the sounds of music

Spain, Caribbean, Mexico and Latin American

SPAIN

Flamenco

Flamenco Sevillanas a dos Guitarras

 Flamenco – Camaron

Music from the region of Andalusia, southern part of Spain

COMMON TO MANY AREAS

Pasodoble

“España, mi bella España” – Mariachi Garibaldi

Of Spanish heritage, the Pasodoble is heard as an intro or as a change of mood in dance parties in Spain, Mexico, Central America, Venezuela and Colombia which have one thing in common: they allow bullfights, which are banned, for example, in Argentina.

Tropical

Colombian
“La palomita” – Los Titanes

 Peruvian
“La colegiala” – Rodolfo y su tipica

 Bolivian
“El pavo y la pava”

“La cerveza” (a “classic”)

 Venezuelan
“Ay amor” – Los Melódicos

“Ella es” – Los Fantasmas del Caribe

In Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia also called tropical andina; in Venezuela, tropical tecnopop.

Salsa
Caribbean
“Yo no soy mentiroso” – Monguito

Colombian

“Una aventura” – Grupo Niche

 “La negra no quiere” – Grupo Niche

Modernized way of playing Afro-Cuban music featuring reinforced brass and percussion sections.

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA

Corrida (Ranchera)

Mexican
“El novillo despuntado” – Las Jilguerillas

 “Es demasiado tarde” – Ana Gabriel

Corrido is also known as Ranchera

Tejano

Mexican
“El Güero Polkas” – Flaco Jiménez

Tejano is also known as tex-mex. The late Selena is perhaps the most well known of all tejano artists.

Tonada

Nicaraguan
“Clodomiro el Ñajo” – Carlos Mejía Godoy y Los de Palacagüina

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

 CARIBBEAN BASIN AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Danzon

Cuban
“Rey de Reyes” – Orquesta Siglo XX

Old-time formal Cuban dance music.

Son

Cuba

“Son de la loma” – Trío Matamoros

 “Cómo se baila el son” – La India de Oriente

son originated in Cuba, and is now widely heard all over Latin America.

Rumba

“El callejón de los rumberos” – Yoruba Andabo

Afro-Cuban percussion and vocal style.

Mambo
“Mambo No. 8” – Pérez Prado y su orquesta

Cuban big-band style.

Cha Cha Cha
“Tres lindas cubanas” – Orquesta Aragón

A Cuban “classic”.

Merengue

“O lo matas tú o lo mato yo” – Jossie Estéban y La Patrulla 15

 “Compadre Pedro Juan” – Ramón García, his saxophone and his Conjunto Típico Cibao

 “La bilirrubina” Juan Luis Guerra y los 4-40

 “A Pedir Su Mano”

From the Dominican Republic. The Ramón García sample is sort of a second national anthem of the Dominican Republic, a beautiful rendering of a “classic”

Bachata

“Gotas de pena” – Alex Bueno

A popular midtempo acoustic/electric style from the Dominican Republic.

Cumbia

Colombian
“La pollera colorá” – Pedro Salcedo

 Mexican
“Que bello” – La Sonora Tropicana

cumbia is popular in Colombia and Panama, with regional variants in Peru, Bolivia, Central America and Mexico. The Mexican and Central American cumbia is faster than its Colombian counterpart.

Vallenato

“Tierra mala” – Los Chiches Vallenatos

Sabanero
“El guayabo de La Ye” – Lisandro Meza

A Colombian style. sabanero refers to the area west of the Magdalena river, as the vallenato usually referred to is the one which orginated in the area east of the river, in the region of Valledupar.

Punta

Punta cumbia – Grupo Kazzabe

Fiesta – Banda Blanca

This rhythm is popular along the Caribbean coastline of Central America, especially Honduras.

 ANDEAN REGIONS OF ECUADOR, PERU & BOLIVIA

Pasillo

“Adiós mi vida” – Los Imbayas

 “Latidos” – Hermanos Castro y Bolívar Ortiz

The Ecuadorian pasillo is very popular in northern Peru.

Sanjuanito

“Sanjuanito de otros tiempos” – Los Corazas

 “Longuita mía” – Hermanos Castro y Bolívar Ortiz

Ecuadorian; Sanjuanito, this style is also found in Northern Peru.

Huayno

“Sueño de mi esperanza” – Los Reales de Cajamarca

 “Amor pendiente” – Los Reales de Cajamarca

 “Flor de Huancayo” – Grupo Norte Potosí

sample by Los Pacharacos (in Quechua)

Bolivian

“Tu partida” – Grupo Norte Potosí

A style familiar to any listener of Peruvian radio. Also popular in Bolivia and Ecuador.

ChiCha

“El serranito” – Los Shapis

 “Maldigo la hora” – Princesita Mery singing with Pintura Roja group

Modern urban Peruvian blend of huayno and cumbia.

Lambada

“Llorando se fue” – Los K’jarkas

This is the original version, a Bolivian saya, which was readapated in the early 80´s by the Peruvian group Cuarteto Continental and a couple of years later presented internationally as “Lambada” by the Brazilian group Kaoma. In a subsequent lawsuit, Gonzalo and Ulises Hermoza, Los K´jarkas, claimed and gained the authorship of the tune.

 ANDEAN VALLEYS & REGIONS EAST OF THE CORDILLERA

Guabina/Torbellino
“Agáchate el sombrerito” – Los Tolimenses

 Pasillo

“Mis flores negras” – Espinoza y Bedoya

An old Colombian style, seldom heard nowadays.

Joropo

“Kirpa” – Los Copleros del Arauca

From the plains (llanos) of Venezuela and Eastern Colombia, joropo and pasaje are referred to as música llanera.

Bambuco
“Brisas del Torbes” – Ofelia Ramón

 Pasaje

“Sinfonía del palmar” – Juan Vicente Torrealba 

Venezuela and Columbia.

 

Carrilera

“La Cuchilla” – Hermanas Calle

From Colombia, a local type of corrido, also known as guasca.

 BOLIVIA, NORTHERN CHILE, NW ARGENTINA

Bailecito

sample by Grupo Norte Potosí

A Bolivian style, featuring the Bolivian charango instrument.

Zamba

“Luna tucumana” – Los Chalchaleros

The zamba is at the core of Argentinian folklore.

Chamame

sample by Raúl Barbosa

From the province of Corrientes, Argentina.

Candombe

“Yo Tambien” – Grupo del Cuareim

Candombe is a typical Afro-Uruguayan style from the “Rio de la Plata” (River Plate), and a living tradition. It also co-existed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but in the XIX century and due to war and other factors the Afro-Argentinean community disappeared.

Milonga
“La puñalada” – Osvaldo Fresedo y su Orquesta Típica

Tango

“El entrerriano” – Orquesta Nicolás D’Alessandro

Argentina and Uruguay