|
|
|
|
The
Music
NevER
Stops
A History of Xicano Music
- Part 1
By Chuy Varela
Illustration by Mark Vallen |
|
Gracias
to Luis and the editors and staff at Xispas for allowing
me to drop some ink about the evolution of Xicano music.
Affirming being a Xicano attests to being a child of Aztlan.
That comes with a complex historical reality and progression
that spans a rich indigenous past and an oppressive European
colonialism. But affirming Xicanismo is also about the struggle
for freedom to search out the truths of our existence and
rectify the wrongs.
|
|
From
the times when indigenous peoples made flutes to commune
with the birds, and drums to summon the spirit, there's
been melody and rhythm to accompany the trials, tribulations
and blessings of La Raza. After the conquest many traditional
musical practices were prohibited by the Catholic Church.
The church and the Spanish military became the impressors
of culture teaching the indigenous people hymns to Christianize,
and marches to militarize and control an exploited labor
force.
|
|
| Into
the 1500s and 1600s a mestizo culture began to emerge containing
the genetic hybrid of mainly Spanish, Indigenous and African
roots. The popular sonora traditions of Spain with simple
folk ballad structure and troubadour guitar-and-voice performance
served as foundation for creating a "son" tradition in Mexico.
The French intervention would further instill European musical
characteristics. Municipal bands and classical music ensembles
would introduce new instruments to mestizo and indigenous
musicians. But when Indians were taught to play violins and
horns their sound came out different. |
| How
these pioneer musicians defined the character of the musical
note would lead to distinct regional expressions like the
strings-and-guitar Mariachi groups and the brass happy Bandas.
In Veracruz the African influence contributed the call-and-response,
infectious 6/8 rhythms, percussion instruments and the harp
which bears similarity to the West African Kora harp. Into
the Huasteco region the falsetto vocal cry-el llanto del indio
(the cry of the Indian)-added another dynamic. Into the 1800s
the influence of new European immigrants from Germany and
Czechoslovakia brought the accordion squeezebox into popular
use. |
| But
the situation of the common peoples of Mexico was full of
strife and exploitation at the hands of corrupt politicians
and land owners. Benito Juarez rose as the first indigenous
president and brought some hope after the Spanish and French
colonial periods. Then the emergence of Porfirio Diaz and
his iron fist rule created a rich upper class and an illiterate
poverty stricken lower class. It got to the point where it
was too much heading into the 20th century and troubadours
began to emerge as the transmitters of information through
their songs known as corridos. |
| The
corrido would emerge as the voice of the people. With a simple
guitar accompaniment and verse structure these organic troubadours
wrote and learned songs about their situation. The Mexican
folk ballad corrido would become the newspapers of the Revolution
of 1910. Songs sang about the exploits of leaders like Pancho
Villa and Emiliano Zapata. These songs traveled on the trains
full of mestizo and indio soldiers and Adelita female counterparts. |
|
The
Mexican revolution created the first mass migration to the
United States as new arrivals kept heading north fleeing
war and searching for opportunity in what had once been
Mexican cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was
a difficult exodus. As the 20th century moved on the first
U.S. born and raised Mexican Americans rose absorbing the
English language and American popular music. But they added
their own character and personality to their bilingual,
bicultural reality. Into the 1930s and 40s the swing bands
would bring young Mexican Americans to dance floors to dance
swing. That's where we begin the story of the roots of Raza
Rock.
|
|
THE
ROOTS OF RAZA ROCK: THE PACHUCO BOOGIE
In
1985 an obscure 78 rpm recording called "Pachuco Boogie"
was put into the archives of the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington D.C. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1948 by a
virtually unknown cast of young Mexican American musicians,
it had a thumping eight-to-the-bar boogie woogie piano,
a nonsense chorus that translated to "let the boogie burn"
and a rap in Xicano jive that glorified the pachuco subculture
of the zootsuit era. It struck a chord and became an underground
anthem.
|
| "Pachuco
Boogie" (Discos Taxco 108) was written and recorded on the
spot on January 28, 1948 at Radio Recorders in LA by a group
of session players hired to accompany popular balladeer Ruben
Reyes. The owner of Discos Taxco, William Castillo (the first
to sign "Mexico's Sweetheart" Maria Victoria) had recently
scored a local hit with a bolero titled "Vine Por Ti." Sung
by Reyes and written by bassist Don Tosti (Edmundo Tostado
Martinez) they were waiting to do a follow-up with Reyes. |
| As
history would have it, the singer was a no show and Castillo
asked Tosti if he had anything he wanted to record. A seasoned
player who had gone on the road with legendary jazz great
Jack Teagarden (and subsequently Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey
and Les Brown), he was ready to expose his musical talents
as a songwriter and bandleader. |
| "So
Castillo wants Tosti to record something," recalled Raul Diaz,
the original drummer on the date in 1991. "We got some blues
together and put a little theme to it. We all came up with
the chorus 'pachuco boogie.' Tosti was from El Paso, Texas
and great at Calo (the Xicano street slang that also incorporated
hispanicized English words with the gypsy slang words of Mexico
and Spain). He had heard me scat and asked to scat on the
record. Then the disc with 'Guisa Gacha' on the flipside goes
out and it becomes a big hit. |
| It
was in the late 1940s and jump blues pioneers like Louis Jordan,
Earl Bostic, Joe Liggins and Johnny Otis were transitioning
the big band sounds of the regional territory bands to a more
compact combo setting. It was a sound that Tosti and his quartet
of Raul Diaz (drums-vocal), Bob Hernandez (sax-flute) and
Eddie Cano (piano) knew all too well from excursions into
LA 's black community where it was all happening on Central
Avenue. Add to that the tropical beats blowing from Cuba,
Mexico and New York City these 24/25 year-old musicians were
absorbing an interesting fusion of American and Latino sounds.
The sessions were done and released under the pseudonym of
Cuarteto Don Ramon, Sr., the name of Tosti's long lost father.
It was during the years of the James C. Petrillo Ban when
union musicians were prohibited from recording because of
a dispute over radio and royalties. Yet for Tosti the timing
couldn't have been better. |
| As
American-born second and third generation Mexican Americans
started reaping veterans' benefits serving in the U.S. military
during World War II, they attended college, bought homes and
advanced socially. This post-war prosperity gave rise to a
generation of young bandleaders around Southern California
like Freddy Rubio, Tilly Lopez, Sal Cervantez, Phil Carreon
and Don Tosti who played at dance halls like the Avalon Ballroom
and Million Dollar Theater. Tosti and his gang swung hard
and captured the raw rebellious spirit of pachuco culture.
It was Mexican American jazz with Raul Diaz scatting like
a jazz singer, Hernandez blowing like a Xicano Lester Young
and Tosti walking the bass like Duke Ellington's Jimmy Blanton.
The affection for jazz and swing these twenty-something's
developed gave approval to mixing American influences with
Latin music. |
|
|
