Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:00]
Sponsor
This message comes from HomeTap. With a home equity investment from Hometap, you get access to your home equity in cash without monthly payments, use it to pay off debt, pad your emergency fund and more. See if you pre qualify today@hometap.com.
- [00:20]
Felix Contreras
From NPR Music, this is ALL Latino. I'm Felix Contreras.
- [00:24]
Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the chisme begin.
- [00:27]
Felix Contreras
And you know, Ana, before we get started with music, I think we need to say that music does not exist in the a vacuum. And I think we need to take a couple of minutes to talk just a little bit about what's going on in the world.
- [00:37]
Ana Maria Sayer
It goes without saying that our community, Latinos at large, have been very much in the news lately, being seen in this country, understanding Latinos in this country, I think one of the most effective ways to do that is to see our art, to hear our art, to hear the variety and the diversity and the complexity of our expression and our experiences. It all lives in the music.
- [00:58]
Felix Contreras
I'm really proud to say that a lot Latino has been doing this almost from the beginning. Jasmine Garsd and I, when she co hosted the show, we did songs about immigration that told those stories. So we have covered immigration and how it impacts the people that listen to the music as well as the people that play the music.
- [01:17]
Ana Maria Sayer
I can say, Felix, I am really proud that we get to talk about all kinds of music from all across Latin America, the Spanish language world. It's a really, really, really important moment, I think, to be doing that.
- [01:29]
Felix Contreras
This week we're gonna take a look back at the last six months and pull out some of our favorite recordings, telling some of those stories. And with that in mind, I'm gonna feature a recording by artist from Mexico, someone that I discovered probably about a year ago at a festival. Her name is Damaris Bourgeois and you've heard me talk about her before. Again, these are all artists that we've played on the show so far this year. Her album finally came out in May. It's called Folk Piranha. This is a track called no Es Normal. This is Damaris Bourgeois. I really like her because of her take on Mexican folk music and Mexican region, how it kind of all fits together and the performance. I heard how she even dips into a little bit of country music here from North America, from the United States. That's why I'm such a big fan of hers. And I and this album really just shoots her up to the top. We played a track earlier in the year when she Just had a couple singles out. If you listen to the whole record, Anna, I can guarantee you're gonna fall in love with her.
- [03:15]
Ana Maria Sayer
Challenge accept.
- [03:31]
Felix Contreras
The album is called Folk Piranha. The artist is Damaris Bour, and that track was called Noise Normal.
- [03:37]
Ana Maria Sayer
Okay, so I'm coming in with my own Mexican artist. Felix, this is Paloma Morphy. You've heard me talk about before. To me, my most promising little pop voice in Mexico right now. People aren't talking about her yet, but believe me, by the end of the year, they will be. Trust me. Because this first album was one of the most impressive initial forays into pop vocals that I have heard thus far this year. And I really, really am excited to see what she does. This is the song Sola. It was one of the singles she put out before the album was release.
- [04:25]
Adrian Quesada
Burkino Mesari Star.
- [04:48]
Ana Maria Sayer
No two songs on this record, Felix, are the same. The way that she's able to put together something unique and distinct and catchy. She's using all the fun electronic production noises of all of your favorite, coolest contemporary artists, but doing in a way that's unique, that's thoughtful. The lyricism is just really, really impressive to me. Every single track, truly, for me, was not skippable. I just. I see her going to major places. The album is called Ow, and it's by Plaloma Morphe.
- [05:27]
Felix Contreras
You made me a fan, okay. I'm not gonna lie. You made me a fan. Okay? When I think about 2025 so far, I think about all the jazz that I've brought this year, right? I think I really. I think I really stepped it up. This year, I'm writing an album by the Chilean American guitarist named Camila Mesa. Her album was called Portal. It was released in May. When I played a single from the album, I wasn't able to hear the complete album. And what I heard, I really liked Ana. The entire record is amazing. It is amazing. It's more than I even expected. And one song doesn't even scratch the surface of the amazing display of her lead vocals. The vocal arrangements, it's jazz, it's R and B. It's all of the above, and it's it's none of the above. This track is called Transmutacion. The album is Portal. The artist is Camila Mesa. She may have started as a jazz guitarist, but her, like, her aesthetic is getting so wide. But right in the middle of this song, check out this guitar solo, because this is also who she is in addition to the vocals.
