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Post by the Scribe on Dec 1, 2020 8:19:40 GMT
Linda And The Mockingbirds (2020) - Clip: The Dreamer (HD) 1,696 views•Nov 2, 2020
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 3, 2020 6:05:06 GMT
Linda Ronstadt opens up about new film Linda and the Mockingbirds, her Mexican heritage, and USA politicswww.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/hollywood/linda-ronstadt-opens-about-new-film-linda-and-mockingbirds-her-mexican-heritage-and-usa-politics-569558
Linda Ronstadt recently got candid about immigration laws in the US, her proud Mexican heritage and upcoming film Linda and the Mockingbirds which is based on immigration stories and fears, racism, and themes of deportation. Written By Pinkvilla Desk 498309 reads Mumbai Updated: October 21, 2020 03:18 pm
Linda Ronstadt opens up about new film Linda and the MockingbirdsLinda Ronstadt opens up about new film Linda and the Mockingbirds, her Mexican heritage, and USA politics 0 facebooktwitterShare on whatsapp
Linda Ronstadt may have retired from performing in 2009, but the Grammy-winning singer is still involved in music. The inspiring documentary, Linda and the Mockingbirds chronicles Ronstadt's journey back across the U.S.-Mexico border to Sonora, her grandfather's hometown, for a concert by Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds). The group, founded in 1989 by Eugene Rodriguez, and supported by Ronstadt, performs traditional Mexican dances and songs — like the ones Ronstadt sang on her double-platinum Canciones de mi Padre, which remains the top-selling non-English language album in American record history. The hour-long documentary, directed by James Keach, concentrates on how music can be a family project, uniting people with its power, culture, and tradition. Learning the roots of one's heritage, as Ronstadt did, brings understanding, visibility, and pride. In interviews in the film, Ronstadt emphasizes that music carries truth. For anyone who has ever heard her perform, the power of the singer's voice comes through. Linda and the Mockingbirds also addresses immigration stories and fears, racism, and themes of deportation that are very much in the minds of the performers and their families. The singer, who was also the subject of last year's fantastic documentary, "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice," spoke with Salon about Mexican culture, music, and her new documentary.
See the film’s trailer below:
When asked about different musical genres and breaking tradition, Linda said: “It's important to build on what came before. I learned to sing from my Mexican background. We sang Rancheras, not blues. I wanted to sing that and felt my voice couldn't do it. The Mexican songs were better than the ones I sang in English because they had better melodies. I love singing in Spanish. It was the language of music from when I was little.”
When asked about the pride her music and culture brings to her new film, she said: “Americans don't realize people migrating come from beautiful cultures, and they left because of a drought, or NAFTA, which puts Mexican farmers out of business because of inferior U.S. wheat and corn. Most people who migrate don't want to leave their homes, and then they are treated badly here. They contribute so much. America doesn't realize [Mexicans] pay into the economy and can't draw out of it. They are willing to do low paying jobs and that pushes people to higher-paying jobs.
When asked about politics, Linda said: “One thing is to change immigration laws. Banks are making money from the cartels. Drug laws need to be changed. Get rid of the private prison system; it's like the new slavery with [cheap] labour and separating children and keeping them in inhumane conditions. It's a violation of human rights laws.”
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 3, 2020 6:17:53 GMT
Linda Ronstadt on the Influence of Her Mexican Musical Rootswww.aarp.org/entertainment/music/info-2020/linda-ronstadt-hispanic-heritage-interview.html
She was honored with AARP-sponsored Legend Award at Hispanic Heritage Awards by Tim Appelo, AARP, October 6, 2020 | Comments: 2
Singer Linda Ronstadt MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES FOR NARAS
En español | Ten-time Grammy-winning singer Linda Ronstadt, 74, received the Legend Award, sponsored by AARP, on Tuesday at the Hispanic Heritage Awards (available streaming on pbs.org). Raul Malo of the Mavericks directed a musical tribute to Ronstadt at the show, hosted by Sebastian Yatra and also honoring Jessica Alba, Bad Bunny, the late John Lewis and America's essential farmworkers. Dolores Huerta and Los Tigres del Norte were there, too. We talked with Ronstadt about her long career and how her Mexican roots played a part.
You changed musical styles often. Looking back, what's your favorite period in your career?
