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CD Review
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Feminist Review, CD Review >>
By LAURA KOFFLER
The song “Esta Tierra es Tuya (This Land is Your Land)" serves as an appropriate title for the new grammy-nominated release from Sones de Mexico Ensemble Chicago, whose music draws its inspiration from the thousands of Mexican immigrants in the Chicago area and the millions beyond, many of whom last May rose up in protest. Originally a Woody Guthrie tune written about unwelcome workers who tried to move to California during Depression, the Spanish language cover now speaks to a much larger crowd, one numbering in the millions who recognize a simple truth: the land should be open to and accepting of those who work it.
Personally, I take no profound pleasure in listening to traditional Mexican folk music. Yet this work far exceeds the boundaries of traditional folk music. By combining more than fifty ethnic instruments, the six Sones musicians meld a fabulous sound of something both old and new. And not only do I appreciate the efforts made on this album, I can even admit to having danced to it with family members during a recent trip to my childhood home in Monterrey, Mexico.
In Spanish, “son” refers to a sound we find pleasant to the ear. The twelve songs on the Sones CD include an ambitious mix of standards and some more experimental pieces. Give the CD a listen and you’ll find a wild, jarocho version of Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3” and an equally insane cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Four Sticks.” Indeed, this is pleasant music created by fantastic musicians. 10/12/07 >> go there
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