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- [00:00]
Sponsor/Announcer
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- [00:35]
Ana Maria Sayer
I've never done the show with a
- [00:36]
Felix Contreras
glass of wine, Felix, Is that an FCC violation?
- [00:38]
Ana Maria Sayer
I don't see why.
- [00:39]
Felix Contreras
Let's just keep going.
- [00:40]
Ana Maria Sayer
They'll never know.
- [00:48]
Felix Contreras
From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras.
- [00:51]
Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the chisme begin. This is my first time seeing your brand new apartment.
- [00:58]
Felix Contreras
Feeling welcome. Bienvenida. Spacious.
- [01:01]
Ana Maria Sayer
It's spacious.
- [01:02]
Felix Contreras
What are we doing this week?
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Ana Maria Sayer
New music, exciting stuff. There's a lot of good stuff this week. It was like a very momentous week.
- [01:09]
Felix Contreras
We had so many, there are so many great records out there right now. Like, I can't even remember the last time there were this many great records. But we have to get through it. So let's just get started.
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Ana Maria Sayer
You're going first.
- [01:18]
Felix Contreras
This week I got something very, very cool. I'm going to kick things off with an album called Los Diaz de Calor. It's dedicated to vocalist Ruben Ramos. Now, he is a legend of Tejano music. He's a perfect example of how Mexican music forms becomes Tejano. This album features our friend Cary Rodriguez and Sergio Mendoza from Marquesto Mendoza and the indie rock band Calexico. Now, before Selena, before little Joey, La Familia, there was Ruben Ramos. This is the title track, los Dias de Calor. It's really his life story. Listen to the first part of the lyrics.
- [02:01]
Ana Maria Sayer
The alvodormanos.
- [02:53]
Felix Contreras
Serious mariachi, right, Felix, it's like you
- [02:55]
Ana Maria Sayer
read my mind because not so spoilers that I'm bringing in the Yaritza Esuicencia album. And I literally was going to say it's time we have another conversation about the way country and norteno and cumbia and all these genres interact with each other. And Tejano is forever. That it is easily, naturally, always exactly that.
- [03:17]
Felix Contreras
And Ruben Ramos epitomizes that. Okay. He was born in 1940. The family history with music in Texas goes back to 1919 because some of his uncles performed in the band called Juan Manuel Perez y Los Serenaderos, the Serenaders. And they played in that band. Eventually, all five of the uncles played in that band between 1919 and 1940. Now, music is a big family thing because his mom sang, his sisters played, his brothers played. He was eventually going to put together a band. And in 1969, he put together a band called the Mexican Revolution. And an interesting bit of history, by 1981, the industry and fans referred to the music as Tejano. That's where that whole thing came from. So Rubin changed the name of his band to the Tejano Revolution.
- [04:03]
Ana Maria Sayer
Felix, one thing I think that a lot of people don't understand, and this goes beyond the music, right? Like, I have a lot of people who will ask me, like, Mexicans in Mexico will ask me. They're like. It's almost like a lore thing. It's like there's these people in California and in Texas who are Mexican or of Mexican descent, of Mexican origin, and they're literally like they've been there since when it was Mexico. I think this is something that, like, culturally, conceptually, people don't fully understand that that has diverged in a whole other place, and that's its own. Tejano culture is its own culture. Chicano culture in California is its. And then you look at this music and you follow this map that you're kind of laying out of the years. And this is all happening in conjunction with the development of what was at
- [04:43]
Felix Contreras
the time, like a burgeoning culture, culture, cultural awareness. It was 1969 when he formed his first band on his own. This is the year after the 1968 assassinations, MLK and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. So, you know, social things were very, very in the moment. And he named his band after the history of the area. And eventually, in the early 80s, when the term Tejano became fashionable and the industry and the fans started referring to music as Tejano.
- [05:11]
Ana Maria Sayer
Today, I feel like Tejano is not what it was. I feel like Tejano had a bit of a peak 90s Selena time. It became really nationally popularized. Even something that was listened to right on the other side of the border in Mexico. Tejano does not have the notoriety it did because I think in many ways, in some ways, it's been replaced by what is the actual importing of norteno and banda sinaloense and all of these genres that we've been covering, like music actually being created in Mexico that's being listened to here, or these young people that I'll get to In a second, again, young people, American born, who are creating Mexican sounds. What is Tejano today?
