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Nueva Trova pioneering band sounds as good today as 35 years ago
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Haciendo Punto En Otro Son
When mulling the history of Nueva Trova music, it's inevitable to think about Haciendo Punto En Otro Son, the landmark band that, along with Roy Brown, Mercedes Sosa, Joan Manuel Serrat and others, set the standards of the genre in the 1970s.
Which is the reason why this week's pick is the band's self-titled debut album, which was released in 1976 on the Artomax label and is better known as "The White Album," just like the one by The Beatles.
Considered by fans as a milestone in Nueva Trova for its simplicity, warm acoustic sound and elite selection of songs, this 11-track production is the best-known CD by the group, which at the time was made up of Josy La Torre, Nano Cabrera, Silverio Pérez, Tony Croatto and Irving García.
The CD's lyrics are deeply steeped in social causes and philosophical and poetic themes.
"I think that this album was very successful because the concept focused greatly on underlying the voices and acoustic arrangements," La Torre, today an university professor who continues to sing Nueva Trova songs whenever she's invited, told the Latin Music Examiner.
The set includes songs by Cuban master composers Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, Puerto Rican poet Juan Antonio Corretjer and singer-songwriter Antonio Cabán Vale.
"To me, the fact that younger generations like the album, it's just amazing.....it gave me great pleasure when the Puerto Rican Latin rock band Fiel a la Vega recorded one of the CD's tunes....and I'm glad of having been part of that historical process," added La Torre.
Two of the set's tracks, "Ensillando mi caballo" and "La vida campesina" topped off the charts in the 1976 holiday season in Puerto Rico, making it the first time ever that this folk-music style made it into the mainstream.
"Rie y bosteza," "Mujer de 26 años" and the classic "En la vida todo es ir" are among the album's favorites.
Haciendo Punto En Otro Son was born in the wake of a revolutionary period that took the world by storm and left an indelible mark on the lives of many.
It did here what Milanés and Rodríguez did in Cuba, and what Joan Báez, Bob Dylan and the singer-songwriter generation of the '70s did in the United States.
In Puerto Rico, Haciendo Punto En Otro Son's music definately sealed a page in the island's musical history.
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