NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - On May 20, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release 'Amor, Dolor y Lagrimas: Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano,' a collection of memorable musica ranchera songs performed and arranged by the groundbreaking ensemble Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano. The thirteen songs on 'Amor, Dolor y Lagrimas' (Love, Hurt, and Tears) reflect the rich rural tradition at the core of musica ranchera, as well its development parallel to the urbanization of Mexican society. Featuring performances by one of the genre's most talented practitioners, the album is a testament to musica ranchera and the mariachi group's enduring significance to Mexican and worldwide audiences.
Musica ranchera, or 'ranch music,' describes a variety of song styles that form the heart of traditional Mexican music, and reflect the social and political movements that influenced its sound. The danza rhythm heard on 'Borrachita (Little Drunkard),' originally written in 1918 by the famous Ignacio Fernandez Esperon, demonstrates musica ranchera's translation of the Cuban habanera popularized in the mid-nineteenth century. Similarly, the influence of European music at the time can be heard in the track 'Llorar, llorar (Crying, Crying),' which employs the unique chotis rhythm modeled after the European schottische.
'Amor, Dolor y Lagrimas: Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano' also features several boleros, such as Maria Grever's 'Alma mia (My Soul),' an important thread of musica ranchera and mariachi ensembles in the 1950s and 1960s. Originally a Cuban song form, the bolero featured romantic themes and a danceable rhythm that also appealed to urban Mexican audiences. Jose Alfredo Jimenez, arguably the most prolific and influential singer/songwriter in the genre, composed hundreds of canciones rancheras such as 'Tu recuerdo y yo (Your Memory and Me)' and 'Que se me acabe la vida (Let My Life Come to an End).'
During the post-Revolution era from 1910 to 1917, the social and cultural climate in Mexico had a distinctly nationalistic focus. Enticed to city life by employment opportunities and urban attractions, many Mexicans moved to Mexico City and other regional capitals, creating a significant social transformation. The cancion mexicana, spirited musica ranchera songs that portrayed everyday and rural themes and had a strong nationalistic message, appealed to the uprooted people flocking to the cities in search of work. Urban theatres also sponsored cancion mexicana song contests and variety shows that featured Mexican singers and songs. By the end of the 1920s, musica ranchera was poised to fill the growing cultural and social need for a national body of music.
The mariachi ensemble was also part of the urban migration that transformed both Mexico and musica ranchera, but it gained widespread popularity later, in the 1930s, primarily due to the influence of radio programs and film. The 1931 film Santa, the first Mexican movie with sound, featured a mariachi. In 1936, the wildly successful film Alla en el Rancho Grande served as the model for hundreds of subsequent movies portraying country scenes, rural stereotypes, grassroots humor, and lots of professionally crafted songs in a pseudo-rural vein. These films, labeled comedias rancheras or 'country comedies,' were the single most important social force in the creation of the modern mariachi and the musica ranchera genre. By the early 1950s, the mariachi symbolized Mexican national heritage, and musica ranchera was the most popular music of Mexican origin.
The world-renowned Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, under the direction of Jesus 'Chuy' Guzman, brings an authentic voice to the tradition and history of musica ranchera and mariachi music heard on 'Amor, Dolor y Lagrimas.' Founded in 1961 in Los Angeles, the group has performed at New York's Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Guadalajara's historic Teatro Degollado, and was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990. With extensive liner notes from Director of Smithsonian Folkways Daniel E. Sheehy, 'Amor, Dolor y Lagrimas' is a complete presentation of Mexico's most beloved musical tradition.
