How come we hear so much great music from places like Brazil and Cuba and not dick from places like Argentina and Costa Rica?

Also: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Astor Piazzolla, etc.

Costa Rica...well, I don't know.

Argentina -- is a very "European" country: no African slave history, they pretty much killed the indigenous population, lots of immigration from all over the world. The Buenos Aires phone book is not that different from the New York phone book. The Argentinan music that registers here is complex hipster music. Juana Molina is great, as is Gaby Kerpel, but this is not mass-consumption party music. Then there's Astor Piazzola and the whole tango tradition, and a fair number of rock groups (the aforementioned Bersuit, Fabolosos Cadillacs, and Enanitos Verdes).

Costa Rica -- is very small. You don't hear a lot of Salvadoran music either. Or music from Idaho. (x-post)

You do, however, hear a fair amount of Colombian music, too. Shakira, obviously, and Aterciopelados, Carlos Vives, Bloque, as well as the "Si, Soy Llanero" CD various people were raving about. Colombian vallenato and cumbia have had a fair amount of influence on Mexican and "tropical" (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Miami) music as well, so it shows up there much as reggae and samba influences do.

Besides, you do also have countries such as Peru and Guatemala, with a still very huge awareness of the heritage from Native cultures. The use of panflute, for instance, is most usual in those parts of Latin America.

Peruvian music: the whole pan-pipe thing is a North American fad (and to some extent an indigenist political taste). "Real" (urban) Peruvian music has always been lush pop, very popular throughout the Hispanic world. Lucho Gatica shows up all over the place, like a Latin Bing Crosby. There is also a Peruvian "blues" tradition that we hear with Susana Baca. But my strong impression is that there is still a huge gap between Andean folk music (those pan-pipes) and commercial pop. Pop hasn't incorporated the local folk elements the way it did here (in part because it was so busy incorporating U.S. and Brazilian local folk elements). There's no "El Condor Pasa" there.

and their music involves a lot of the same African roots as (North) American popular music, so it is very familiar to us.

I'm not sure that it really is so familiar to us though. Many Americans (in the gringo sense) have trouble relating to the rhythmic structure of Cuban music and salsa and the like. I get this impression from talking with people and also from some of the comments that have been made here.

Also Ned Sublette's Cuba & Its Music, and to some extent David Wondrich's Stomp and Swerve, flesh out the differences between the African sources in both cases and how they played out.

Colombian vallenato and cumbia have had a fair amount of influence on Mexican and "tropical" (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Miami) music as well

Are you sure about the tropical part? The only significant influence I think it's had on tropical music is that a fair number of cumbia and vallenato songs get reworked as other forms (mostly bachata--which is primarily a DR thing). I have been getting a little frustrated lately by generic "world music" coverage of Colombian. There's more variety than it's given credit for (as you sort of point out).

Cuba doesn't have so many people, but it has a long history of involvement with the U.S., lots of travel back and forth, and lots of musical cross-pollination. And Cuba has never really gotten beyond being a tourist economy, so the government there (of whatever stripe) has always cultivated and promoted local music as part of the essential cultural draw, much like Jamaica.

This sounds right. jergins, try Ned Sublette's Cuba & Its Music, which fleshes out a lot of what Vornado says here.

x-posts unread

Argentina now getting more English-language press attention due to techno-cumbia and also to tango-hybrids

Panama.

If you've ever met anyone who's lived in Panama--like older relatives who worked in the Canal Zone, mainly--you'll never stop hearing about Lucho Azcarraga. Lucho was an organ player, and had his own cumbia style, and most importantly, was the dominant musical fixture in the American/Panamanian community for a million years. I got interested in his music (which is pretty catchy)(but impossible to find except on this one site run by his granddaughter) because his Christmas music was a fixture during the holiday season at my own house growing up. I've spent a couple of hours on the internet reading the reminiscences of those expats and the thing they all talk about was Lucho and how they miss that music.

Now that sounds like something I would actually like.

Dominican Republic:

while i was there 99% of the local music ive heard sounded like a version of Compagnie Creole - C`est Bon Pour Le Moral

Argentinians all listen to Pantera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDhig0L97Q

xpost

was a great hit in club-meds all over the world...

Ray Cooder

RS -- re: lucho, that website I mentioned is here, she's got a track or two streaming there. it's a pretty weird sound.

http://www.suspendedmoment.com/lucho/introduction.html

Argentinians all listen to Pantera

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:28 (2 hours ago) Link

and guns n' roses.

comstock and geir clusterfuck = hilarity

Argentinians all listen to Pantera

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:28 (2 hours ago) Link

and guns n' roses.

And the Rolling Stones

I been really into the techno cumbia (cubia digital is what they call it), mostly when it veers into the kind of African Headcharge territory. Cumbia has enough Afro-influence that you can shade it with dub, dancehall, or hip hop, without completely losing the flavor. Since I was just reading about Chumby, I'd call it "hackable".

I had grabbed some old tango wax when I was in BA a couple of years ago and I must say that I think the bandoneon is really cool. I got so see about half a set of a tango ensemble with 3 bandoneons, string bass, drums, piano, and a singer in an old ballroom and it was really emotive and atmospheric.

One question though, who is this Ray Cooder fellow...

You can check the Zizek club site and the Zizek tour site if you like.

Dj Rupture and others have been discussing and ocassionally disagreeing re cumbia, zizek djs, and cumbia digital in the comments sections of a Wayneandwax.com blog posting, and Rupture might have touched on it on his own mudd up blog.

Also I think the singer from Argentina's Los Fab Cadillacs has a solo cd out that has gotten some attention.

surprised nobody called vornado out on his suggestion that there's a south american dichotomy of african-derived party music vs european-derived complex intellectual music

Wow, that Comstock dude was one ignorant ironist. He was like an anti-Geir.

yes but was vornado a spock puppet?

http://bennloxo.com/archives/2008/04/18/pistas-de-rock/

April 16 and 18 blog posts on Argentina

some good shit from Chile and other assorted S. American places here

On the topic of Argentinan music:

Enanitos Verdes - s/d

These guys are have been pretty widely popular among Latinos in the US (obv elsewhere too, I would assume) for quite a while now. I have Los Mejor de los Enanitos Verdes and really like a few songs - from the 80s: Guitarras Blancas, Contra Reloj,La Muralla Verde, Por el Resto, but the rest seem pretty bland. Anyone know any good albums/ other trax in this vein?