C'est intéressant w/c 25 May 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music: Gracias a la vida
A moving listen. People talk about what this song, made famous by Mercedes Sosa, has meant to them. Includes the testimony of a political prisoner under Pinochet in Chile in 1973. I responded to these words from a recent widow, who grew to associate the song with the death of her husband: "when you're saying to yourself thank you to life which has given me so much, you can't actually focus on what's been taken, if you really hear those words" 

Found this video of Mercedes Sosa singing on Mexican television in the 90s.

Lots of things to notice in this video:
- the awful pink and gold ensemble the presenter is wearing
- how Mercedes thinks her mike is not working at the end of song 2, and keeps asking for it to be turned on. She is banging the mike making big gestures - hilarious.
- two awesome songs. The second is my current favourite: Maria Maria by the Brazilian Milton Nascimento. ae -ae-a-ae-ae-ae-e-e-eeee
- La Negra dancing about, moving across the set - a huge difference from her concerts today where she remains sat on a chair. ela she is older now, so it's ok.

Mercedes Sosa!

Shame on me earlier for saying I hadn't seen anything worth blogging about recently.

Of course I saw someone great in concert, and that person was the legendary Mercedes Sosa!
Despite her old age and past health problems, even though she had a folder with the lyrics in front of her and spent the whole show sat on a chair (except right at the end, for a tremendous Luna Llena and Maria Maria) she gave a great concert.

She is a true legend of Latin American music and it was such an awesome experience to be at one of her concerts, surrounded with Argentinian, Brazilians, Cubans etc, all totally in awe of her. She is their sister, mother, best friend, she and her music mean so much to them, it was magical to feel it.

Al Jardin de la Republica, Alfonsina y el mar, Zamba para no morir, Piedra y Camino (great version with a young harmonica player) and of course Gracias a la vida - she sang them all!

Also, I never thought I would see her live, what with her age etc but it has happened. A dream came true that night!

To La Negra, with much much love.

Mercedes Sosa in Europe, soon!

My favourite singer, the Argentinian Mercedes Sosa, has recently announced a tour of the U.S.A in April, and that she will soon "be coming over to Europe, where they have been waiting for me for a while now".

Mercedes Sosa is 71 (she was born in 1935) and was in poor health for a while, but, after losing weight, her health and her voice are back! On the 28th, she will be performing in Cosquin, Argentina, at the National Festival of Folklore, with Leon Gieco and Victor Heredia, two singer-songwriters who wrote tunes for her.

Sosa sings some traditional songs but also became famous for her involvement with the nueva cancion movement of the 60s, which combined "traditional Latin American folk music idioms with progressive and often politicised lyrics" (I am quoting Wikipedia here)

My favourite CD of hers is Mercedes Sosa en Argentina, a recording of concerts she did in Buenos Aires in 1982, when she returned from her 3 year exile (At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, and the attending crowd was arrested) This CD includes some pure classics of the Latin American repertoire, written by the greatest: Silvio Rodriguez, Bola de Nieve, Antonio Tarrago Ros, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Leon Gieco and more... Her voice is at her best, and the reaction of the crowd is wild. I get really moved everytime I listen to it!

I cannot wait for her to come to Europe.

I may have posted this already, but here is a video of her singing Violeta Parra's beautiful "Gracias a la vida"