SOUNDTRACK: CAFÉ TACVBA-Tiny Desk Concert #794 (October 12, 2018).
Back in the 1990s I was quite the fan of Café Tacvba (I was exposed to a lot of rock en Español in the 90s and Café Tacvba stood out).
I’d never seen them and wasn’t even sure they were still together. So it was great to see them in this Tiny Desk Concert.[“the four principal members together for almost 30 years”]. I didn’t know much about them back then (their liner notes are all in Spanish).
As usual, lead vocalist Rubén Albarrán is a captivating central presence, evoking a sense of down-home camaraderie with his ever friendly smile that has become the band’s most outward image. Having seen the band play in front of dedicated fans in massive stadiums in Mexico City, it’s striking to see his movements limited to a few careful spins and dance steps while still managing to embody the intense energy of their music.
The first song is “Olita del Altamar” (“Waves from the High Seas”) from the group’s 2012 album El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco. Albarrán says it is “dedicated to the sacred water–not for mining, not for fracking but for humans and all living beings.”
It’s essentially an incantation of the magic that transpired during their performance behind Bob Boilen’s desk. The lyrics sing of the comings and goings of waves, symbolic of the passage of time and fueled by the Mexican folk rhythm son jarocho, a favorite of the band’s since their start almost 30 years ago.
The song has a real folk quality. Their instruments are all acoustic (two of those tiny Mexican guitars and a full-sized guitar). There’s a delightful solo on the melodica. Despite the song’s poppiness, at one point Albarrán begins screaming happily away from the microphone and dancing.
They then fast forward to “Diente de León” (“Dandelion”), from their 2017 album Jei Beibi. It’s a majestic, stripped-down version that puts the emphasis back on the lyric, a plea for existential and environmental harmony using the metaphor of the weedy flower.
It’s a beautiful song with Albarrán’s voice at times gruff and at times soaring. The addition of electronic percussion is a little jarring, but it is quiet and works well with the music.
The third song is one that I knew and it was great to hear it again. Introducing “The Flowers,” he says, “When we play this live we ask the people to raise heir hands so we can see a beautiful garden of different colors, different perfumes. if you want you ca try it, it’s free.”
Their song “Las Flores,” from their 1994 album Re, slips into the ska groove that attracted fans to rock en Español in general and to Los Tacvbas in particular, a beat that captures the adventurous musical energy that swept all of Latin America in the early 1990s.
Clearly this energy is what swept over me in 1994. Once again that melodica solo is delightful. But so is everything else about this song–the guitar notes, the upright bass and of course, Albarrán’s infectious singing.
Not all bands would end their set with a power ballad, though very few bands hold their audience’s attention and dedication like Café Tacvba. But that’s just how they close their set.
“Que No” is their latest single, a pretty ballad. Once the full band kicks in, it’s got a fun beat (that upright bass really keeps he beat). Albarrán’s once again steals the show.
[READ: January 31, 2018] “The Death of Lazarus Averbuch”
This is an excerpt from The Lazarus Project. It is story set in 1908 Chicago and one that I wasn’t very interested in until the very end. Read as a short story it takes way too long to get where it is going, but as a part of a novel its a nice build up to the climactic scene.
A scrawny young man went to the house of the chief of police. The chief’s wife told the man the chief didn’t see anyone before 9 AM. The young man leaves and says he’ll come back. Chicago is cold, bitter cold, and the man is sick of being so cold. He had a nice summer here and even a lovely autumn day in October, but he want the cold to end.
He decides to go into a grocery store because of the smell of warm bread. The owners suspect of the man immediately–his stomach growls when he smells the fresh bread. Meanwhile, another man walks in and has a friendly chat with the owners. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
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