Linda Ronstadt: I started to enjoy singing, really enjoy it, when I started singing standards, and then Mexican music I really loved. And then after I sang those two genres, I came back to the pop music with a lot more ease. I really love singing Jimmy Webb songs and Burt Bacharach, songs a little bit more vocally challenging. I was a little bored with the stuff I did in the ‘70s because it wasn't expansive enough melodically for me. I just didn't feel like I was getting to express all I was.
You had to shout over rock bands all the time: “You got to roll me, call me the tumblin’ dice!"
Yeah, I got really sick of that. A lot of those Southern songs — my family didn't work in the cornfield. I grew up in the country, but it wasn't quite like that. Mexican music was my root music, not Appalachia.
When you made your Mexican record Canciones De Mi Padre (Songs of My Father) in 1987, did executives in charge think it would be a disaster, before it went double platinum and broke sales records?
When I had to perform it, we had no ticket sales. And I thought, I've just done such a stupid thing. I found out Mexicans don't buy tickets in advance, they just show up. And the place was jammed with three generations of Mexican Americans.
Play Video Video: Linda Ronstadt Took a Stand to Sing in Spanish
Do you think that Hispanic culture is coming into its own now?
It's been really slow to do so. I think that Mexicans are largely invisible to the public. I have so many friends, people with master's degrees, and we're brilliant in many ways. They're standing in a restaurant and somebody says, “Can you get me the waiter? Bring me a salad.”
What was it like to go with Jackson Browne and a bus full of young performers to small-town Banámichi, Sonora, Mexico — a trip chronicled in the new movie Linda and the Mockingbirds (Oct. 20, Shout! Studios)?
Well, that feels like home to me. My grandfather was born there. My great-grandfather was a colonel in the German army, then the Mexican army. He [helped] defeat Maximilian [winning Mexico's independence].
And why did you and Jackson Browne take a bunch of kids from California to your grandpa's Mexican village?
I've been involved with this little cultural group [in California's East Bay], Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, for almost 30 years. They run about 300 kids aged 6 to 19 through the center a week. And they teach them the fundamentals of traditional Mexican musics. And I say “musics” because when you cross the street in Mexico, you get to a different culture: different language, different clothing. They take these kids down to Sonora and have them learn from the masters. And they have a way of looking at their own culture with pride and affirmation. And kids that go there have a much better chance of going to college.
In Northern Mexico there's the polka, the waltz and the schottische. I always say that the Mexicans took German culture and made it sexy. So you have banda music, oompah music with a tuba and horns, it's very German, but the Mexicans made it very Mexican. And banda became the most popular music in California. Beat hip hop, classic rock, beat all of them.
A lot of songs come from Mexico. “What a Difference a Day Makes,” remember that song? That's a Mexican song, and somebody wrote English lyrics.
Can you still sing occasionally?
No, I can't sing at all [Ronstadt has Parkinson's disease]. I can't sing a note. I can still walk and talk, but not very well and not very far.
Has Emmylou Harris brought her laundry over to your place lately?
She didn't come to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival here this year. She was greatly missed. That's when we usually hang out together, and she brings her laundry. We're old friends. We have many, many secrets from the past, which we kept very close.
What do you listen to these days?
I have to tell you I listen to a lot of opera on YouTube. I like YouTube because I can see four different sopranos singing an aria from Butterfly that I like, or La Traviata.
Do you ever think, Oh, there was one kingdom of music I should have conquered and didn't! If your voice suddenly healed, is there a style or tradition you'd like to barge back into?
I'd say a lot more of the contemporary composers from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Bacharach, Jim Webb, Brian Wilson. And Paul Simon, his last four albums are just mind-blowing. I've got the records on my iPhone, I never know the titles. They're just killer. I just play them over and over.
Sometimes he gets criticized as an appropriating cultural imperialist.
Of course people influence each other through music. What he did was absolutely genius — in Graceland, he integrated that music seamlessly into American pop music and into his music. He did not just take from it whole cloth and not add anything to it, he made a synthesis.
And isn't the key to America the blend of cultures? Isn't that why our culture is so vital?
That's why it is. You know, the American standard song is like a sandwich with Africans are one piece of the bread and the Jewish migration is another, and then layered in between are the Italian, the Irish.
Maybe you need to write another book, of music criticism and history.
