Mercury records was pulling a fast one with today’s album by calling it “Latin American Rhythms”—there is none of the easily digestible mambo, cha cha, or samba to be found here, despite the frenzied look of the cover. Exactly where this folk music is from is vague, though Argentina and Paraguay are mentioned in the liner notes.
Here is the track list dutifully transcribed from the album cover and their subsequent translations from Spanish, per Google translator:
Anatuyense => Anatuyense
Che Valle Mi - My Che Valle
Floripa Mi - My Floripa
La Del Boulevard - From the Boulevard
Mi Pabellon - My Hall
Malaguena - Malaguena
Mi Sanjuanina - My San Juan
Mimosa - Mimosa
Morena Resa Ivoti - Morena Ivoti Resa
Naranjitay - Naranjitay
Nde Resa Cuarajhi'ame - Nde Resa Cuarajhi'ame
Pilarcita - Pilarcita
Recuerdo de Mar del Plata - Recuerdo de Mar del Plata
Ycua Potrero - Ycua Potrero
Floripa? Cuarajhi’ame? I plugged it into Portuguese, Latvian just for fun. Nada. The Google “detect language” braintrust decided it was Italian (high fives all around, Google!). Possibly it’s something not available through Google translator, such as Cuzco Quechuas or Skagit-Snohomish. Or maybe it needs to be passed along to some Navajo for code-breaking?
More to the point it was probably transcribed by someone with an interesting form of dyslexia, from original text written with poor penmanship (as in this photo).
I even tried a random anagram app in the hopes of clarification: Ycua Potrero = A Coyote Purr = Rotary Coupe = Opera Outcry = Your Cape Rot
Bottom line: I can listen to quiet folky music like this only on a weekend morning, over a large pot of Yerba mate, when I have the patience for low-key. It certainly wouldn’t last in my iPod, most of which is noisy and jangly (much like rattling keys to amuse an attention span-deficient infant) And, the harp (or “Indian arpa” as the liner notes helpfully offer) kept reminding me of the irritating Appalachian dulcimer music that’s played in giant antique malls.
Hey maybe that’s what the language is....Appalachian?
Latin American Rhythms - The Guaranis: Mercury MG 20337
5 comments:
I can help you out on one of those - I seem to remember that "recuerdo" had to do with "memory" so I did a search on it and came up with a link to recuerdo photography with this quote ""RECUERDO" -is a Spanish word which has several meanings -. "SPECIAL DAY" "A GIFT" "MEMORY". Our desire to encapsulate all of these meanings in images ..." and I know enough Espanol to know that Mar del Plata should be Sea of Silver so Recuerdo de Mar del Plata is Memory of the Silver Sea or Remember the Sea of Silver ... probably a romantic song about a man, a woman, and the silvery moonlight reflected on the sea...
...thanks for all you do!
r.j.k
..< { hasta la vista!}
Hi there! Just to let you know the languaje is Guaraní:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaraní_language
Cheers from Spain.
Recuerdo de Mar del Plata could be more like "Present from Mar del Plata". Malaguena is Malagueña, a woman born in Málaga, España. Malagueña is a famous composition from the cuban Ernesto Lecuona.
Floripa is a short name for Florianópolis (Capital city of Santa Catarina´s state in Braxil), wich is a costal town and a hot spot on the Summer.The place gets full of argentininans and brasilians all over...impossible to be more latin than that.
Best regards from Brasil.
merci
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