Post by the Scribe on Sept 4, 2021 9:48:27 GMT
Ep 2: Linda Ronstadt - Las Azaleas Podcast
233 viewsOct 11, 2020
Las Azaleas
Each month our musical director, Diana Olivares, will host a conversation with friends and industry professionals to discuss women in the Latin music genre. Thank you for watching. Subscribe to our channel for updates!
This month's spotlight shines on Linda Ronstadt. Linda grew up in our town of Tucson, AZ before embarking on a legendary career. She's been a constant symbol of inspiration for Las Azaleas as you'll see in the episode.
Diana sits down with Azaleas Yasmine, Dominique, and Andrea. They discuss what Linda means to them and how it has impacted their careers as mariachi musicians. You'll also get to know our band members a little more. Thank you for tuning in.
Linda Ronstadt blog: www.lasazaleasmusic.com/monthlyspotlight/linda-ronstadt
LINDA RONSTADT
Written By Dominique Mesa
Iconic performer and ten time Grammy award winner, Linda Ronstadt, was born on July 15th, 1946 to her parents Gilbert and Ruth Mary Copeman Ronstadt in Tucson, Arizona. She grew up listening to her father’s favorite Spanish-language music along with many other genres, including gospel, country, and the top 40’s. She began performing at a young age alongside her brother and sister at local pizza parlors and teen clubs. After attending the University of Arizona for only a couple of months, she decided to take action in pursuing her music career and headed to Los Angeles.
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Linda has covered many different genres in her career and is known as “The First Lady of Rock” due to her extremely successful rock and roll career in the 1960s and 1970s. She has released a plethora of albums and received her first Grammy in 1975 for her album, “I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You." Her many musical ventures even include Broadway. In 1980, she was cast as the lead in New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, “The Pirates of Penzance.”
In 1987, she released her first album of covers of her father’s favorite Mexican songs. The album is entitled, “Canciones de Mi Padre”, which translates into, “My Father's Songs.” In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway, for a limited run of the musical show adaptation of the album. The album garnered Linda a Grammy Award for “Best Mexican-American Performance” and sold over 2 million copies of the double platinum RIAA disc. Although she was not fully bilingual, that did not stop her from learning these songs and their true meaning with the help of Linda’s aunt, Luisa Espinel, who was an international singer in the 1920’s. In 1993, Linda’s follow up album “Mas Canciones” earned her another Grammy Award for “Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album”. Thanks to Linda, traditional Mexican music reached the hearts of many unlikely audiences in the US.
Linda went on to release albums in the country, blues, and rock genre and continued to earn Grammy Awards among many other accolades. In 2011, Linda announced her retirement due to her suffering from Parkinson's disease which made her unable to continue singing. Although she no longer puts out new music, we continue to share in the treasures she released for the world to enjoy. From her well known and loved rendition of, “Blue Bayou” to the all time classic mariachi hit “Los Laureles”, she will always be known as the “First Lady of Rock,” and “The Queen of Rancheras”.
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By Dominique Mesa
Enjoy our version of “Palomita de Ojos Negros” in tribute to Linda Ronstadt.
Andrea - 2nd violin
Yasmine - Lower voice harmony and 1st violin
Dominique - 1st violin
Azul - Lead voice and guitar
Diana - 3rd violin
Las Azaleas
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Las Azaleas performing Palomita de Ojos Negros inspired by Linda Ronstadt.
This song tells the story of a person who encounters a little bird on their windowsill. The bird begins to share its misfortunes as the listener sits by relating.
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Hola, We are Las Azaleas!
We are an all Latina musical group in Tucson, AZ dedicated to providing quality performances at private and public events.
We are inspired by Selena, Natalia Lafourcade, Rocio Durcal, and Maria Grever, to name just a few, and are committed to exposing their music through our performances.
While we mostly perform music in Spanish, we are happy to discuss learning a special song in any language for your event.
You can also find us at:
www.lasazaleasmusic.com