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CD Review
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Dirty Linen, CD Review >>
By MICHAEL PARRISH
In the 13 years of its existence, Chicago sextet Sones de Mexico Ensemble has excelled at popularizing the traditional music of Mexico both within the city's Hispanic community and throughout its other ethnic constituencies. The Group's third CD, Esta Tierra es Tuya, shows that the members have both honed their ensemble skills and expanded their artistic reach, including cover of Led Zeppelin (a dazzling cover of "Four Sticks"), the bilingual reading of Woody Guthries title tune, and even a very successful adaptation of the second movement of Bach's third "Brandenberg Concerto in G Major" to son Jaracho instrumentation that features guests from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The bulk of the remaining material consists of traditional sones performed with original arrangements by musical director Victor Pichardo, incorporating the more than 50 instruments pictured in the CD booklet. Guitarron player Jaun Dies, who also produced, contributed the very enlightening liner notes, which emphasize liner notes, which emphasize the regional lineage of each piece as well as the distinctive instrumentation used in each (also depicted graphically by a clever flow chart in the booklet that shows who plays which instruments on each track).
Although the group has experienced some turnover through the years, the band's long history as a group is evident in the tight, yet playful ensemble work on pieces such as Pichardo's "Eres Bella Flor" and the Bach Concerto. With Esta Tierra es Tuya, Sones de Mexico Ensemble succeeds brilliantly at demonstrating the continuity among traditional musical styles of Mexico and between the musics of Mexico and the rest of the world. And you can dance to all of it. 11/15/07 >> go there
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