- [05:49]
Felix Contreras
It is still remnants of what Ruben Ramos did, what Selena did, what a guy named Little Joel Hernandez, Little Joel and La Familia. It's still that kind of mixture of the two sounds, influence of American music, American R and B, jump, blues, that kind of stuff. Lots of horns. It's a mixture of stuff. And Tejano, I think it has grown with the evolution of the demographic in Texas and South Texas and specifically along the border. And that's what this record is, a celebration of, that entire history. When you think about Ruben Ramos and how he came up through Texas and what he's been doing, you know, he won a Grammy in 1999 as being part of the band Lo Super 7, which was a combination of Los Lobos, Flaco Jimenez, Joel, country artist, a bunch of artist stuff. It was really like a cultural mashup. And now he's getting honored, he's getting his dues, he's getting his flowers by Carrie Rodriguez and Sergio Mendoza in this record. It's really a fantastic record. And she had a special performance. She had a tribute to him in one of her laboratorio performances in Austin, which I was supposed to play, but I couldn't go because of my hip operation.
- [07:04]
Ana Maria Sayer
That's okay. You'll be able to dance better at the next one because you skipped this.
- [07:07]
Felix Contreras
I have a Shakira hip inserted in my version.
- [07:10]
Ana Maria Sayer
You already made that joke, Felix. That was last week.
- [07:14]
Felix Contreras
The album's called Los Dia de Calor. The artist is Ruben Ramos.
- [07:18]
Ana Maria Sayer
Okay, once again, Felix. Telepathically connected. Exactly. So this song might sound like it fits a little bit into what we literally just listened to. This is 1-800-OFF-OFF the new Yaritza Issusensia album called Metamorphosis.
- [08:42]
Felix Contreras
No, I'm trying not to cry.
- [08:44]
Ana Maria Sayer
I know I can see it in your face, but, I mean, I'm trying not to cry. What about that is not country to me? I mean, you flip the lyrics. It feels a little bit closer, honestly, to me, Felix, to some of that, you know, Latin country that you love, then really? I mean, they're like a banda band, I guess, is what you would call them, a sireno band. That track, it's straight ahead country with a little. With a little bit of some. Some regional twang attached to it, let's just say. But even the. The lyricism of it, something about that specifically feels. The yearning of. It feels a little less. I'm drowning my sorrows in A traguito of mariachis, of Lore, of Achente, or, you know, Jose Jose or whatever. And it feels closer to some contemporary country artists to me. Okay.
- [09:38]
Felix Contreras
I gotta say that I was a little worried because we hadn't heard from Jaritza in a long time. She made this huge splash with her and her brothers in the band. And we spent some time with her and her family at their home in Yakima, Washington, when we were doing the series on Mexican regional. And there was so much enthusiasm on the part of her sister, her parents and all that stuff. And then we didn't hear from them. And then I'm thinking, man, you know, you're only as good as your last release. And I wonder where they are. And I was hoping that things hadn't turned for them or. But you know what? It sounds like they waited to just put out the Right Thing. And that's an even stronger return because this. I've listened to the record and it's just.
- [10:21]
Ana Maria Sayer
It's a beautiful record. Oh, my God, it's a beautiful record. I think I, you know, I feel like a little bit inundated at this point with a lot of these young regional artists, you could say, or. Or banda artists, or there's a lot of them now, right. Like that. That had that moment, that had their. Their kind of rise very quickly in the midst of this explosion that I think hasn't petered out, I would say, but it's more like calmed a little bit. Like they're kind of there. It's a thing, it's a presence now, but it's not necessarily, like the subject matter of everyone's attention. And I think I forgot how actually just really good they are. Yeah, like, they really. And I'm gonna play a track right now called Que Te Costo, which is more of a straight ahead, you know, corrido. What they've been doing, what they. What they came on the scene for, and they just do it well. They just have these really addictive pop melodies.
- [12:09]
Felix Contreras
Oh, my God, Felix.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Like, that's. And that was. Right. Like, that was the conversation when all of this started to explode. It was this thing around. You're taking the really old sound. You're taking, like, something you could dance to, that your parents, your grandparents, whoever could, like, dance to. But it's like that, like, with a pop. Like all of these choruses are like addictive pop choruses.
- [12:33]
Felix Contreras
This is a strong sophomore album, right? This is like a strong statement. Like, okay, we're gonna wait until we have enough proper Stuff, enough stuff that reflects us. It's such a great step forward from their first record. I'm just so happy for them, man. This is a great, great record.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I'm gonna hit you with one more track, Felix.
