Raúl Rodríguez
Razón de Son (Fol Musica, 2014)
We expect a lot out of music. We expect it to entertain us, to dazzle us, to rev us up and to soothe us. Most of all we expect it to spark that bit of the brain where imagination and other worlds reside, a place where we can lose our present state and dip into that magical world of sound that resonates through our whole body and self. Tres player, singer and composer Raul Rodriguez hits all the marks on his Razon de Son out on the Fol Musica label.
To further the whole experience Fol Musica has gone full out on the hardcover book that accompanies the CD. Filled with photos, reprinted artwork and descriptions and commentary on the music, the Razon de Son booklet is a treasure trove that furthers illuminates the music, as well as provides a human-sized look into the music rather than the standard mouse-sized liner notes and photos most of us haul out the magnifying glass to actually see. While it might come as a surprise to some that there are a good number of people and a fair amount of artwork that is involved in producing a CD, the Razon de Son book packaging puts it all out there for normal folks.
While some music fans will recognize Mr. Rodriguez as the son of the Spanish singer Martirio, many more will know his music through his work with Jose Loreto “Charmusco” and their group Carascura and Son de la Frontera, the group he formed with Paco de Amparo, Pepe Torres, Manuel Flores and Moi de Moron that offered up such releases as Son De La Frontera, Cal and Jazz Con Duende Vol.2 with Pata Negra.
Conjuring up a deliciously fresh sound, Mr. Rodriguez gives listeners a new take on flamenco music using his own mastery of the Cuban tres to fashion what’s being called tres flamenco. Craftily integrating Cuban, African and Caribbean into flamenco music, Mr. Rodriguez reminds listeners that music travels and it has always traveled.
Beyond its own Moorish and Indian influences, Mr. Rodriguez that flamenco squares nicely with influences picked up on the seas by way of Africa and Latin America. Rather than the sometimes stiff structure or melodrama of classic flamenco, Mr. Rodriguez, along with drummer and percussionist Aleix Tobias, bassist Guillem Aguilar, guitarist Mario Mas and percussionist Pablo Martin Jones, keeps the mood easy and deliciously exciting.
Composing most of the music on Razon de Son, Mr. Rodriguez and fellow musicians set the tone with the brief instrumental intro before giving listeners the full force of title track “Razon de Son.” Bright, full of tres and guitar flash, infectious backing rhythms and Mr. Rodriguez’s plumy vocals, “Razon de Son” goes over with an amiable ease. The elegance in form of “Llevame a la Mar” on this fandango/indiano combo is truly stunning, especially after the intro when vocals and percussion are added to the tres and guitar.
The soneria “El Negro Curro” is a dishy, seductive, percussive delight. While not abandoning form, Razon de Son opens the form to tempting possibilities as with “La Cana,” the sharply worked soneria “Con La Guitarra en Blanco” and the lush petenera veracruzana “La Pena Y La Que No Es Pena.” Mr. Rodriguez and company find equal delight in savvy suaveness of bluesleria “Si Supiera” and the sweetly worked Danza de las Espades closing track “Beturia Sonora.”
Breezy and good natured, Razon de Son gives way to the real and imagined path of flamenco and the effect is utterly captivating.
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Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
