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OAXACA CHANGES ITS TUNE
Oaxaca's musical heritage is vast," explains Enrique Guajiro Lopez, one of Oaxaca's most established son musicians. He cites the tonal languages of indigenous groups and the different instruments each region owns as two crucial ingredients which give rise to Oaxaca's musical variation.
That, and the ability of the people, throughout the centuries, to incorporate new styles and instruments into their traditional sounds. Lopez's own passion, son, is loosely defined as a cross between Spanish, Creole and indigenous rhythms and instruments.
Here in Oaxaca there are different types of son for nearly every region. Listening to son live is an uplifting affair. Each member of the group plays a different handmade wooden instrument, while singing and foot-hammering dances are shared between members. Specific dances, of which there are over seventy-nine in Oaxaca, are performed with certain songs, such as La Tortuga (the turtle) from the Isthmus.
A major change in Oaxaca's musical style came about with the arrival of military bands at the end of the eighteenth century. Oaxacans lapped up big brass horns, trumpets and drums. Songs and marches were rewritten and traditional instruments incorporated to give Oaxacan band music its own distinctive flavor. Almost every village, no matter how cash strapped, has its own band that performs at any and every given opportunity, from fiestas to funerals.
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Oaxaca's distinctive baroque cathedral music developed in a similar way due to the fact that Latin American's first homegrown organ player, Juan Mathius, was an indigenous Oaxacan. Cathedral music here was guaranteed to be more than simply a watered down version of the Spanish.
Similarly bolero slipped its way into Oaxaca's musical conscience in the middle of the last century thanks to the popularity of Oaxacan-born bolero composer and crooner Alvaro Carillo.
Pressed as to whether young Oaxacans today are equally passionate about traditional music, Lopez remarks: "You cannot separate a Oaxacan's life from music, it is there at every important event, it is not a question of liking or disliking."
An important change has been young peoples involvement in nueva trova. Trova players, or trovadores were traditionally guitarists, who wandered from bar to cantina singing their poems and songs to a combination of danza habana, clave and bolero rhythms.
Today's nueva trova is often characterized by the sociopolitical nature of the songs. Lopez suggests there is a strong "reawakening" among the young to discover their history through music, citing musicians in Juchitan who are earning a name for themselves singing in Zapotec. He also notes the huge popularity of son among the young people of Jarocho in the state of Veracruz.
"During the 1980s there were almost no youngsters at son meetings, now they are all young."
Not everyone holds Lopez's enthusiasm. "Oaxacans want modern music," insists Dr Manuel Conseco Castillo, proprietor of a music and cultural space, Selectus.
His vast record shop / recording studio / gallery space, is, he explains, something Oaxaca has been lacking. Recognizing that Oaxacans know a thing or two about music these days, Castillo has employed three music graduates to operate the store. "Oaxacans have heard the same type of music for so long, this space should help develop new ideas."
A sentiment that members of Oaxaca's punk and electronica scenes would no doubt agree with. The alternative music scene is certainly alive in Oaxaca, as the numerous posters advertising events in the surrounding hills testify. Those who attended fondly remember one particularly successful rave, held back in January to coincide with a meteor shower.
Despite focusing their attentions on "the new" assistant Miriam makes it clear that banda is and probably always will be the sound of Oaxaca, but she adds that "today's banda is something different, it is a mixture of modern mariachi and bolero."
She says this is a common trait in Mexican music, mentioning the growth of the popular north Mexican bands who have adapted traditional revolutionary corridos (stories) into narcorridos, modern day tales about narco-trafficking.
Lopez is perhaps more philosophical about the future sounds that will emerge from Oaxaca. "Oaxaca's music will always be the sound of nature, it is inescapable here."
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