcia, the former frontman of acclaimed garage rock band Elefant, may have been born in the wrong era: he wears his heart on his songwriting sleeve. But more likely he’s just continuing a tradition of strong songwriting, albeit with a romantic sensibility.

Diego Garcia "Laura"

On his solo debut album, ‘Laura,’ he explores his Latin roots with a sound that conjures the spirit of 1970s troubadours like Sandro, Jobim and Jose Jose. It is the fusion of these Latin influences with the era’s “anglo” visionaries, artists like David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and Bryan Ferry, which makes this  project truly special.

Minor keys, cello, nylon classical guitars, light drums, and wooden tambourines help create a vibe of tenderness and intimacy on “Laura”. With lush string arrangements, delicate Spanish guitars, and distinctly Latin flavor, the album is worlds apart from Elefant. What remains a constant is the romantic within.

Garcia’s new album was inspired by the loss of love. His music was a means of healing and closure and “Laura” is a musical diary during four years of torn feelings over the break up with the love of his life (don’t worry there’s a happy ending).

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Six Years Waiting: Boubacar Traoré’s “Mali Denhou”

On Boubacar Traoré’s first studio album in six years, the kindly, gritty voice of the veteran Malian bluesman intertwines with wonderfully idiosyncratic, cascading guitar. Wistful and pensive, Traoré exhorts, gives thanks, and reflects on love, history, and duty, with a deceptive simplicity and a deep, subtle knowledge of Mandingo tradition and West African vintage pop.

A legend in Mali since his groundbreaking hits of the 1960s, Traoré—possibly the eldest internationally-touring guitarist from Mali—has been around. He knows exactly what he wants. He insisted that if he was going to do a studio album, he had to have his longtime friend, the nimble French harmonica player Vincent Bucher, play with him. Bucher’s rich, pure tone moves in and out of Traoré’s succinct phrases and unexpected rhythms effortlessly on tracks like “Mondeou.”

Traoré doesn’t fuss with his music in the studio: He’s known for whipping out one or two stunning takes and then heading back to the farm. Recorded live at Studio Moffou, the cozy recording venue designed by Malian star Salif Keita specifically for acoustic African projects, Mali Denhou beautifully presents the spirit of an African blues master, in the way vintage jazz and blues recordings captured the masters of the Mississippi Delta.

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Sounds of Afro-Peru: An Interview With Peña’s Cory Wong

Alberto Gil & Cory Wong. Photo Credit: Unai J. Bolivar

Minneapolis based musician/producer Cory Wong is on a mission to spread the music of Peru’s coast as far and wide as possible. Last April, he traveled to Lima and assembled an ensemble to help document Afro-Peruvian music. The group was called Peña (a meeting place or grouping of artists/musicians) and two  albums from the sessions have been released since last October on Wong’s Secret Stash Records. A third Peña volume, released this April, remixes some of the original tracks.

Volume 1

The first Peña effort was a collection of 17 tracks that eloquently displayed the different styles within the genre and was accompanied by a documentary DVD, impressively packaged in an lavish wooden box. The album quickly received critical praise from tastemaker’s like NPR Music, PRI’s The World, All Music, Blurt, Afropop, etc. and landed on many year end lists.

MundoVibe caught up with Peña’s Producer and Musician Cory Wong to discuss the history of Afro-Peruvian music and how Peña came to document it.

MundoVibe: It was just a year ago that you visited Lima, Peru to record and release Peña. What was the inspiration for you to venture to Peru and to make this recording?

Cory Wong: It came from a long standing relationship with my guitar mentor Andrés Prado. He is from Lima and lived here in Minnesota for several years and is now back there. He instilled in me a passion for Afro-Peruvian music and taught me a lot about the culture and where this music has come from. I wanted to do a project like this for a long time and last March I was at lunch with Eric Foss and we just decided that it was time to make it happen. 2 weeks later he, Unai Bolivar and I were standing in Lima with a bunch of gear ready to go!

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