Son de Madera
Urtext Records
(1998)
***
“El Amanecer”

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Here is a sample of an esoteric group called Son de Madera heard here playing their song “El Amanecer” (translated as “The Dawn”.)  For those who had the pleasure of roaming through the southern portion of Mexico’s state of Veracruz, the name of the band may ring a bell.  Yet for those hadn’t, taste this guanabana lolipop*.  The song displays  the rich musical tradition of Veracruz with its fast rhythmic tempo and plenty of improvisation.

Due to continued importation of Africans for slave labour at the plantations that continued up until the early 19th century, a lot of African-Mexicans slaves lived in that region.  As a result some of the contemporary son musicians were African-Mexicans who’d joined up in the jams and added an African singing influence to the tradition.

Then during the late colonial period, the Catholic Church tried unsuccessfully to suppress the Son Jarocho because of what they judged as heathen and devilish behavior.  Apparently the Bishops were quite upset about the frequent use of sexual doble sentidos (“double meanings”) and their humorous tendency to make light of religion, death and the Church itself.

The foundation of this music is the jarana, a small fretted, eight- to ten-stringed instrument similar perhaps to the better-known sweet sounding South American charango.  Another characteristic of this culture is their dance style which is the zapateado (a rhythmic stamping style much like tap dancing).  In the song you can also detect a nice blend of harp, violin, son guitar, percussion, and a special hint of an oftentimes rare instrument called the quijada (made of the jawbone of a donkey).

A Fandango (an impromptu gathering) would happen when everybody would just happen to be hanging around the tarima (or wooden stage) during a picnic or dog walk and then the musicians would be playing their instruments and spontaneously break in song and dance!  Since improvisation is key to the jarocho musicians, they endlessly invent new harmonies, melodies, and verses always to make the performance of these songs unique.  And  the musicians always claim that they never perform the same version of the song twice–creating an infinite number of variances to the original tune.

* guanabana : in Veracruz, there is also a traditional drink made of this fruit related to the son jarocho festivals