by the El Reportero’s wire services
Salvadoran singer and composer Álvaro Torres will conclude today, in this capital, his concert tour with the presentation of his most recent phonogram at the Karl Marx Theater.
Invited by the Company of Recordings and Musical Editions (Egrem), the artist starred in four concerts on the Caribbean island in which he presented the album Álvaro Torres and his good friends, which included important figures of Cuban music.
The album, recorded on the island in 2018, features the musical talent of the Diva of feeling, Omara Portuondo; Pancho Céspedes; Eliades Ochóa, Frank Fernández; Isaac Delgado, Buena Fe, the strings section of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Santiaguero Septet.
Member of the Hall of Fame of Latin Composers, Álvaro Torres acted, for the first time, in Cuba during 2011, returned in 2018 and again in February 2019, when he visited neighborhoods whipped by the tornado that affected the Cuban capital in January of this year.
Juan Luis Guerra’s Grammy nominated album “Literal” leads off “all music’s best of 2019”
Best Tropical Latin Album – Juan Luis Guerra is a musician, composer, arranger, producer, and songwriter from the Dominican Republic. He is one of the most internationally recognized Latin artists in recent decades. His popular style of merengue has garnered him considerable success around the world. He is also credited for popularizing bachata music on a global level and is often associated with the genre. A 23-time Latin GRAMMY® and three-time GRAMMY® winner, Guerra has recorded more than 15 albums and won numerous awards.
With some 30 million albums sold around the world, Guerra is a Latin music pioneer whose early international successes included the classic “Ojalá Que Llueva Café.” The track, which foreshadowed the global impact of current tropical urban stars is still instantly recognizable from its first notes.
Throughout his prolific career, Guerra has been reinventing the joyful rhythms of his native Dominican Republic with his band 4.40 and writing wonderful lyrics mined from the everyday lives of people in Latin America and beyond, empowering listeners at the same time as they dance their troubles away to his messages of “peace, harmony and love.”
The “Party of Five” restart addresses family separation
The highly anticipated drama Party of Five will premiere with two episodes on Wednesday, January 8. The original TV drama series was released 25 years ago, and its updated version is politically temporary.
From Sony Pictures Television, the reinvention of the beloved series will follow the five children of Acosta as they navigate the difficulties of daily living to survive as a family unit after their parents are suddenly deported to Mexico.
In a new version of the creators of the original series Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser, this beloved story of a young family bound by adversity will be told through the lens of current issues and cultural conversations.
The series stars Brandon Larracuente as Emilio Acosta, Emily Tosta as Lucia Acosta, Niko Guardado as Beto Acosta and Elle Paris Legaspi as Valentina Acosta. Bruno Bichir and Fernanda Urrejola star in Acosta’s parents, Javier and Gloria.
The first episode of Party of Five, filmed in Echo Park, California, will be available for a special pre-linear preview on Hulu, Freeform.com, the Freeform app, and on demand starting Wednesday, January 1.
Young people learn to make guitars to help preserve the traditional music of Veracruz
Interest decreasing in traditional music known as son jarocho
If you heard the song La Bamba, you heard they are jarocho, a regional style of music from Veracruz, jarocho is a term used to describe someone or something from that state.
But despite the importance of music for the traditional culture of the state, transmitting it to the next generation is not an easy task.
However, musician Anastasio Martínez has taken on the challenge. In his case, it takes the form of an incipient program in the southern municipality of Cosoleacaque to teach the manufacture of the traditional guitars that are used, called jaranas.
“We started the program because there was a certain level of disinterest in son jarocho. It was getting lost in the local culture, at least in southern Veracruz. The tradition was dying because the children were not interested, “he was attracted to other attractions such as celebrating Halloween, Martínez said.
With only four months of existence, the program already has 30 participants between 7 and 17 years old. Even three of the mothers who accompany their children have begun to make jaranas.
Martínez is encouraged. “The response has been very good. They are enjoying how I work, and they like to draw the molds and design their own instruments, add a drawing or other detail.”
