Nationwide Latino Heritage Month kicked off this week, so World Cafe is looking again by means of the archives to spotlight a few of the unimaginable Latinx musicians who’ve joined us on the present in current reminiscence.
Helado Negro
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For a time period in 2020 and 2021, “exterior” was a loaded phrase — “We won’t go exterior!”; “I miss the skin!” “Outdoors” felt like a world that we might solely skilled in our goals. Roberto Carlos Lange, who performs as Helado Negro, crafted Far In, an album that spoke to that longing by discovering solace deep inside ourselves.
Helado Negro on World Cafe
Lange grew up in South Florida earlier than attending school on the Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design. A two-week journey to Marfa, Texas, to work on an artwork set up was a six-month keep that shifted his perspective through the pandemic and led to the work on Far In.
Hurray for the Riff Raff
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Hurray for the Riff Raff’s 2017 album, The Navigator, was a daring idea album that established band founder Alynda Segarra as a musical power. It centered on the character of Navita Milagros Negron, a stand-in for Segarra, as they go away house searching for themselves.
Hurray for the Riff Raff on World Cafe
As a substitute of searching, the follow-up report, Life on Earth, was decidedly extra private and extra speedy. Segarra says it is a memoir, written within the isolation of the pandemic from their house in New Orleans. At its coronary heart, when so many issues are terribly irritating, Life on Earth is an affirmation of humanity and of how we will discover pleasure in troublesome instances.
Natalia Lafourcade
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Natalia Lafourcade holds the report for many Latin Grammys received by a feminine artist: She’s received 15 over her 20+-year profession. The 38-year-old Mexican singer is beloved, not just for her personal compositions, but in addition for her initiatives which have paid homage to the people music of her native Mexico and Latin America.
Natalia Lafourcade on World Cafe
Plus, you additionally may know her from her efficiency of the Oscar-winning track “Bear in mind Me,” from Pixar’s Coco. On this session, Lafourcade talks about her tenth studio album, known as De Todas las Flores. It was her first album of completely new materials in seven years, and he or she premiered it dwell in late 2022 at Carnegie Corridor to a sold-out viewers.
Café Tacvba
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Café Tacvba’s 4 core members have been making music collectively because the early Nineteen Nineties. Their 1994 album, Re, is constantly ranked among the many best Latin rock albums ever. It is thought of a groundbreaking contribution to “Rock en Espanol.”
Café Tacvba On World Cafe
Up till then, Latin rock music typically appeared like rock music sung in Spanish, typically even in English by Latin bands. However Re was completely different: It was a kitchen sink of musical influences, from digital sounds to ballads to funk and, in fact, Mexican and Latin sounds. The musical range on Re is a trademark of Café Tacvba‘s strategy, and you may nonetheless hear it a long time in a while their 2017 launch, Jei BeiBi. The band spoke to former World Cafe Talia Schlanger in regards to the report, plus they carry out dwell.
Gustavo Santaolalla
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He was by no means formally skilled to learn or write music, but Gustavo Santaolalla has a present for capturing moments and, extra importantly, emotions which are exhausting to place into phrases.
That musical intuition has helped Santaolalla attain some unimaginable heights. He is received heaps of awards for his movie scores, together with Brokeback Mountain and Babel, plus he is produced dozens of data within the Latin rock world.
Gustavo Santaolalla on World Cafe
Santaolalla offered the rating for The Final of Us online game, and final yr, he was nominated for an Emmy for scoring the HBO adaptation of that sport. On this dialog with World Cafe‘s Raina Douris, Santaolalla charts the course of his profession, from his humble beginnings in Argentina to the silver display screen.