- [07:48]
Sponsor
Sam.
- [08:27]
Felix Contreras
Anna. When I Say, I was completely surprised by how good this record is. I'm not lying. I've been listening to it.
- [08:32]
Ana Maria Sayer
Are you lying?
- [08:33]
Felix Contreras
I've been putting it on one of my Spotify playlists and putting it all in with other stuff. Oh, my God.
- [08:39]
Ana Maria Sayer
That's what I always want to know. What's the Felix pairing?
- [08:41]
Felix Contreras
Oh, I wish I'd had time to pull up the. The. The Spotify playlist. But it's like some other musicians from Latin America, from Argentina, from, you know, different places that are either singing or playing, instrumentalists, you know, vocalists, etc. It fits right in. It also fits on with some of the other records that we're going to talk about toward the middle of this. But anyway, Camila Mesa is her name. I'm a big fan. The album is called Portal, one of my favorites of the year so far in 2025.
- [09:09]
Ana Maria Sayer
My turn again. Okay, so this is an artist that I brought almost at the very beginning of the year. It's very rare that I have a January record that makes it this far. So that's how you know it's good. This is Spanish vocalist Gerald Lajos. This was her second album ever. And. Oh, my God, Felix, I could go for, like, 20, 000 years about this record. First, I want to play you a little bit of her song. It's called Y N E P N. There's so much to be said about her. She sounds a lot like some of the. More like, cool alternative pop artists, like a Rosalia or an Atipelo. So she has a lot of this kind of, like, experimental sound to her. But really, everything she does, Felix, is built on that flamenco guitar, the flamenco vocals and the.
- [10:52]
Felix Contreras
The clapping, the palmas.
- [10:54]
Ana Maria Sayer
I think it's exactly the palmas and it's that rhythm. Everything is so percussive with flamenco in this very, like, natural way. Right. It's, like, all about using all the parts of your voice, your vocal inflections, your palms, to create that rhythm, to create that sound as the basis. And I. And so I think because of that, there's a strength to how this music moves. And Geralt Lajos is so talented at harnessing this strength and using it to create something really unique. I want to play you a little bit of another song. It's called Un Poco Mas with the plus on it. And just check out what she does with her voice here. Do you remember, Felix, when we talked to that professor in. In Barcelona at the school where Rosalia had studied, and all these people and she told us that there was traditional southern music from the south of Spain, and then they infused it with pain. And that's what created Fleming. And that, to me, is something I look for all the time in a flamenco vocal, right, is like that tinge of just like, ugh, like, it's the gut. And for her, you can hear it in the sound of her voice. But then she puts it over, like hip hop beats. I'm consistently blown away by it. And every single person I show her record to, they're like, I'm hooked forever. That was a couple of songs From New Album, 9:30pm A lot to take in.
- [13:21]
Felix Contreras
We're gonna take a break, catch our breath, and we'll be right back.
- [13:25]
BetterHelp
This message comes from BetterHelp. June is Men's Mental Health Month, and every year, 6 million men in the US suffer from depression. If you're feeling overwhelmed, the strongest thing you can do is ask for help. And BetterHelp can make it easy. Take a short online quiz and connect from home with a qualified therapist. Visit betterhelp.com NPR today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. This message comes from Carvana. Sell your car right now to Carvana. Just enter your license plate or VIN and get a real offer that's good for seven days. Sell to Carvana today. This message comes from Warby Parker. What makes a great pair of glasses at Warby Parker? It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your pair@warbyparker.com or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country.
- [14:22]
Adrian Quesada
With conflicts in Iran, Israel, Gaza, it can be hard to keep up with important developments. Stay on Top of the World with the State of the World podcast from npr. With journalists across the Middle east and around the globe, we get you caught up on what matters in just a few minutes. Listen to State of the World from NPR every weekday.