- [12:52]
Felix Contreras
Okay, let's do it.
- [12:53]
Ana Maria Sayer
It's called.
- [13:26]
Felix Contreras
I don't know where they've been for a couple of years, but I'm glad that they took time to put together a record.
- [13:31]
Ana Maria Sayer
I think it's worth noting the fact that they were kind of like the subject of controversy. They made some comments about not liking Mexican food. People in Mexico are very defensive of their food and more so I think there's a sensitivity that we really got into when we did this series. There's a sensitivity around, you know, singing the music or. Or using the music, creating the music, building popularity in Mexico and then also not fully understanding the culture or not being perceived as fully understanding the culture. Maybe because you're degrading the food or you're degrading things about it, which I think is a. Was a fair argument at the time. Also. They explain themselves. I think what happened is they took a lot of time away. They haven't really been in the spotlight as far as I've seen in the past. It's been a couple of years now. That was in 2023, that all of that happens. So I think they took a break. They've. They've gotten a bit older at this point. And I mean that. That voice still shines.
- [14:29]
Felix Contreras
I think that it's. It's this paradox. Like they're. They're so young, but taking time off showed maturity.
- [14:35]
Ana Maria Sayer
That was a few songs from Yaritza Yso's new album, Metamorphosis.
- [14:40]
Felix Contreras
Okay, we're gonna change geographic location for a second because we're gonna go to the Caribbean.
- [14:44]
Ana Maria Sayer
I love the Caribbean.
- [14:45]
Felix Contreras
Okay, you just started dancing. This is an album called Ricano, Volume 2. The saxophone is Jonathan Suazo. This track is called Mi Musa Cabella. He's part of a wave of young Afro Caribbean musicians interpreting Afro Caribbean culture through jazz. Okay, check it out. This track says it.
- [15:14]
Ana Maria Sayer
Yara, but I could. Felix. I think I wasn't paying attention that hard because that's not. When you intro'd that. Because that's not what I was expecting at all. No, no. And you know with an intro like that, where you're waiting for the end, boom. Come in with the drums and the da da da da da da. And then they hit you with the frickin jazz. Oh my God. That was amazing.
- [16:17]
Felix Contreras
He's Part of this movement. And I did a whole show on this. The musicians from Latin America interpreting their cultures and their traditions through jazz. I think it's the most exciting part of jazz right now. I'm just gonna say it. There's a lot of stuff in jazz, young jazz, eh, you know, but right now, this stuff, the musicians that are doing, especially a record like this, where there's a jazz sensibility, there's scales, there's melody, there's all this stuff. But he starts with plana and then he ends up going into Afro Cuban Santeria and within like 90 seconds and it. And it's flawless. It's effortless. I can't say enough about this stuff. I'm just so excited about it.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Felix, do you remember like a while ago, maybe six months ago or a year ago or five, who knows? I asked you why you like jazz so much. You said something like, it's everything that you communicate without the words. And I struggle sometimes that I hear it perfectly. I get it like what you just played. I hear it 100%. I hear the feeling it's there.
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Felix Contreras
And the context is that, you know, you go back to the late 1940s when Afro Cuban music was combined with jazz for the first time. And then you move forward a little bit later. There's bossa nova and there's jazz and all this stuff. And then nothing really happened to combine the two. And Latin jazz was considered just strictly the Afro Cuban style. And maybe 10 years ago or so musicians started doing this and now it's a full on movement, man. And I think this record is just a perfect example. It's like a statement, It's a mission statement. And I think that a lot of musicians who are doing this can get behind it. The album's called Reconno Volume Two. It's out May 8th. We heard the track Mi Musa Cabella.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Break.
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Felix Contreras
Oh, break. Okay, let's take a break. We'll be right back.
- [17:59]
Sponsor/Announcer
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- [18:26]
Ana Maria Sayer
Okay, and we're back and it's your turn. Okay, I'm bringing someone who has risen to. I think he's on his way to Legend status in Brazil. His name is Lucas Santana. Oh yeah. He released over 10 albums at this point. So this is his latest. It's called Brasiliano and this is one of my favorite tracks on it, Dans Les. So Felix, you're familiar with Lucas Santana. He's been around since the 90s when he was actually discovered. By literally, I mean, two of the most legendary Brazilian artists there are Gilberto Gil y Caetano Veloso. There's not really anyone more important or significant in talking about contemporary songwriting in Brazil. They found Lucas Santana when he was in his early 20s. They actually invited him not only to work on their albums, but to go on tour with them. Since then, he's become an incredible force in the Brazilian music scene. He started releasing his own solo project over 15 years ago. And this latest album, to me is really a testament not only to obviously his experience, his significance on the scene, but his ability to adapt. I mean, I really like that last song I played you, Felix. It's beautiful, but it's production wise. It's pretty contemporary. It's innovative. I'm going to play you another track. It's called A Historia da nosa Lingua. And he actually literally performs this opening track with Gilet Dojil. Clean.