Writing is so hard! I about died when I wrote my book. I had to get up every single morning and sit down on the floor because my back won't sit in a chair, and hunch over my laptop, which I loathe — I hate all electronic devices — and thinking up stuff every day was so hard.
Are you a bit smarter about music and life now that you're in your AARP years?
Well, I have better manners than I did. You know, you get influenced by your peers. I have the world's biggest collection of etiquette books and the worst manners in the world. I'm fascinated by etiquette. I think it's one of the really interesting cultural mirrors. I love Miss Manners. She's my favorite writer in the culture.
Miss Manners should have written an etiquette book for rock kids in the ‘60s, when hippies were not always being quite so sensible.
The hippies had a pretty good ethic. They were kind, I mean, the basic real hippies, you know. They were kind, and they got rid of a lot of the sexual stereotypes. They got us out of panty girdles, for God's sake, we owe them a debt of gratitude.
Also of Interest
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice: Hailing rock’s great grownup www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2019/review-linda-ronstadt-the-sound-of-my-voice.html Ronstadt accepts best documentary award at AARP Movies for Grownups Awards www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2020/top-award-show-moments.html Feel the rhythm: Celebrating Latin music www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/info-2019/latin-music-guide.html
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 20, 2020 2:47:18 GMT
HPR's All Things Considered Off The Road With Linda Ronstadt - Part Onewww.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/hprs-all-things-considered-road-linda-ronstadt-part-one#stream/0 By DAVE LAWRENCE • NOV 26, 2020
Today our Off the Road series welcomes music legend Linda Ronstadt, joining HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence remotely from her home in San Francisco. She’s the latest guest in our series of interviews with artists sharing their experiences during the pandemic. It’s the first in two days of incredible storytelling based around the recent documentary Linda and the Mockingbirds. www.hawaiipublicradio.org/topic/dave-lawrence-interviews www.lindaronstadt.com/ www.lindaandthemockingbirds.com/
The film documents a bus trip Linda Ronstadt hosted in 2019 with the Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, a California music and dance troupe of Mexican Americans she befriended and became a supporter of decades ago during the tour for her Canciones de Mi Padre album of folkloric Mexican songs. It's the best-selling non-English album in the United States. www.loscenzontles.com/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canciones_de_Mi_Padre
During a forty-five minute recording session, Linda explained how she first met the troupe while they were performing on the street in San Francisco, fundraising for a trip to Mexico. She added a show to her tour at the time to fund that first trip, and over the years got to know the organization and leader, Eugene Rodriguez, explaining how she brought them together with a number of other performers like Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and The Chieftains. In 2019 Linda made a trip with them that was filmed, bringing along longtime friend and fellow Los Cenzontles collaborator Jackson Browne, as well as some family members. She explains her connection to Mexico through her own family, her motivation for taking the busload of performers, the nature of the US/Mexico border’s historic land grab, and her empathy for the families impacted by US border policies that have included separating families from their children. www.loscenzontles.com/about-us/staff
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War
Tomorrow we’ll hear more about the documentary, including some of the most touching moments, and also dial in on other aspects of the life and career of Linda Ronstadt, with stories about her role in the formation of fellow music legends The Eagles, and some classic stories about her experiences in Hawaii. We’ll also post the complete conversation.
Hear all the previous interviews in this series.
Off the Road is a series of interviews with musicians remotely sharing how they’ve been touched by the pandemic and other crises, including hours of conversation and many exclusive musical performances, speaking to artists across the musical spectrum.
HPR's All Things Considered Off The Road With Linda Ronstadt - Part Two By DAVE LAWRENCE • NOV 27, 2020
Today our Off the Road interview series concludes with music legend Linda Ronstadt, joining HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence remotely from her home in San Francisco. She’s the latest guest in our series of interviews with artists sharing their experiences during the pandemic. It wraps up two days of incredible storytelling based around the recent documentary Linda and the Mockingbirds. www.hawaiipublicradio.org/topic/dave-lawrence-interviews www.lindaronstadt.com/ www.hawaiipublicradio.org/people/dave-lawrence www.lindaandthemockingbirds.com/
Hear part one from yesterday. www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/hprs-all-things-considered-road-linda-ronstadt-part-one
Today we hear more about the documentary, including some of the most touching moments that Mexican American families share and the traumatic memories from children who witnessed their parents being detained. Aside from discussing the film, both part two and the complete interview (posted today below) offer stories about some of the colorful relationships Linda has had, her role in the formation of fellow music legends The Eagles, and some classic stories about her experiences in Hawaii. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagles_(band)
Hear all the previous interviews in this series. www.hawaiipublicradio.org/topic/dave-lawrence-interviews
Off the Road is a series of interviews with musicians remotely sharing how they’ve been touched by the pandemic and other crises, including hours of conversation and many exclusive musical performances, speaking to artists across the musical spectrum.
