Description
Recording information: Sound City, Van Nuys, California; The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California (2005).
In the wake of the tremendous impact of the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB album, film, and tour, it is easy to see Ry Cooder as a historian, a cultural ambassador, and a gifted humanist interested in revitalizing all people through music. If this sounds like an overstatement, you probably haven't heard 2005's CHAVEZ RAVINE yet. Like BUENA VISTA, CHAVEZ RAVINE locates itself in a cultural and musical context, this time in a vibrant, culturally rich Mexican-American community in post-war Los Angeles.
With help from musicians associated with the era and location (including Don Tosti, Lalo Guerrero, and Thee Midnighters' Little Willie G.) and studio musicians Jim Keltner, Jon Hassell, and legendary Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez, Cooder has created a musical novel that richly celebrates the music, life, and lingering mythos of Chavez Ravine, an L.A. neighborhood razed by the city in the interest of big business (namely to build a stadium for the soon-to-be L.A. Dodgers). Stylistically, the album, performed in both Spanish and English, encompasses Latin folk forms, swing, atmospheric ballads, rhumba, and R&B. Yet the whole feels so rooted in history, so packed with real characters (like boxer Carlos Chavez) and stories (like a Pachuco-slang-speaking UFO sighting) that it plays as an organic whole. Playful, poignant, historically significant, and thoroughly enjoyable, CHAVEZ RAVINE is a stunning achievement.
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Product Details
- Artist
- Ry Cooder
- Number of Discs
- 1
- Recording Environment
- Studio
- Label / Studio
- WEA/ATLANTIC/NONESUCH
- Media Content Format
- Album
- Original year of release
- 2005
- Media Format
- Audio CD
- Year of release
- 2005
- Cast & Crew
- Ry Cooder (Music Performer)
- Ry Cooder (Producer)
Press Reviews
With each of these evocative tunes, he replaces a brick in a wall that was dismantled long ago. Not a bad way to defend your dream. Down Beat (p.66)
Independent 5 (out of 5) - "A wonderful creation. Mojo (03/06, p.21)
History lessons have rarely been so groovy. Uncut
4 stars out of 5 - "[H]e has performed another ethnomusicological miracle, opening a can of worms while drawing us deep into the musical heart of a lost community. Uncut (p.90)
Tracklisting
Disc 1:
-
Poor Man's Shangri-La
-
Onda Callejera
-
Don't Call Me Red
-
Corrido de Box Eo
-
Muy Fifi
-
Los Chucos Suaves
-
Chinito Chinito
-
3 Cool Cats
-
El U.F.O. Cayo
-
It's Just Work for Me
-
In My Town
-
Ejercito Militar
-
Barrio Viejo
-
3rd. Base, Dodger Stadium
-
Soy Luz y Sombra
