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Rana Santacruz´s Chicavasco
Recommended New Music!
by Catalina Maria Johnson, Ph.D.
Sweet Mexican Magical Realism Set to Song: Rana Santacruz´s Chicavasco
Oasis (2010)
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Singer-songwriter Rana Santacruz´s music has been described as “Irish mariachi” which barely scratches the surface of the many nuances that emerge in his music. His solo debut, “Chicavasco” is an artful mash-up of sounds and rhythms that evokes the many cultural forces that have left an imprint on Mexico and its music.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Santacruz achieved a certain level of commercial success with the Mexican rock band, “La Catrina”, and then moved to Brooklyn in 2006 after the band disbanded. In Chicavasco, he plays the accordion and a variety of stringed instruments. An accomplished cast of guest musicians join in to accompany him, and his melodies feature a wide range of acoustic instruments such as the cajón, upright bass, guitar, banjo, jarana, violin and cello, sax and jaw harp as well as traditional Mexican mariachi instruments.
Delivering many of the songs in a lilting falsetto, Santacruz tells a story in each song that unfolds within textures that deliberately take the listener back to the sweet, pure feelings of Mexico´s older traditional songs and films.
At the same time, Gabriel García Marques´s fantastic storytelling, whom Santacruz also names as an influence, is felt in the song´s tales: “El Funeral De Tacho” (Tacho´s Funeral) is about Tacho the Don Juan, who dies at the hands of a broken-hearted lady after romancing women all over the country. At his funeral, tears from all the women who loved Tacho flow in from different parts, causing a major flood in the town where he is being buried.
In other songs, diverse folk nuances shine through, as Santacruz also admits to influences such The Pogues and Tom Waits. “Ojitos de Maguey” (Little cactus eyes) takes the listener to the Port of Veracruz, and the lively jarocho music that emerged several hundred years ago in the collision of Spanish, African and indigenous cultures in that area. In “Ya me voy” (I´m leaving now), the accordion and the fiddle sway in the gentle jig of a sailor who sings his good-bye as he answers the call of the sea. The gentle polka-waltz of “Yo Sé”, is musically reminiscent of the European dance rhythms that became memorialized in Mexican popular music in times under Austrian emperors and French rule. “Loopita” incorporates a homage to one of the greatest composers of Mexican folk music, looping in lyrics by Jose Alfredo Jimenez in an eight-minute montage of melodies, instruments and rhythms that is a musical tour-de-force.
Santacruz´s remarkable lyrics often allow a subtle, sly sense of humor to shine through. “Guajolote y Pavorreal” (The Turkey and the Peacock), whose tale is told within a “tambora” (marching band) beat, centers on the love affair between a turkey and a peacock, two animals from different social classes. “El Ranchero Punk” (The Punk Rancher) unloved by all to the north and the south, references the nineties hit song “Charro Canroll” (The rock-and-roll charro) by one of Mexico´s pioneer rock-en-español bands, Botellita de Jerez, who were renowned for their satirical stance and ability to fuse diverse influences into rock rhythms.
Although the richness of the lyrics adds to the enjoyment of Chicavasco, (they´re available in English and Spanish on the website), it´s the delicate web of musical Mexican magical realism that Santacruz spins that will make you put this CD on repeat listening.
