It’s hard not to pick up a spring in your step while listening to mariachi music. The uplift of the brass, the soaring strings, the ay-yi-yi of the vocals … Sadly, most of our connection to mariachi music comes from Mexican restaurants. It’s deeply depressing that there’s so much intensely innovative music being made by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S., and so little of this is ever reported on in the mainstream press. That’s on us, so let this new album of seminal Los Angeles band Mariachi Los Camperos De Nati Cano be your guide to discover more.
Tradición, Arte y Pasión references everything from classic Mexican films to sentimental ballads, popular brass bands and Mexican country music (ranchera songs), and features lyrics like, “I want to cry, I have a sorrow/I want to cry out to the four winds that I’m nothing, that I’m nobody/That I’m worthless without your love, woman.” Exceptional.
—Devon Leger
