SONIDOS PERDIDOS

Ande Están Los Payadores? - milonga

Evaristo Barrios

Argentina

Evaristo Barrios was born in 1889 and was one of Argentina’s last great gaucho singers. He was a stranger in the city, sometimes bewildered and sometimes disgusted by airplanes, elevators, electric escalators, subways, vending machines, Victrolas, and the practice of tipping.  Here he insults wannabe singers and wonders where all the real ones have gone, the wandering payadores of old who would have back-to-back duels lasting hours and days on end, and in whose verses the mysteries of the world would often be made clear.

Todo en la vida se acaba

y por eso del camino

se fueron Trejo, Gabino,

Cazón y Don Juan De Nava.

Es que la guadaña brava

con ellos hizo un montón

y ansina se le fue el son

que la guitarra tenía

cuando el viejo de María

la templó junto al fogón.

Que Dichoso El Angelito - canto de velorio

Amanda & Olga Acuña “Las Caracolito”

Chile

1944

It used to be that when a baby died in Chile, he was dressed in white, with angel wings on his back, a silver crown on his head, and a white carnation in his mouth, and laid on a table surrounded by candles and wild country flowers, paper doves swinging from strings tied to a white bedsheet spread out all above him like the cover of heaven, and a paper ladder stretched all the way down to his hands, tiny and fixed to hold on as if he was climbing, while all around him mourners drank wine, killed pigs, and someone like these sisters sang this song.

Señora ya me retiro,

ya me retiro señora,

a andar ese buen camino

para adentrar a la gloria.

El Zapallar - tonada

Conjunto Felipe V. Rivera & Mercedes “La Mecha” Torrejón

Bolivia

1938

Felipe Rivera was born in Suipacha, Bolivia in 1896. He was a jeweler and a poet who played the guitar, the charango, the erke, the sikuri, and the quena. When he first should up unannounced at the Buenos Aires Victor offices in 1931, he was ignored by label guys who thought his music was too Inca-sounding to sell. So he played in front of their building every morning until people started taking notice. The company agreed to record him as long as he went back home to Bolivia. When he did, his records sold so well he was invited right back to Argentina, but, believing wartime was no time to release happy music, he refused to record again until 1936, when Bolivia’s war with Paraguay was over.

Río caudaloso,

déjame pasar.

Quiero llegar a la banda

al llegar el zapallar.

Sale palomita,

bate esa bandera

como sabías batir

cuando eras moza soltera.

Por aquellas faldas,

por aquel rosal,

has hecho lo que has querido,

pero me lo has de pagar.

Another side by this group can be heard over at Jon Ward’s ever excellent

http://www.excavatedshellac.com/

To read the entry, scroll all the way down and see Categories : Bolivia

Thanks to Remo Leaño for providing biographical information and preserving the memory of Felipe Rivera over at http://www.feliperivera.com.ar/home.htm

Que Bonito Viento Para Navegar - tamborito

Grupo De La Alegría

Panamá

1928

The Panamanian tamborito is a popular song and dance with African, Spanish, and local original roots going back to the 1600s. 

Three different drums are played in the center of a circle where a singer leads her chorus and courting couples dance. The ladies wearruffled gowns and crowns of seashells in their hair, and sing of sailing away to places near and far.

Yorelé, Yorelá

Bonito viento pa navegá.

Con esto viento que nos ahoga,

con este viento voy a Taboga.

Con este viento que sopla ahora,

con este viento voy a Pacora.

Con este viento que sopla aquí,

con este viento voy a Daví.

Con este viento voy a Madera,

con este viento voy a Chorrera.

Con este viento que el barco lame,

con este viento me voy a Chame.

Con este viento que mece proa,

con este viento voy a Balboa.

Con este viento que no me extraña,

con este viento me voy a España.

Con este viento que sopla popa,

con este viento me voy a Europa.

Eres Bella Como El Sol - son

Estudiantina Sonora Matancera

Cuba

1928

La Sonora Matancera recorded this, their fourth 78, on December 1st, 1928 during their third session, the first being in January of that incredible year that also saw the recording debuts of Frank Stokes, Georgia Tom, Tommy Johnson, John Hurt, Ramblin’ Thomas, Robert Wilkins, the Kessinger Brothers, the Roane County Ramblers, and so many other greats all around the world. For most, a session or two was all they got, but for La Sonora Matancera, it was only the beginning of a career that included over a thousand recordings and lasted until 2001, when leader Rogelio Martinez died.

Eres bella como el sol,

mujer divina y hermosa.

Fragante como las rosas

nacidas en tu vergel.

Flores De Navidad - aguinaldo

Canario y su Grupo

Puerto Rico

1935

Manuel Jimenez Otero, better known as Canario, was born in Orocovis in 1895. He was one of the first Puerto Rican singers to ever record when Pathe, Odeon, and the Rafael Castellanos label released his first sides in the mid-teens.

“In 1920, the Victor Talking Company gave me the opportunity to record Christmas music and plenas from Puerto Rico. In 1924, I started a trio in New York with a great clarinetist, Yeyo Laguna, from Manati, and Angelito, also from there. Later I formed the Trio Borinquen. A year later, I started recording plenas for Victor, “El Obispo”, “Cuando Las Mujeres Quieren A Los Hombres, “Santa Maria, “Que Tabaco Malo”, the first ones that came out with my words and music. That contract with Victor lasted many years. I recorded close to 200 pieces and other musical genres.” - Canario, quoted in and translated from Pedro Malavet Vegas’ De Las Bandas Al Trio Borinquen.  

Around the turn of the century, Canario remembered “a little old blind lady they dragged in a cart who sang and played maracas, and a blind man that went all around the island with a guitar covered in ribbons. His name was Quintin and he used the money he earned to help other blind men. Even the prostitutes sang their sad songs!”

Hasta aquí llegamos,

alegres cantores.

Te felicitamos

trayéndote flores.

Traigo la azucena,

traigo el alhelí,

el nardo y la rosa,

todas para ti.