Search - Juan Reynoso :: Genius of Mexico's Tierra Caliente

My first from Mexico. Not my last.

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 09/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month I thought I'd try to review the few Latin releases I have. The various Latin musics are still very much something I am just beginning to get into/hear/understand, etc... so I don't have any sort of expert wisdom to impart.



Because this will probably mean more to many of you than it does to me, I'll mention that the track notes break down the styles of tunes this way... 1 march, 1 polka, 1 danzon, and the rest are gustos, sons and pasodobles. In case any of these musicians may be familar to some of you from other projects, the players here are Juan Reynoso on violin and vocals, Neyo Reynoso on acoustic guitar and vocals, Castulo Benitez de la Paz on acoustic guitar and vocals, and Javier Reynoso on acoustic guitar during the tracks recorded in 1997.



This disc is a collection of live performances between 1997 and 2001 from The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Washington state. The sound sometimes varies a bit from track to track, but it is always good.



I picked this up 5 weeks ago and have listened to it a bunch of times since then. It's the first and only cd of any Mexican musics that I own. I have nothing else to which I can compare it, but I really like it. Every time I listen to this disc it really makes me hungry for tomatillo chicken!



If you're also new to this music, Juan is very much in the folk fiddler vein. What I mean is, if you only think of Western "classical" music when you think of the violin then you are used to a much smoother tone than what folk fiddlers the world over usually have. There is more of a throaty scrape to Juan's tone than you may be expecting, but that's not a bad thing. I love the accompanying guitars here. These guys really nail that certain Mexican rhythm that I felt I kinda knew of, more from musical osmosis than my having any degree of Mexican musical knowledge.



A lovely album indeed, and a long one, too. You really get your moneys worth.



"