- [21:41]
Felix Contreras
I really hope this record raises his profile in this country and beyond Brazil. I think he's loved and adored and respected and idolized in Brazil, justifiably so. But outside, you know, sometimes people have a limited view of the musicians they accept from other countries. Right. If you, you have a certain amount of space for Brazilian music and maybe that's not one of the artists you want to do. I hope that this really raises his profile because he certainly deserves it.
- [22:09]
Ana Maria Sayer
Well, and I think what we've been talking about, right, is we're in a unique moment right now where I think that the doors are opening a little more in both directions. When talking about kind of Brazil being isolationist in its cultural, you know, both how it leaves the country culturally and how it accepts other cultural items. I think we're in a moment where we are seeing Brazilian music make its way outside of Brazil. An artist like Lucas Santana, who is basically an institution who does have all of these years being beloved in the country, it would make sense that he would be one of the first artists that people would meet. So I think it's a natural step. I think him releasing this album in this moment that is again, like I said, contemporary. It feels like it lives and breathes with some of the production styling that exists now in a lot of Latin America, but is essentially Brazilian.
- [22:58]
Felix Contreras
Okay. Me and the listeners are counting on you to follow through on 2026.
- [23:03]
Ana Maria Sayer
You know, it's my Brazil year.
- [23:05]
Felix Contreras
This is it. Okay.
- [23:06]
Ana Maria Sayer
You already know. I've been setting the pace.
- [23:08]
Felix Contreras
Okay. And we need to point out that Gilberto Gil, the iconic Gilberto Gil, was featured recently on Tiny Desk Brazil. Produced by our friends down in Brazil. Lots of great Brazilian music. You can't go wrong. Check it out.
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Ana Maria Sayer
That was a couple of songs from Lucas Santana's new album, Brasiliano.
- [23:25]
Felix Contreras
Okay. I'm gonna bring it back to Mexico to close it out. Lela Downs has a new record coming out. Lela Downs is a standard bearer for Mexican music tradition.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Absolutely.
- [23:35]
Felix Contreras
And with roots in Oaxaca, her music reflects lots of folk traditions from across Latin America. She's been known for that forever. Her first single from a new records is inspired by an archaeological discovery in Oaxaca, A discovery of long lost gold and mistaken Zapotec artworks. And the track, she says, is an urgent need to protect the cultural legacy of Oaxaca in Mexico. This track is called Tumba Siete. Okay. I gotta say that Leela Downs has this operatic voice, right? She's known for having this really powerful operatic voice. This track I really enjoyed, because it's not. It's the opposite. She's almost got a little electronic effect to it. It almost sounds like autotune, but I'm sure it's not. And she's very, very subdued. The record, I think, is an example of an artist who's been making music for a long time. Like, how do you stay creative? How do you recreate that spark? Not necessarily recreate your music and your sound, but, like, generate that spark again that. That makes you passionate for music. And she's at that point, she's almost 60. She's been making records for a long time. And it reminds me of. I bring this up all the time. Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel in the 80s. These musicians who have been playing stuff for a long time, like, what do they do to move into that next thing? This record, man, I think that this is her. Her statement and her approach to music. And I've honestly felt like she should try something different. She can do something a little different. This thing is just what I hear so far, really nails it, oddly enough.
- [26:04]
Ana Maria Sayer
This reminds me of a conversation I had with Meme del Real from Cafe Tacuba. And when he first played me his record, he released a solo record last year. I still remember he sat me down, he played me the record, and I was like, your voice, it changes constantly. Not only from what we all have known, right, historically from his band Cafe Te Cuba, but within the record itself, it feels like it takes on a different Persona and era of energy, of feeling. And he was like, I'm always trying to change my voice. He said he's constantly in singing lessons and it was a goal of his. In releasing the solo project, you would not think that he still needs to be working in such a way. But in releasing his solo project, he wanted to present a new vocal version of himself and a lot of new vocal versions of himself. And I think that a lot of times, you know, I hear artists who have long careers who are trying to stay contemporary, they do that by trying to adopt the latest production style or genre thing people are excited about. But to hear an artist stay themselves and stay refined and true and honest in their sound, but to try to metamorphosis themselves in a vocal capacity is really fascinating to me.
