Wilson Simonal

Artist: Wilson Simonal

LP: Alegria, Alegria - Vol. 3
Song: "Mustang Color Sangre"

[ listen ]

Song: "Muchacha"
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I carted off an exciting haul of vinyl from Beats and Bohos last week on my way home from breakfast in Edmonds with my old college chum, John, and his wife and their cute young daughter. Included in my bounty was this 1969 LP from Brazilian artist Wilson Simonal. According to Wikipedia, Simonal, who has been dead for nearly twenty years, was mostly unknown outside of South America. I can't speak for the rest of my continent, but this week he's certainly been a hot item on the playlist at a particular one-bedroom apartment in Seattle!

[ Wilson Simonal: February 23, 1938 — June 25, 2000 ]

Los Impalas

Artist: Los Impalas

LP: Regresan Los Impalas
Song: "Cada Vez Que Vienes a Mí"
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Song: "Todo Gira" 
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I swore I'd stay away from record stores when I was visiting my brother in Portland two weekends ago. But of course we all know how that goes. The first store I ended up at was Music Millennium. It's a super cool shop with lots of nooks and crannies, but they mainly sell CDs and new vinyl. I picked up the new David Bowie CD there.

[ Music Millennium — Portland, Oregon ]

Once I stopped pretending I wouldn't be going record shopping in Portland, I was eager to check out Crossroads Music, which, according to people on the Internet, held a collection of vinyl inventory supplied by more than 20 different dealers. I was not disappointed, it was sublime. This 1975 release by Los Impalas from Venezuela is one of the things I picked up there. I'm guessing it's a retrospective collection, since, according to their Wikipedia entry, Los Impalas were active from 1959 to 1970. Plus, from looking at the cover, I'm pretty sure bands weren't still wearing duds like these and recording Beatles covers in 1975, not even in Venezuela. But who cares. It's good stuff. You can read more about Los Impalas and listen to some of their other songs on the Barraezo website here.

 [ Los Impalas de Venezuela ]

 [ Los Impalas de USA ]

[ Crossroads Music de Portland, Oregon ]

Los Ocho de Colombia

Artist: Los Ocho de Colombia

LP: De Costa a Costa Con Los Ocho de Colombia

Song: "La Danza del Diablo" 
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Song: "Shunga Marunga (Cuca Maruca)" 
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Happy Halloween! A spider just dropped onto my head while I was typing this. How appropriate. Have you seen this costume for a TV weather news person? What about this one that turns out like this? Anyway, "La Danza del Diablo" by Los Ocho de Colombia was the best I was able to come up with to commemorate the holiday. It's not very scary. There isn't much info about these eight handsome fellows on the web; according to this page they began making music in 1974, but I also found a discography that includes an album from 1972 and I have a feeling this "De Costa a Costa" LP is from even earlier than that. The group is still around, though according to the photo header on this Facebook page, Los Ocho de Colombia have now grown into Los Quince! I feel it's also important to point out that the male members of this group are not averse to posing shirtless...as long as they can continue to wear a tuxedo. 

In English, via Google Translate: 

1. Where has pace and party have to be The 8 of Colombia

2. Reminding the county that they are guilty of domestic happiness which

3. Members and instruments are at the top of the modern creation

4. Manufacturing

5. Only for crowds

6. The best list of successes that 

7. Located as precursors and absolute owners of musical truth of the nation

8. These are the seven critical highlights and notes in the dance music of Colombia

La Compagnie Creole

Artist: La Compagnie Creole

LP: Vive Le Douanier Rousseau!

Song: "C'est Bon Pour Le Moral"

[ listen ]

Turntable Treasures and House of Records is the other store I visited on my trip to Tacoma last Friday. They've moved around the corner from where they were the last time I was there about seven or eight years ago, but their new spot is as cluttered and junky as ever, and it feels like they've been stuck there for decades. Unfortunately, the older fellows who run the place evidently got wind of the news that vinyl sales have been on the upswing and that collecting has become popular with hipsters, and they're hoping to get themselves a big slice of the vinyl-sales pie. The first bin of records I thumbed through was filled with beat-up thrift-store staples like this and this and this, all of them marked at $20 apiece. (The friendly fellow behind the counter said to watch their Facebook page for info about featured sales on Sundays, so maybe those records are offered at a 190% discount at the end of every week to compete with the Good Will down the street.) But as is usually the case in stores where battered Huey Lewis records are going (or not going) for $15, you can usually find a few reasonably-priced treasures if you dig deep enough into the dustiest corners of the place. This lively and colorful 1983 LP by La Compagnie Creole is one of the neat things I found stuffed into the "World" section beneath the bins of "Pop and Rock," in the shelves near shoppers' kneecaps. Originally from French Guiana and the French West Indies, La Compagnie Creole are known for their happy-go-lucky music accompanied by joyful themes like rainbows, sunshine, and harmless animals, with a special emphasis on the Parakeet. You can read about them here. And then go here to read about La Compagnie Creole.

Renato Salani y Su Conjunto

Artist: Renato Salani y Su Conjunto

LP: Una Noche Asi...En El Hipocampo

Song: "In Ginocchio Da Te (De Rodillas Ante Ti)"

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Here's a little something from yet another terrific LP by Renato Salani of Caracas, Venezuela—this time he's backed by his conjunto instead of his cuarteto, and that's his brother Julio Salani again on vocals. I looked up "Hipocampo" to find out where I'd be spending the evening—seems we're hanging with Renato in a swanky '60s Caracas nightclub called "El Hipocampo," or "The Seahorse" in English.