MORE LINDA:
Hear the complete interview:
Linda Ronstadt complete 2020 interview 162 views•Nov 27, 2020
Dave Lawrence
See an alternate trailer for the film:
See a Q & A with Linda and the Mockingbirds Director James Keach:
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 20, 2020 2:58:11 GMT
Alt.Latino Film Festival: Fandangos And Mockingbirdswww.npr.org/2020/11/20/937073405/alt-latino-film-festival-fandangos-and-mockingbirds Alt.Latino November 20, 20202:26 PM ET
FELIX CONTRERAS
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Vocalist Linda Ronstadt is the subject of the film Linda and the Mockingbirds. Courtesy of the Artist
This fall, Mexican folk music takes the spotlight in two separate documentaries.
Linda and the Mocking Birds takes a trip to a small town in northern Mexico with Linda Ronstadt. She accompanies a group of young musicians and dancers from the Bay Area cultural group Los Cenzontles, which translates to "mockingbirds." For decades, Ronstadt has supported the group and, despite her low public profile these days, she wholeheartedly participates in telling a story of how music and culture transcends any kind of physical boundary. www.lindaandthemockingbirds.com/ www.npr.org/artists/15335239/linda-ronstadt www.loscenzontles.com/ In Fandango at the Wall, pianist/composer Arturo O'Farrill takes a musical and personal journey to the border. His father was famed Afro-Cuban jazz composer and arranger Chico O'Farrill and his mother was born in Detroit of Mexican roots. The movie explores the Mexican state of Veracruz and the music (son jarocho) that connects Tijuana and San Diego. fandangowall.com/ www.npr.org/artists/90792805/arturo-o-farrill
It is a happy coincidence that there are two current documentaries that feature Mexican folk music; they not only reinforce the humanity but also the historic musical ties between Mexico and the U.S.
Arturo O'Farrill Linda Ronstadt See Alt.Latino sponsors and promo codes www.nationalpublicmedia.com/podcastsponsors/alt-latino
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 20, 2020 3:13:56 GMT
MUSIC INTERVIEWS Linda Ronstadt, A Hispanic Heritage 'Legend,' On Staying Connected October 4, 20207:42 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO NED WHARTON
Twitter 7-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/wesun/2020/10/20201004_wesun_linda_ronstadt_a_hispanic_heritage_legend_on_staying_connected.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1105&d=470&p=10&story=919269672&dl=1&siteplayer=true&size=7518510&dl=1
Transcript
Linda Ronstadt in the documentary Linda and the Mockingbirds. Ronstadt is set to be honored in the Legend category by the Hispanic Heritage Awards. PCH Films
Linda Ronstadt — the chart-topping, Grammy- and Emmy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer — is due to be honored again this week. This time, she'll receive a Hispanic Heritage Award, in recognition both of her pop music and her smash-hit mariachi albums. Ahead of the virtual ceremony, which will be broadcast by PBS on Oct. 6, she joined NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro to talk about the role of her Mexican-American identity in her career and what music she's been listening to lately. Hear their conversation at the audio link, and read on for an edited transcript. www.npr.org/artists/15335239/linda-ronstadt
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: A lot people didn't realize that you have roots in Mexico until you released your mariachi albums in the late 1980s. How much of an influence did those roots have on your singing?
Tremendous. The singer that had the most influence on my singing style was Lola Beltrán, who is sort of the Piaf of Mexico. You know, Mexican culture is often so taken for granted it's sort of invisible in the United States — it's hard to get through that screen. It wasn't anything that I hid, but it was not as acknowledged as whatever else they were acknowledging.
My vocal style is very influenced by Mexican singing — it's a belt style. I wasn't influenced by blues or [the] Black church as much as most rock and roll people were. I was much more influenced by Mexican music singers and rhythms.
It's now been seven years since you announced that you had Parkinson's, but you've been busy lately. You're featured in an upcoming documentary called Linda and the Mockingbirds.
