Hot, hot, hot!!!
A Reader | La Jolla, CA United States | 05/26/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Listen to the samples Amazon's provided. If something mambo like "Aprietame Asi (Squeeze Me Like That)" or the two-part meringue "Consangracion" doesn't grab you, nothing will. Simple test to see who's a zombie: play this CD; if they don't start to get down and dance, you'll know.
This ain't your Mexican style, your Puerto Rican style, it ain't your zydeco style, but its chili-pepper hot, syncopated rhythms and accordion-driven melodic structure beats all. This ain't your American NY 'hood-style merengue, either. The Dominican Republic shines in the hands of La India Canela, like the moon on banana leaves. What an artist. You can't forget, let alone ignore, such beauty.
And for those of you who think you *hate* accordion in your music, you've got another think coming. La India's squeezebox often sounds like hot, staccato sax -- sexy, sassy, saucy.
La India Canela (Lidia Maria Hernandez Lopez) learned how to play because, she says, in her house, "there was no television, no radio, nothing." The story of what followed will be told and retold for generations; she's on her way to becoming a legend.
I love the way she thinks, the way she feels, the way her music moves. She adds her own improvisations to classics and forgotten tunes, and nothing will ever be the same. For such sheer happy pleasure -- in the playing, and now in your ears (and feet and heart) -- you'll be in her and her band's debt.
This is a Smithsonian Folkways Recording. Informative liner notes are in English, Spanish, French."