De tal palo, tal astilla
P. Micocci | Houston, TX USA | 11/15/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I was really happy to find this on CD; I could finally replace my copy on an almost worn-out cassette, which was itself hard enough to find back when I bought it. It seems that the world, or at least Latin America, is finally recognizing the real importance of the work of the great Chilean artist Violeta Parra and, by extension, of her children Isabel and Angel. Fifteen years or so ago, it was as if almost no one had ever known of their existence, at least in the English-speaking world. I even had occasion to ask the owner of a Spanish language bookstore, who happened to be Chilean himself and an older gentleman, if he had a copy of Parra's verse autobiography "Decimas"; he said he'd never heard of her before (or maybe he just didn't approve of izquierdistas). Anyway, that neglect is being rectified now, and the work of the Parra family is finally being made widely available; it's about time!
Apart from being of somewhat better sound quality (and durability) than my old cassette, this CD also has a number of additional songs, a few of which I hadn't heard before, or at least not by Isabel: "Yo canto la diferencia", "Rin del angelito", "Ayudame Valentina", "Volver a los 17", "Siqueiro prisionero", and "Corazon maldito". Of those songs, I was familiar with all but "Siquiero prisionero", but either in versions by Violeta herself or by the group Inti-Illamani.
As far as the overall sound quality, it has its up and downs, which is only to be expected considering the variety of locations and conditions under which these songs were recorded. Although the very brief production notes don't indicate such, I suspect that some of the masters may have disappeared in Santiago after the military coup in 1973, as was the case with other artists, notably Victor Jara; considering that Isabel's brother Angel was himself jailed by the military for several months before being exiled, and that many of their compatriots either fled the country or, in the case of Inti-Illamani, who happened to be touring Europe at that moment, delayed their return by more than a decade, such suspicion doesn't seem too far fetched. At any rate, the quality is never bad enough to mar my enjoyment of this music, and it's no more than might be expected from other historical recordings of an earlier period - for these songs truly are historic cultural treasures. As for Isabel's interpretations, they also have their ups and downs in my opinion. That's not to say that I dislike any of them, it's just that, for the most part, I generally prefer the original versions by Violeta; but that really amounts to less than half of the songs on this CD. According to the liner notes, these recordings were made in the period 1970 - 1980; that is, the earliest of them were recorded three years after Violeta's death, and although the text is all hers, the music on a number of them was composed by Isabel. In one case, on "Ayudame Valentina", Isabel has written new music that gives the song a completely different sound from the version by Violeta; the original was very sparse, just her singing and a drum beat, and had a very skeptical tone to it, whereas the version by Isabel is more elaborate musically and has a more typical "Nueva Canción" sound to it. In a few cases I definitely like Violeta's original versions better, for instance on "Yo canto la diferencia" and "Rin del angelito". Isabel's voice has a more "singerly" quality to it, which is fine for some songs, whereas with Violeta, I always get an impression more of viscera than vocal chords, which strikes me as more suitable on those particular songs; you really get a feeling of her emotion in her singing.
On the other hand, I actually prefer Isabel's version of "Run Run se fue pa'l norte"; it's a little slower than Violeta's version and seems more poignant. Perhaps it's because I was first familiar with Isabel's version, but whenever I listen to Violeta's, I get the impression she was hurrying through what was undoubtedly a painful experience for her. This is one of the most sadly affecting songs I know of; it deals with the separation from the last love of her life, the Swiss musician Gilbert Favre, who had left her in 1966 to stay on in Bolivia. From all accounts, Violeta was not the easiest person to live with; she was intensely passionate in all things, and did not take it well if she felt that others' responses were not equally intense. Perhaps Favre, after six or seven years of such a relationship, felt no longer up to the struggle; at any rate, some months after his departure, Violeta committed suicide, reportedly on her second attempt - an earlier attempt had been frustrated by Alberto Zapican, an Uruguayan musician with whom she and her children recorded her last compositions, including "Run Run se fue pa'l norte." The whole matter of Violeta's suicide, which came as a great shock to all who knew her, has never really been resolved, at least publicly, to my knowledge; Isabel, for one, has maintained virtual silence on the matter. In her excellent book, "El libro mayor de Violeta Parra", a mix of documentary information and letters as well as biography, she mentions only that Violeta killed herself with a gunshot on February 7, 1967. This was a period in which Violeta's latest efforts at founding a great pan-Chilean cultural center were meeting with a general public indifference. She reportedly upbraided her children for not coming with their families to live with her in La Carpa de la Reina, the big top circus tent on the outskirts of Santiago where she had installed herself. She spent most of her time there pretty much alone and, judging by the tone of her last recorded songs, was suffering considerably from feelings of abandonment. Such songs as "Run Run se fue pa'l norte", "La lavandera", "Corazon maldito" (which I prefer in the version by Inti-Illamani), and "Por qué será Dios del cielo" all point very strongly to a sense of loss, isolation, and emotional turmoil. What makes the question of her suicide more puzzling is that, as was learned much later, she had actually made plans that January to reunite with Favre in Bolivia. Recorded at a remove of some time after her mother's suicide, and with her daughter Tita playing guitar, I feel that Isabel's version of "Run Run se fue pa'l norte" captures the tragic quality of the song's lyrics more fully than Violeta's own.
It may surprise some fans of Violeta that there is no version here of "Gracias a la vida", her best known and most recorded song. I have a version of it by Isabel on another disc and, frankly, hers is the only rendition I've heard that holds a candle to Violeta's own. Ironically, it was also one of the "Ultimate Compositions" and, in retrospect, may have been more of a farewell than an uplifting tribute to Life, as many seem to view it.
So overall, although this CD is not perfect in all ways, I still give it five stars. It's really a wonderful collection of some extremely moving and historically important songs, performed by the greatest living interpreter of Violeta Parra's music.
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Track Listings (16) - Disc #1