I had planned to take this trip with this cultural group that I work with called Los Cenzontles. They teach young children from the ages of 6 to 19 how to play traditional Mexican music, how to play the instruments, sing and dance, and they also teach visual art. It's one of the most exciting things I've ever been involved with; I've been working with them for almost 30 years now. They teach children to play music, not to be in performing fields but to use it socially, to express their emotions and to communicate with each other. And the kids that come out of that program have a much better chance of finishing high school, there's fewer teen pregnancies, more people go to college and finish. Some of them turn out to be really great professional musicians, [but] that's not the goal. The goal is to teach them how to have tools to socialize in a way that connects back to their original culture with pride and dignity.
We had a film crew going with us to Mexico, because they were trying to get the end of a documentary they were making about me. Somebody else, I guess, was cooperating with it and they wanted to have an interview. And I said, "If you want an interview, you have to come to Mexico and interview me there." I figured it would be more fun to do that than sit in my living room and be a talking head.
You've been working with that group for about 30 years. Why is it so important for you to connect with your heritage in that way?
Well, I grew up in the Sonoran Desert, which is an area that exists on both sides of the border. In fact, my family was in that part of the world before this was a country, so to say that we're newcomers is a bit of a stretch. Even here in California, my family came here in '70, '69. So, you know, I resent anybody saying, "Go back where you came from." It's been easier for me because I'm light-skinned and I have a German surname, so I'm sort of a secret Mexican-American. Some people don't realize who they're talking to, and they start making racist remarks.
Has that happened to you?
Oh, yeah. To my father too. He'd be at a cocktail party and somebody would start saying, "These Mexicans that come in here," ... or some ethnic slur. It's not a good thing to do to my dad.
How would he react?
Well he's very stern. He'd put up with no racist talk.
You must have inherited some of his outspokenness. Last year, during a dinner for the Kennedy Center Honors, you very famously took Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to task for "enabling" President Trump. What happened after that? Were there any after-effects?
Chief Justice Roberts came to my box about the following night with Nancy Pelosi and was full of praise — not about that specific thing, but in general. And he sent me, then, an autographed picture of himself and the two of us together. So they couldn't have been too mad [laughs].
What music is getting you through this moment? You know, often in times of difficulty, people gravitate to certain types of music or particular songs that give them comfort. Do you have any of those?
I listen to opera a lot on YouTube. I love it because I can hear one soprano singing an aria from La Traviata, and then I can hear five other ones from different times, from Rosa Ponselle to Maria Callas to Anna Netrebko. It's fun to be able to compare them. But recently, I reinstalled my turntable and got my vinyl albums out, and I put on Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. It was a revelation. Brian Wilson is a genius; I love his music. It cheered me up.
Do you have a big vinyl collection?
No, I have only about 10 records. I gave up all my vinyl when CDs became so ubiquitous, but I never thought they sounded as good as vinyl. So I just got a couple of vinyl pressings of some classic things that I like. Rubber Soul. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, which is a perfect record. Blue by Joni Mitchell, which is another perfect record. Graceland by Paul Simon — all of his records are great, but I'm fond of that one because I sang on it.
Is it true you've discovered a new favorite of yours through NPR's Tiny Desk concert series?
Oh, the South Korean band! What are they called? SsingSsing, I love them!
Tell me why.
They sound like traditional Korean singing, [mixed] with David Bowie, in a garage band. They're totally original; I love them.
Do you have a message for the Latino community at this time since, this is a Hispanic Heritage Award?
Well, keep your powder dry and keep fighting. You know, there's a lot of abuses by ICE in the jails, and the private prison corporations are taking advantage of the fact that they can lock people up for long periods of time with utter neglect. The fact that they're locking children up in cages and separating them from their families, it's just cruel beyond words. It's such a disgrace. People are in the streets rioting — not rioting but they're demonstrating in the streets. They have to keep demonstrating.
[/a][/font] MUSIC INTERVIEWSIn Memoir, Linda Ronstadt Describes Her 'Simple Dreams' www.npr.org/2013/09/17/223172521/in-memoir-linda-ronstadt-describes-her-simple-dreams
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 23, 2020 9:00:35 GMT
Linda Ronstadt, Los Cenzontles go home together in new moviewww.marinij.com/2020/10/20/linda-ronstadt-los-cenzontles-go-home-together-in-new-movie-3/ Linda Ronstadt, East Bay's Los Cenzontles, star in a new movie By ANDREW GILBERT | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: October 20, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. | UPDATED: December 9, 2020 at 2:47 p.m.
