Juan Dies – Musician/Singer/Songwriter/Ethnomusicologist
Chicago Chapter Vice President
What is your role, musically speaking, in Sones de Mexico Ensemble?
I play guitarrón (acoustic bass guitar), upright bass, guitar, ayotochtli (mandolin), and some small percussion on stage. I also play a few other instruments in the studio. I sing lead or backup in some songs (I have a three-octave range: bass, baritone and tenor). I have produced all of the band's studio recordings, I have written some original lyrics to traditional tunes, and I have done some of the arrangements in our albums including some Mexican covers of Led Zeppelin, Woody Guthrie, and Buck Owens that have gotten the group some notice outside Mexican folk music circles.
Though Chicago does not have a thriving Latin folk music scene, you’ve managed to find a great deal of success here. Has being in an unsaturated market been beneficial to your group’s career?
On the one hand, I agree that Chicago has an unsaturated market for Latin folk music. Look no further than the demographics: Chicago has the second largest Hispanic immigrant population in the U.S. after Los Angeles and more than 80% is Mexican! On the other hand, I have to disagree about the lack of a thriving Latin folk music scene. For ten years, I presented La Peña, a Latin folk music weekly concert series at the Old Town School of Folk Music and met many talented musicians. Unfortunately, many of them have not figured out how to project their music beyond their immediate networks. There is a great need for technical assistance, career development and financial investment in these artists. I do what I can to help, and I have been asked more than once to manage other artists, but I have my hands full with Sones de Mexico Ensemble.
Your latest album, titled Fiesta Mexicana: Mexican Songs & Stories for Niños & Niñas and their Papás & Mamás, was released earlier this year. What influenced you to release a children’s album?
We've been performing a live version of this album since 1994 in schools, cultural centers and festivals around the country. Recording this album was long overdue. At least, in all these years of live performances we've had a chance to polish the material very well. We've kept the stuff that worked and gotten rid of the stuff that didn't. The result is a bilingual double-album: one disc in English and one disc in Spanish. The songs represent diverse regional styles of folk music from Mexico, woven together by a very loose storyline that features a crawfish, a cowboy mouse, a 100-year-old woman, an iguana and other unlikely characters. The album just won a Parent's Choice Silver Award in May, and of course, we will be submitting it for the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards this year.
The music that you play is known as son. What are the characteristics of this musical style and what drew you to it initially?
"Son" is a large family of regional styles that includes "son jarocho" (from Veracruz), "son huasteco" (from the 'Huasteca' region), "son calentano" (from Tierra Caliente), and about thirty others, each with its own instruments and repertoire. What I find exciting about "son" is precisely how rich it is: there may be a finite set of standard tunes, but there is an infinite number of improvisation and variation possibilities on them, polyrhythms, poetry traditions, different vocal techniques, all the instrument families, including many indigenous instruments that are not used anywhere else, dance, and the openness to contribute to the tradition through innovation. There is more than anyone could possibly learn in a lifetime. As a musician, I am always learning new things about "son."
As a Latin GRAMMY Nominee, you’ve obviously achieved a high level of notoriety as a musician. How does it feel to be so recognized and celebrated for your craft?
Sones de Mexico Ensemble got both Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY Nominations for the album "Esta Tierra es Tuya (This Land Is Your Land)" in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Going through this experience was very positive for all of us in the band. The recognition legitimized many years of work we have put into this project, and we were honored just to be a part of it. We were up against much bigger artists than us. We are just a small independent group, but we would like to get there again and maybe win next time.
I run across some cynicism about the GRAMMY Awards and nominations process from time to time. This is something I would also like to share with you here. Some people feel that making a competition out of a form of artistic expression is wrong, and that the whole process is all "just politics." The Latin GRAMMYs also got a bad start with the Mexican record labels ten years ago, which is taking years to heal. I understand how someone may feel this way, but I disagree. The way I see it, GRAMMY Awards and nominations are a nod of approval from your peers. It is a way for your colleagues to recognize your work. If you are a gracious winner you may feel not only pride in your own achievement, but also gratitude to those around you. And if you feel this way, The Recording Academy gives you a way to channel it in many different ways.
Aside from Sones de Mexico, what other projects are you involved in?
I am an ethnomusicologist by training, and occasionally I work with cultural and state agencies to help the development of traditional arts. I've done work in a dozen different states. I am currently working with the Ohio Arts Council to create a directory of Latino artists in the state. We hope that once we know who these artists are and what they do, the Council will know how to reach them more easily, promote their work and better serve them by their programs and grants.
What is your favorite place to perform in Chicago?
We performed at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park last June. The weather was perfect, the house was full, the sound system is great, and the food back stage was to die for. I enjoyed myself very much in every respect. On November 20, we will be performing at The House of Blues to celebrate the Centennial of Mexico's Revolution. I'm really looking forward to that.
Why did you join The Academy?
Curiously enough, I was simply invited to join, so I did. I don't think I would have come up with the idea on my own. Griff Morris, former Chicago Chapter Executive Director, took me out to lunch one day, and asked me "why don't you join The Recording Academy and help us recruit more Latino artists?," and I said "OK." Now I chair the Membership Committee. If you know someone I should take out to lunch just let me know.
As Vice President of the Chicago Chapter what are you hoping to accomplish in your term?
According to our bylaws, the VP supports the agenda of the President. Larry has asked me to Chair the Membership Committee, and that is what I am doing now. If the need arises, I can also step in as a substitute if Larry is unable to attend an official function.
What advice do you have for other musicians looking to make it in the Chicago scene?
My words of wisdom are: (a) don't wait to be "discovered," (b) look at what you do as a "career" and do what you have to in order to build it: train for it, promote it, know the law, invest in it, etc., and (c) as working musicians we are part of a "service industry" and accordingly, presenters and fans are our "clients." Treat your clients as any business would. It seems obvious but a lot of artists seem to forget this.