Fedra y Maximiliano

Artist: Fedra y Maximiliano

LP: Un Muchacho, Una Muchacha

Song: "Angelitos Negros"

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No matter how hard they'd tried, the chips were stacked against Argentinian duo Fedra y Maximiliano as they attempted to record songs for their album that might somehow be even more exciting than their pants.

They didn't quite make it (those are amazing pants), but they came pretty close. Fedra and Maximiliano (real names Élida Navas—or Eli Salvador—and Pedro "Bebe" Muñoz) formed their singing duo in 1968, and were evidently together for fewer than five years, since the info I found online indicates that Pedro adopted the name "Maximiliano" only for that length of time. You can read about Fedra y Maximiliano in Spanish here (Fedra even chimes in with a comment!—but not Max; he passed away in 2008) and additional Spanish-language notes from the back of the "Un Muchacho, Una Muchacha" LP are included below—written by Oscar Cardozo Ocampo, whose orchestra provides accompaniment on the record. There's a neat YouTube music video of Fedra and Max you can watch here:

Fedra y Maximiliano on YouTube:

[ "Cuéntame" ]

Hugo Blanco y su Conjunto

Artist: Hugo Blanco y su Conjunto

LP: "Mas" Ritmo con Hugo Blanco

Song: "Suky"

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Here's some heavenly harp music (plus organ!) from talented Venezuelan musician Hugo Blanco and his Conjunto. Born in Caracas in 1940, Hugo received only two months of musical education, yet when he was 18 years old in 1958, he composed one of Venezuela's most internationally famous songs, "Moliendo Café." Not only that, but in the 1960s, he founded Venezuela's first ska group, Las Cuatro Monedas. You can read more about Hugo Blanco in Spanish here and here, and go here to read less about him in English. Click here to listen to Hugo's harp rendition of "Moliendo Café."

Tercet Egzotyczny

Artist: Tercet Egzotyczny

LP: Tercet Egzotyczny

Song: "W Samo Poludnie (Just at the Noon)"

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For some reason Blue Arrow Records wasn't on the Cleveland record store list I'd put together before I left Seattle. Fortunately, the guys at My Mind's Eye told me about the place. It turned out to be one of the best record stores in Ohio! First of all, it's located in a neat 1950s-looking building that features a big blue arrow over the door. Then, the entire floor there is covered with album sleeves under a waxy varnish, and the friendly guys working there gave me a sturdy cardboard box for shipping LPs back to Seattle. Last but not least, they've got a great selection and reasonable prices. I picked up lots of neat old gospel, soul, funk, and Latin LPs at Blue Arrow, and even a few from Poland, like this 1966 self-titled release from Tercet Egzotyczny, or "The Exotic Trio." Izabella, Zbigniew, and Mieczyslaw brought the folkloric music of Central and South America (and a cover of "High Noon," evidently) to appreciative audiences throughout Europe, and they also made appearances in the USA. I've only had their record for a few weeks, but it's given me many pleasant moments indeed. You can read about Tercet Egzotyczny on Wikipedia in English here, in Polish here, and visit their website here. The bilingual LP liner notes are included below, and here's a Tercet Egzotyczny video from the 1980s. 

Tercet Egzotyczny on YouTube:

[ "Dance, Czyli: Conga, Bonga i Casbassa" ]

 [ Blue Arrow Records, selection ]

 [ Blue Arrow Records, LP floor tile ]

 [ Blue Arrow Records — Cleveland, OH ]

Hugo Blanco et sa Harpo Indienne

Artist: Hugo Blanco et sa Harpo Indienne

LP: 7" single

Song: "Moliendo Café"

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Though this 7" EP was pressed in France, these four lovely tunes from Venezuelan composer and harpist Hugo Blanco were originally recorded for Pallacio Records in Caracas. "Moliendo Café" means grinding coffee, which is what I'm about to do right now, only my grinder is electric. Though it doesn't have quite the same zing without percussion, there's a lovely harp duet performance video of "Moliendo Café" (most of it, anyway) included here:

Harp players on YouTube:

[ "Moliendo Café" ]

Vicente Bianchi w/ Coro Chile Canta feat. Jaime Soval

Artist: Vicente Bianchi w/ Coro Chile Canta feat. Jaime Soval

LP: Misa a la Chilena y Otros 6 Temas Chilenos

Song: "Agnus Dei"

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Here's a lovely South American something for a sunny Friday morning in Seattle. Born in Santiago, Chile in January of 1920, Vicente Bianchi began studying piano when he was just six years old. He went on to study music and lead orchestras in Argentina and Peru before returning to Chile in 1955, at which time he began composing a series of songs called "Music for the History of Chile" with popular Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. You can read about Vicente Bianchi's life and his musical career that spans eight decades (so far) here and here, and find more info and photos on Bianchi's official website here. Links to Spanish-language versions of these sites can be found here, and the Spanish-language liner notes from the "Misa a la Chilena" LP, which was evidently released in either 1965 or 1968, are included below.

[ Vicente Bianchi, 1938 ]

 [ Vicente Bianchi, 2010 ]