Linda Ronstadt had yet another trick up her sleeve.
While grudgingly agreeing to cooperate on the hit 2019 documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” she quietly set a different plan in motion. Shifting the focus from her extraordinary career, Ronstadt brought together the key players for a companion film celebrating Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, the scrappy San Pablo cultural beehive that has trained hundreds of young people in traditional Mexican music and dance.
Veteran documentary producer James Keach needed to nail down the crucial interview with Ronstadt for “The Sound of My Voice” and she kept putting it off. “Eventually she said, ‘I’m going to Mexico, why don’t we do the interview there?’” Keach recalled. That trip led directly to “Linda and the Mockingbirds,” a new documentary available for streaming by Shout! Studios and other platforms on Oct. 20.
Keach didn’t realize it when he agreed to the interview in Mexico, but Ronstadt’s trip back to her family’s hometown in Sonora wasn’t a casual visit. She had chartered a bus and invited a 22-member contingent from Los Cenzontles, including guitarist Eugene Rodriguez, the cultural center’s founder and director, and vocalists Fabiola Trujillo and Lucina Rodriguez (no relation to Eugene). Oh yeah, Jackson Browne was coming, too.
Keach not only got an interview with Ronstadt covering her entire life, he shot gorgeous footage of Los Cenzontles musicians and dancers performing in the town square of her familial village, Banámichi. The first people on screen after “The Sound of My Voice” title appears are Trujillo and Rodriguez, decked out in brightly-hued traditional dresses designed and sown by Eugene Rodriguez’s wife, Marie-Astrid Dô-Rodriguez (work she talks about in “Linda and the Mockingbirds”).
Once Keach started hearing the voices and stories of Los Cenzontles (which is Spanish for The Mockingbirds) he was smitten.
“Originally I was just going to go down and film the dancing and singing,” he said. “I started to get to know the stories, and I couldn’t help myself. I started shooting. There is a common denominator between the two films and that’s Linda.”
Members of Los Cenzontles perform in the Ronstadt familial village of Banámichi, Mexico, in a scene from “Linda and the Mockingbirds.” (PCH Films) A pop superstar who reinvented herself again and again, Ronstadt first encountered Los Cenzontles in the early 1990s when she came across the company performing traditional dances from southern Mexico and singing in the indigenous language of Mixtec at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
“They were doing these traditional dances from Michoacán perfectly, little kids, 11- and 12-year-olds,” Ronstadt said. “I started talking to Eugene and he told me they were trying to get enough money to go to Oaxaca and Michoacán to study with the masters.”
She decided to help out. In the middle of a tour performing the mariachi standards from her platinum album “Canciones de Mi Padre,” Ronstadt added a concert to the end of her run. She donated the proceeds to Los Cenzontles, funding the first of many trips south to study with elder traditional Mexican artists.
“She’s been our guardian angel” ever since, Rodriguez said. “Linda found a way to leverage her position to help us. She’s always done that for us. That’s the kind of person she is. She introduced us to Ry Cooder and Jackson Browne not because we’re going to save the puppies in Richmond but because Linda’s real values are about learning music at home. That’s where the connections get made.”
While the bus trip to Sonora provides a narrative thread through “Linda and the Mockingbirds,” the documentary’s heart is the stories of the young people who have found a home at Los Cenzontles. Again and again they talk about the way that learning traditional Mexican art forms has instilled pride in their heritage, which in turn makes them more confident and comfortable Americans.
For Ronstadt, Los Cenzontles harkens back to her music-filled childhood, when family gatherings revolved around songs and unhurried, delectable meals prepared from food cultivated nearby. Rather than fostering an ethic of competition, the center cultivates community.
“First of all, you don’t have to audition or have any special musical ability,” she said. “You just learn and put in the work. I don’t like the idea of music being delegated to professionals. They’re learning the music properly and they’re dancing and singing for their own fun. What a concept! They have some wonderful performers, but they take music off the stage and bring it back to the living room where it belongs.”
The film arrives in the midst of a buzz of activity at Los Cenzontles. Classes have all moved online during the pandemic, and the center has produced a steady flow of videos featuring the students, including eight for the Front Porch Sessions and another recent batch for the Backyard Sessions (both directed by James Hall). Last month the San Francisco Symphony released a video of a collaboration with Los Cenzontles on YouTube.