- [27:15]
Felix Contreras
That's a straight ahead Kumbia. I mean, you can't even get more basic than that. Right. And what she does with her voice
- [27:21]
Ana Maria Sayer
and yet it feels so distinct.
- [27:22]
Felix Contreras
Yeah. And the whole idea of like going back to Oaxaca and like digging in. Okay. This is where because she's performed stuff from the Latin American songbook, you know, all of that stuff, she's just respected in so many different ways by so many different people. She has this amazing cross cultural audience. You go to her shows, there's people from all over, but she's digging in and she's doing something very specific. I'm there for it, man. I can't wait to hear the rest. The track is called Tumba Siete. The album is called Cambias Mi Mundo. And the artist is the great Lela Downs.
- [27:53]
Ana Maria Sayer
Okay. Speaking of legends, we really have kind of hit that a little bit today. I'm bringing in a track from the new Anita Tissue ep. The album is called Noventa a Siete, which aptly named because she's returning to a lot of her earlier hip hop 90s roots in this. And I'm gonna play you a little bit of a song called Apagon.
- [29:17]
Felix Contreras
Can do no wrong.
- [29:18]
Ana Maria Sayer
No.
- [29:19]
Felix Contreras
Yeah.
- [29:20]
Ana Maria Sayer
I was really excited when I heard this ep because this is her, I think, you know, we covered her last record when it came out top of 2024. It was the first record she had released in I think nine years. A lot of people would ask, where did she go? She's like, I don't know. I'm raising my kids, I'm writing a book, I'm doing All these things. She comes back, she releases this record that's very happy. It's very dancey, it's very singy. Her roots are hip hop. They're hip hop. They're. They're playing like she does on this EP with a dj. DJ Dasil is on all of the tracks. And that's really where she shines, I think, at this moment, where she just moved back to Chile. She releases this EP a couple days after the new president takes office. I mean, there's a lot of things about it that feel really appropriate for me, that she would then return to sonic roots, literal roots. Chile's about to experience a huge change in a lot of ways, and she, you know, I've spoken with her about that. She's aware of that. She's aware of that change. She's moving back in that change. And so to go back to the origins of her protest music, really, which is hip hop, which is her rapping, I mean, that is how she made her name, is being an artist who spoke out on a mixtape is what she is. It's what she does. And so I'm really excited. You know, this EP feels like the beginning of something. It's clean, it's natural. It's her. The beginning of something big for her. And also a sign that yet again, never too, too late, too long in a career to reinvent yourself or to go back to what you are.
- [30:52]
Felix Contreras
I have a special fondness for Anatiju because she's the first, quote, unquote, Latin alternative artists I interviewed before the show even started. Okay. And she was also one of my introductions into Latin hip hop along the way. And so being able to follow her, follow her career and have several conversations with her over the years, either on tape or hanging out somewhere at a music festival, you know, we're both jazz fans, huge, huge jazz fans. And so hearing how she interprets all of this stuff, all of her influences and. And then, like, bringing me along on her hip hop journey, I totally appreciate it. I'm like, okay, I'm there, I'm gonna follow. And the sonically, what I've heard so far on the record, it is. It's exciting. It's something that's new, and it's something that I think that I want to hear more.
- [31:41]
Ana Maria Sayer
That was the track Apagon from Anatiju's new ep, Noventa y Siete.
- [31:49]
Felix Contreras
You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our audio producer is Noah Caldwell.
- [31:55]
Ana Maria Sayer
Saray Muhamma, the executive producer of NPR
- [31:57]
Felix Contreras
Music, and she's sitting right across the table from us today, as is Noah, right here on the right.
- [32:02]
Ana Maria Sayer
He's just quiet.
- [32:02]
Felix Contreras
She's very quiet.
- [32:05]
Ana Maria Sayer
I kind of yap sometimes.
- [32:06]
Felix Contreras
Poor noise. Sonali Mehta is the NPR Music executive director. I'm Felix Contreras.
- [32:14]
Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm Ana Maria Sayer.
- [32:15]
Felix Contreras
Thank you for listening.
- [32:29]
Sponsor/Announcer
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