- [14:46]
Felix Contreras
Exhale. And we're back. Okay, before we continue with our next couple of tracks, you know, I think people will notice that conspicuously absent are Bad Bunny, Natalia La Forcade, and even one of our favorites, Lido Pimienta. And they should all be top albums of the year and probably favorite albums of the year. But again, we're going for these artists that I think probably deserve much more recognition. But let's talk a little bit about these other albums, especially Bad Bunny, because it was such, like, a social force. Talk a little bit about, like, what made it so special to you because it was a big deal it's funny.
- [15:27]
Ana Maria Sayer
Because I said to you, I was like, ah, I don't need to bring on Bad Bunny because we already talked so much about it. But really, I could write a book about this album. You know, people keep asking me, I've done a lot of interviews since this album. Album came out and people keep asking me, they're like, what is the power of Bad Bunny? What is the power of this record? And I literally just said this to someone. I was like, to me, there are two things that make music good. I was like, it either makes you miss something that you had that you lost, or it makes you nostalgic for something you never had. And somehow Felix Bad Bunny manages to do both of those things on this record. He is simultaneously calling home and being like, I miss you, Puerto Rico, and I'm coming back for you. And also, like, I don't feel enough of you, you. And I think that that is like an experience that is so recognizable and understandable and identifiable and it's so present. He's so good at putting it in the music that no matter who you are, where you're from, you can feel that, what it is. To me, it's a level of authenticity, of a feeling of, of aloneness, of a feeling of not enoughness. And that's something that's like, ojala que los mios no quase muden. Like, I hope that mine never move. Like I. That's all of Latin America right now. And so I think people hear that record and they feel so deeply identified with what he's doing.
- [16:43]
Felix Contreras
And I think that even though he is from Puerto Rico and there are of course US citizens, but that idea of not leaving taps into what we talked about at the beginning of the show. It's like all of this stuff, all of these things around immigration, but whether you have to leave, whether you have to stay, all of that, I hope mine don't move away. I could start crying. It's just so profound about what's going on right now. But anyway, that was certainly one of the highlights of the year, that particular album. Very quickly, I was. My son Joaquin is here for the summer and we were at Macy's buying him nice button down shirts because he's got an internship at this prestigious place. So we were there and then there was a family like this, the man and a woman, Latinos, they're speaking Spanish, they're looking at the shirts and then like a. Maybe like a 12, 13 year old girl and she goes and she's. And this is something I'd even noticed. So they're looking at shirts and then all of a sudden she goes, mira, mira, mi cantante favorito. Bad bunny. And he turns around and it was. And the guy goes, este tipo con calzon es un cantante. It was part of his underwear. Part of her underwear ad.
- [18:00]
Ana Maria Sayer
Is it Calvin Klein?
- [18:01]
Felix Contreras
Yeah.
- [18:02]
Ana Maria Sayer
Oh, my God, that's amazing.
- [18:04]
Felix Contreras
Estet tipo con calzone.
- [18:06]
Ana Maria Sayer
Wait, Felix, please tell me you watched the video I sent you over the weekend.
- [18:11]
Felix Contreras
Yes, yes.
- [18:12]
Ana Maria Sayer
The one of the Mexican mom being like, I love Benito.
- [18:20]
Felix Contreras
That intergenerational thing, man. But anyway, yeah, he's certainly high profile. He's certainly having a big impact. And I can honestly say I respect them for having impacted a very positive way and so many good things. In the meantime, let's get back to the tracks that we brought in. I'm going to follow up with something that I brought in earlier. This is Boleros Cicodelicos Dos. This is Adrian Quesada. The who's who on this record is amazing. He has some singles out. The whole album comes out at the end of June, so it still qualifies for best of the year so far, I think. But Cuco Ile Daime Arosena, Hermanos Gutierrez, Ed Maverick, Monsieur Perrine, Natalia Clavier, Jepe Mirea Ramos, and in this case, Angelica Garcia on the track no Juego. It's star studded. It's amazing. The album's called Boleros Cico Delicos Dos. The artist is Adrian Quezada.
- [19:23]
Ana Maria Sayer
Foreign.