For Keach, whose production company PCH Films has created Oscar-nominated and Grammy Award-winning feature documentaries like “Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me” and “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” deciding to make a film about Los Cenzontles meant a change of gears.
He covered Ronstadt’s Mexican background in “The Sound of Her Voice.” With “Linda and the Mockingbirds” he captured her fully in her element, surrounded by young people better equipped than many to understand how and why she insisted on singing and recording Spanish-language songs despite ardent resistance from her label.
“A lot of people who saw ‘The Sound of My Voice’ knew her as a rock star, not as a Latina,” Keach said. “They know her amazing voice, but not necessarily her background. Linda has inspired a whole new generation.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
LINDA AND THE MOCKINGBIRDS Documentary featuring Linda Ronstadt, Los Cenzontles, Jackson Browne and more, directed by James Keach
When & where: Available for streaming and purchase Oct. 20 on Shout Studios, Amazon Prime, iTunes and other platforms; $9.99-$19.99
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Post by the Scribe on Jul 10, 2021 9:41:37 GMT
In The Seats With...Eugene Rodriguez about "Linda and the Mockingbirds" 66 views Nov 2, 2020
In The Seats 66 subscribers Music really is a driving force for storytelling...
On today's episode we talk with Eugene Rodriguez, the founder of the cultural musical organization Los Cenzontles (aka The Mockingbirds) about his experiences while making the film "Linda & The Mockingbirds" which is about a road trip that Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne take with this group of kids to the town that Ronstadt's grandfather was born in Mexico. It speaks to the rich and colourful mosaic of Mexican music and folk performance art which just doesn't get the appreciation that it should in an America that is becoming resistant to the multi-ethnic mosaic that has made it great.
We talk to Eugene on the impact that meeting Linda has had on him personally, professionally and how important music and the movies really co-exist together...
"Linda and the Mockingbirds" is on VOD now
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Post by chronologer on Sept 11, 2021 11:41:08 GMT
Linda Ronstadt’s Musical Journey to Mexico, With a Bus of Young Bay Area Singers www.kqed.org/arts/13900041/linda-ronstadts-musical-journey-to-mexico-with-a-bus-of-young-bay-area-singers Gabe Meline Jul 16, 2021
Linda Ronstadt in a scene from 'Linda and the Mockingbirds.' (PCH Films)
When Linda Ronstadt is asked about her incredible career—selling over 100 million records, winning 10 Grammy Awards, being inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame—it’s only a matter of minutes before she starts talking, instead, about other people's music. Whether it’s the poetry of the McGarrigle Sisters, the lush arrangements of Nelson Riddle or the Cajun interpretations of Ann Savoy, Ronstadt, with an ethnomusicologist’s insight and detail, wants her fans to know that there’s more to her music than “You’re No Good.”
No music is more personal to Ronstadt than the music of Mexico; the corridos, son jarochos and rancheras which she recorded brilliantly on a pair of albums, Canciones de Mi Padre and Mas Canciones, in the 1980s. So it’s only natural that a documentary, Linda and the Mockingbirds, captures her love and knowledge of the music while shining a light on those that came before her—and those who will follow.
Linda and the Mockingbirds follows Ronstadt as she travels by bus to the small town of Banamichi in Sonora, Mexico, where her grandfather was born, accompanied by young singers from the Richmond nonprofit Los Cenzontles. Joined by fellow rock legend Jackson Browne (“If Linda Ronstadt invites you to go to Mexico, I don’t need to know any more than that. It’s go,” he says in the film), she’s able to not only trace the regional roots of her family’s music, but to show locals how far it’s traveled. www.loscenzontles.com/
Linda and the Mockingbirds is about much more than music. It doesn’t shy away from heartbreaking stories of the United States’ immigration policies that separate families, or its discrimination against the Mexican people. Yet through its interviews with those living with the complexities of being simultaneously Mexican and American, and in its vibrant performances, it also showcases an incredible musical history that can bridge our divides.
‘Linda and the Mockingbirds’ screens with cast and crew in attendance at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Sunday, July 18. $8–$10. Details here. www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/linda-and-the-mockingbirds/?instance_id=41131 The film is also available on streaming.
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