La Negra Graciana - Sones Jarochos Con El Trío Silva [Corason]

'Now in her late sixties, Graciana is the first lady of son jarocho, the traditional music of the state Veracruz. This music, together with the mariarchi music and the sones from Jalisco, is the most popular in Mexico. Graciana, who plays the harp and sings, comes from a small village near Medellin de Bravo in Veracruz and made her album-debut ´Sones Jarochos´ with Trio Silva in 1995. Till then she had never left her own region; but she then toured Europe and the USA often and appeared for the first time in Mexico City. In 1999 she issued ´La Graciana En Vivo´, a live recording of a concert in the renowned Theatre de la Ville in Paris.

The fairytale curriculum vitae of the singing harpist who rose from rags to riches in her sixties recalls that of Cesaria Evoria from Cape Verde and that of the blind singer Dona Rosa from Portugal. La Negra Graciana spent half a century in lugging her harp along streets and performing there. As a child she had begun by playing with her father and brothers at family and folk festivals in the locality then had later played mostly as a soloist in Los Portales, a borough with many terraces in Veracruz harbour, where street musicians play nearly all day.

One day Eduardo Lleranas, very fond of traditional Mexican music and owner of the label Corason, pricked up his ears. Greatly impressed by Graciana´s archaic yet fresh way of playing the harp and her energetic singing, he decided to make a recording and soon came back from Mexico City to Veracruz, to set to work with La Negra Graciana, her younger brother, Pino Silva, who sings and plays the little Jarana guitar, and her sister-in-law Elena Huerta. Elena is likewise a harpist and owns, outside the city, a small turkey-farm which they used as an improvised studio. In this country idyll they recorded 18 pieces - many traditional and sometimes very old sones jarochos, which Graciana´s father had loved in his own day, like ´El siquisin´ or ´El balaju´. This first recording also included the piece ´La bamba' by Richie Valens.

But not only Graciana´s interpretation of these widely known evergreens won her the hearing of listeners outside Mexico. It was her special way of playing the harp ´a lo antigüito´, as she herself says. Her way is slower and less ornate than that of several of her colleagues, who since the 50s have been trying to make the son jarocho prettier and more commercial. Yet though the special colour of the harp´s sounds may be the most notable feature of Graciana´s music, she seldom uses the harp as a solo instrument. Rather it accompanies the décimas, the improvised song verses, in which the singer and her brother Pino reflect on anything and everything.' ~ source

18 slices of jubilant son jaracho featuring some sublime veracruzana harp virtuosity. 320 + booklet. gracias otra vez a Miguel de Toro y Loco