Post by the Scribe on May 25, 2022 11:23:17 GMT
www.pbs.org/show/latin-music-usa/
www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/home/
AIRED FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017
Discover the fascinating musical fusions that propelled Latin music to the top of the US charts with LATIN MUSIC USA, the series that invites audiences into a vibrant musical conversation that has helped shape the history of popular music in the United States. The re-broadcast of LATIN MUSIC USA recognizes the contributions of Latinos to the United States, celebrating their heritage and culture, which is integral to understanding popular music in the U.S.
Hour one, “Bridges,” begins with the rise of Latin jazz, the explosion of mambo and cha-cha-chá—a new wave of music and dance styles that swept across the nation from New York City to San Francisco—and continues with the Latino infiltration of R&B and rock n’ roll in the 1960’s. The second hour, "The Salsa Revolution" looks at the salsa influence in New York, a hybrid sound created by Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Latinos in the city.
Continuing this musical journey, the third hour, “The Chicano Wave,” highlights the contributions of Mexican-Americans in California, Texas, and the Southwest and reveals how music and artistic expression played an important role in the American civil rights movement. In the final hour, “Divas and Superstars,” Latin pop explodes, becoming a global phenomenon with chart-topping songs from dynamic artists and inventive producers. At the turn of the century, reggaetón, a hot new sound with the style and swagger of hip hop, speaks to young Latinos.
Woven throughout the series are the sounds and stories of an extraordinary range of musical artists and influencers: Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Pérez Prado, Pitbull, Ricky Martin, Ritchie Valens, Selena, Shakira, and Tito Puente to name a few. LATIN MUSIC USA also features Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Tony® Award-winning musicals Hamilton and In the Heights. The life experiences of these and many other unforgettable artists reveal how Latinos have reinvented music in the United States, while never losing sight of their own rich traditions.
Narrated by acclaimed actor Jimmy Smits (24 Legacy, Dexter, The West Wing), LATIN MUSIC USA airs in English and a Spanish-language track is available.
Follow the conversation on Facebook or Twitter using #LatinoMusicPBS.
LATIN MUSIC USA originally aired October 12, 2009.
Experience the savory sounds of Latin Music and how it has developed into unique genres.
From Latin jazz and mambo to salsa, Tejano, Chicano rock, Latin pop and reggaeton, LATIN MUSIC USA tells the story of the rise of new American music forged from powerful Latin roots and reveals the often overlooked influence of Latin music on jazz, hip hop, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll on all of American culture.
Linda Ronstadt
LINDA RONSTADT -- LATIN MUSIC USA
Linda Maria Ronstadt grew up on a ten-acre ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Her father was of German, English and Mexican ancestry and her aunt, Luisa Ronstadt Espinel, had been an international singer in the 1920s. The Ronstadt household was intensely musical, drawing on a wide range of styles and cultures; Mexican music was a favorite, with songs dating back to the 1800s, to Northern Mexico, decades before Arizona became US territory.
“My father’s side of the family, when they got together, they sang in Spanish,” Linda remembers. “Someone would start a song somewhere. Someone would have a guitar and start to plunk out a few chords. And the songs would start. And they were beautiful, beautiful old songs.”
Linda established her musical career in the 1960s. “I was kind of hoping that the musicians that I’d met over in L.A. that I was gonna form a little band with, the Stone Poneys, that we could maybe make a record in Spanish,” said Rondstadt. “Because after all, Richie Valens had had a hit with “La Bamba.” But the record company didn’t like that idea.”
Her career in Rock took off, and she became the best-selling female rocker of the 1970s. Her most successful album, Heart Like a Wheel, sold over 2 million copies in 1974, helping to cement a career that spanned over 2 decades. Ronstadt has been honored with Grammys, three American Music awards, and two Academy of Country Music awards.
Linda has been an adventurous collaborator, working with artists in diverse genres, including Bette Midler, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, and Dolly Parton Her voice appears in over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.
In 1987 she surprised the music world when she released an all-Spanish album. It was a risky move. Latin Music had not yet penetrated American mainstream culture, and while acknowledging Ronstadt’s “guttural soprano which lends itself to the brassy huapangos and rancheras,” Rolling Stone called it “a bit of eccentricity from a very unlikely source.”
Yet Ronstadt saw the album as a personal project and had the clout of two decades as a superstar to make it work. She took her inspiration from the great Mexican singer Lola Beltrán and brought together the three best Mariachi bands in the world: Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Los Camperos, and Mariachi Sol de Mexico. Canciones de mi Padre (“Songs of My Father”) became a global smash hit. With 2.5 million U.S. sales, it stands as the biggest selling non-English language album to date in U.S. music history. It was certified Double-Platinum and also won Ronstadt the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance at the 31st Grammy Awards in 1988.
“I had to go back and find that little girl that was falling asleep in the uncle and aunts’ laps hearing that mixture of Spanish and English,” Ronstadt says. “Because that’s really who I was first before I became a Pop star.”
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she has Parkinson's disease, ending her musical career. In 2014 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Episode 3: Borderlands
Mexican American music charts the struggles, joys and aspirations of millions of immigrants; and it's in the Borderlands, stretching two thousand miles along the U.S./Mexican border, that much of it evolved.
Our story begins with the seventeen year-old Richard Valenzuela, who crossed the tracks, changed his name and became an all-American super-star: Ritchie Valens. His first hit was La Bamba. Though he died in a plane crash beside Buddy Holly, Valens inspired many Mexican-American bands, like Sam The Sham, to enter the national pop charts. That was a time when Mexican-Americans had to anglicise their names to succeed. But come the mid-'60s, Chicano Pride developed and "we didn't have to say I'm sorry anymore".
Carlos Santana adds: "We were questioning authority, the war in Vietnam, and believing we could make a difference". Santana leads us back to the Borderlands (where he once played beside his Mariachi father in the brothels of Tijuana) and where Little Jo Hernandez's song Las Nubes became an anthem of the immigrant farm workers toiling in the fields of Texas.
Ballads like Las Nubes have played a political role in the Borderlands for a century or more. There were corridos about wars, criminals and lovers. And new, hybrid music forms evolved there too, like Norteno, whose greatest exponent is accordionist Flaco Jimenez. Flaco describes the hard realities of borderland musicians' lives. Some turned to mainstream Country Music to find success. Freddie Fender played the low-life bars, did a stint in jail and got to number one with Before The Next Teardrop Falls. "We were showing how American we had become".
Throughout the '70s, a new Chicano Renaissance had impacted on Mexican-American bands across America. Los Lobos were the sons of factory workers in Los Angeles. They and a Borderland girl called Linda Ronstadt explain for us, in words and music, why they turned their backs on rock stardom to make Mexican-inspired records. And Border girl Selena Quintanilla (shot dead just as she reached crossover stardom) became an icon: a Mexican-American who had made it to the top on her own terms.
Many have followed. Perhaps the "biggest band that mainstream America has never even heard of" is Los Tigres Del Norte. They sing traditional-style Border ballads, in Spanish, that sell tens of millions of copies. They were themselves illegals once, and their albums recount personal stories which reflect a centuries old common experience:
"Crossing over borders
Defending my honour
To give my children a better future".
A BBC/WGBH Co-Production
Executive Producer: Mark Cooper
BBC Series Producer: Jeremy Marre
Director: John J Valdez