Search - Various Artists :: Rough Guide to Music of the Andes

Amazing CD!

A Reader | New York, NY USA | 07/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of my favorite CD's. Not a single bad track on this one. A great introduction to a wonderful tapestry of sounds and culture."

Addicting beats and new Andean sounds

Stephen Taylor | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | 10/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rough Guides billed this disc as going "beyond panpipes and ponchos", meaning they wanted it to be a sampler of some of the broader musical traditions of the Andes instead of just another "Andean flute music" CD. There's still a lot of pretty typical stuff here, but I guarantee you won't regret finding a copy of this disc. The beats are really addicting!The best tracks are Ernesto Cavour's "Leño Verde", Jenny Cárdenas's "Jallalla", and "Mi querido Potosí", which are also the most "European" tracks on the CD, incorporating a bandoneón and a piano in addition to the guitar. If you're a fan of the original Buena Vista Social Club CD, you'll recognize that amazing opening song, "Chan Chan", in an Andean variation ("Hacha"), performed by the group Inti-Illiman. Some other notable tracks are Sukay's "Concepción", an impressive improvisation for guitar, and "Te recuerdo Amanda", by the Chilean singer and songwriter Victor Jara. This last track was recorded back at the beginning of the 1970s, just a few years before Jara was killed on the first September 11 (September 11, 1973), when Pinochet, Kissinger, and other American-sponsored terrorists had him tortured to death in Santiago's football stadium, then machine-gunned. Te recordamos.Great disc. Five stars."