- [20:05]
Felix Contreras
I talked about Adrian when we brought in another track earlier this year. And he's this incredibly creative guy that at one point, when I interviewed him in 2014, he had four different bands going actively and they were all completely different. Right. He's got that kind of creative mind. Do want to mention also that he was nominated for an Oscar in this year's Oscars for best original song for Like a Bird from the film Sing Sing, which also featured the actor Colman Domingo. There's prestige, there's authenticity, there's great music. And he hangs with all the people that we hang with. Right. The album's called Boleros Sico Delicos Dos. The artist is Adrian Quesadill. Okay, wrap this up.
- [20:52]
Ana Maria Sayer
Hangs with all the people we hang with. I'm gonna frame that.
- [20:55]
Felix Contreras
It is true.
- [20:56]
Ana Maria Sayer
It's true.
- [20:57]
Felix Contreras
Look at the list.
- [20:58]
Ana Maria Sayer
He hangs with all the people we hang with.
- [21:02]
Felix Contreras
Okay, Bring us home.
- [21:05]
Ana Maria Sayer
All right. I've talked about the scene of Spanish producers 20,000 million times. Rosalski he's one of the most low key ones. He has stayed under the radar for a long time, very much staying in the producing space until by the grace of God, Felix, this year he decided to give us a debut album. And my God, is it gorgeous. I think the thing with producers is they're always these excellent curators, they're always these excellent sound designers. But do they have the soul of an artist? Do they have something to say? And I think Rosowski proved in every sense of the word, he absolutely, absolutely does. He's a classically trained pianist. He has all of the right rhythm. He beautifully underlays so many of the songs with gorgeous piano. He has actually an incredible voice. I have heard it raw. It's not raw on the record. It has a lot of effects, but he layers his voice in beautiful ways. I'm gonna play you a little bit of the song, Johnny Glamour, every single track, Felix, truly, it's unique, it's thoughtful. It's like again, he has all the right voice, he has all the soul. He has a lot to say. The lyrics are gorgeous, but then it has that producer precision laid on top of it. It's really a joy and really interesting to listen to from start to finish. This is a song I'm going to have us go out on. It's his track with Ralphie Chu. It's called Baby Rome.
- [23:35]
Felix Contreras
Again. It's hard to believe six months have already gone by and before you know, we'll be at the end of the year going our best of the year, but in the meantime, tons of great new music coming our way. Can't wait. Have no idea what to expect, but it's always something thrilling.
- [23:54]
Ana Maria Sayer
A lot going on in the world, Felix, but we will be here talking about all of the incredible music coming out from all across the Spanish language world. There's, there's always, always, always tons of incredible stuff we're always keeping tabs on. And it's a great place to just relax, enjoy, experience the fruits of what is some incredible diverse sounds that we have coming out of all of Latin America.
- [24:20]
Felix Contreras
Thanks to our audio producer, Simon Rettner for pulling this all together.
- [24:24]
Ana Maria Sayer
The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chubb.
- [24:27]
Felix Contreras
Zaraya Muhammad is executive producer of NPR Music. And this week, a special thanks to Keith Jenkins for all of his unwavering support for all Latino over the years. I'm Felix Contreras.
- [24:40]
Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm Ana Maria Sayer.
- [24:42]
Felix Contreras
Thank you for listening.
- [24:49]
Sponsor
This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Jim. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store to match your brand's style. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today@shopify.com NPR this.
- [25:24]
BetterHelp
Message comes from Saatva. Getting quality sleep can improve athletic abilities, increase energy, and boost memory and learning. Saatva mattresses are designed to promote that kind of sleep. Save $200 on $1,000 or more at saatva.com NPR this message comes from NPR.
- [25:43]
Sponsor
Sponsor NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite gives you visibility and the control you need to make quick decisions. And with AI embedded throughout, you can automate a lot of everyday tasks, letting your teams stay strategic. NetSuite helps you know what's stuck, what it's costing you, and how to pivot and navigate fast. Tame the chaos with NetSuite. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, download the free ebook Navigating Global Trade 3 Insights for Leaders at netsuite.com story.