Song of the Day: Suavecito – Malo

The Santana Brothers. Many have heard of one of them mainly: Carlos. He is the superstar with millions of followers and a big influence in the Latin-Rock-Jazz-Blues scene.

Well the other brother, Jorge, is another talent that moved to the US with his brother to pursue his dreams. And he did it, but on his own way.

Jorge Santana founded his own band in the early 70’s, Malo (band), and also took part in the movement that ultimately shaped the modern Latin Rock.

Suavecito is a melodic sound with jazzy tones and a nostalgic duo between a soft voice and an energic guitar pulling some harmonics in the background.

This song became the biggest hit of the band in 1972 and turned the eyes of the world to Jorge Santana. Sadly the group disbanded in 1974 and no further compositions were made during the 70’s. Later on, on 1981 they re-united but has rare appearances.

In the 90’s the Santana brothers took part in some projects together, but none of significance. Nowadays, what we still have and cherish from Jorge is this beautiful song.

Song of the day: Do you feel it? – Joe Cuba Sextet

My barrio, my beautiful barrio. This song makes me think of the old 50’s – 60’s Pachuco style with TinTán. The overstyled Zoot suits, the puns, the nostalgic voices singing in a dark bar, while the sadness is drunk away with a nice cold strong whisky, or maybe a cigar puts the mood, I don’t know, I can’t explain, just feel it… do you feel it?

Song of the day: Be my man – Asha

Her artistic name is actually Aṣa but is pronounced “Asha”. Thanks to some strange paths that I follow listening my music (in other words: Spotify), I discovered this nigerian singer and Oh boy! I love her voice. I invite you to check more material from her, she has some pretty nice songs, the musical production and her voice make a perfect match in her style. Very joyful songs indeed.

This time I would like to share the song “Be my man”. Well, I won’t dedicate it to any person, but would be nice if some girl sings it to me the way Asha does. Huuuuh! The music is simply great and the rythm is highly contagious. It makes me wanna dance and sing it again and again.

Say youhuhuhuhuuuu!!

The playlist of the nerds

It is like a spell to get my attention, and work perfectly. Jazz music and the concepts of Numerical Computation, Machine Learning and Image Understanding might seem very difficult to mix, but it happens and it is entertaining as nothing else.

First of all those topics entertain me a lot and, being a big fan of Jazz, I actually love the many people try to involve the listeners to my passions, like if they know what I like and put them together for me. For sure many people feel like me.

Well, many versions of these Nerd songs are rolling in internet. Following you’ll find a Playlist I made dedicated for the classic songs of the most used Numerical Computation Methods. A nerd list among the nerdiest things. Enjoy it! Continue reading

Song of the day: El Sing-A-ling – Poncho Sanchez

One of the most interesting and enjoyable styles for me is the Latin Jazz. Makes me remind home every time and I never miss the opportunity to enjoy the sound in it. Although a bit different, Jazz and Latin Music are actually very compatible and many musicians demonstrate so.

Today I’ve been listening to Jazz and its variations and didn’t want to keep it for myself. Here, you have one of the bedt percussionist and most talented entertainers in the Latin Jazz style: Poncho Sanchez and his band. He’s very well known because of his big talent as conguero.

Born in Laredo, Texas and some times considered as Mexican because of his heritage, he successes at giving the hot latin feeling to Jazz melodies. El Sching-A-Ling, one of his classic songs is made precisely for that: give sabrosura to the music. After this video also check I showed them,  El sabrosón, his excellent Dizzy Gillespie’s cover to A Night in Tunisia, an many more. Just let him convince you with those delicious sounds, and if you like it please share it to the world, I think he deserves that.

¡Saborrrr!

A sincere smile

Yes, today there was one of those moments that make my day in the end. Huuuuuh chulada! After being around 11 hours in the University and doing most of the time the god damned exercises of Machine Learning I decided to go downtown and walk a little.

After going to the bank and buying some train tickets I just was in the mood to walk. And thank God I did it! Right there in the exit of the U-Bahn station I started to hear some nice piano music. When I was already out, a guy was playing a big fucking piano in the streets. Yes, a grand piano! The guy was a long haired young man but he was playing really good and a bunch of people were around him. He was playing Chopin, I think.

I had to remove my earphones in order to enjoy it. The guy was really inspired and the people were there listening in this good moment right outside Galleria Kaufhaus in Marienplatz. After he finished a couple of songs I left in the direction of Stachus.

But in the way, even with my earphones back and with DLD at full blast, I could notice another great sound: Jazz. Fuck yeah! A jazz band was playing outside C&A and it sounded really good. The jazz was not so quiet and relaxing, it was more like a Cecil Taylor style, with the pianist hitting the keyboard with energy and creating crazy sounds through the wide scale of octaves. Continue reading

Fly me to the Moon

No sé, no sé. Ya son los últimos días del año y me puse de un humor… rico. Alegre. No estoy con mi familia o mis amigos (están al otro lado del mundo) pero creo que no hay nada malo en estar por acá. Me siento a gusto y hasta con ganas de cantar. Lo raro aquí es que cada vez que quiero cantar, últimamente me dan ganas de hacerlo con una canción: Fly me to the Moon.

Continue reading

La canción del día

Y no hay más qué decir cuando se escuchan las primeras notas de esta rolota. El sello característico de Stevie Wonder. Stevie la compuso originalmente para Jeff Beck, pero finalmente la grabó él mismo y surgió una chingonería para el álbum Talking Book de 1972.

Se han hecho muchos cóvers de esta canción pero la neta para mí la versión de SW es la mejor. Se mantiene ese ritmo funky que la caracteriza. De sólo escucharla me hace querer pararme para bailar y saltar al ritmo de… “Superstition”:

La letra habla sobre sucesos que dan mala suerte, según la superstición cultural universal. Aunque simple y corta, es una canción de un amplio gusto:

Very superstitious, writing’s on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout’ to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.
When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way
Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song.
When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeh, yeh.
Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say,
Very superstitious, the devil’s on his way,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past
When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no

 

¡Me encanta! Sólo puedo decir eso. ¿A poco no se disfruta a toda madre?

Frank Gambale

Hoy, no puedo dejar de lado la grandísima experiencia e inspiración que avienta a chorros el chingonzazo Frank Gambale. Es un guitarrista australiano pero se graduó del GIT en Estados Unidos como el músico del año y con honores. Es un lirero de Jazz Fusion y ha sido profesor de muchísimos guitarristas reconocidos mundialmente, además de ser objeto inspirador de millones más internacionalmente.

Frank Gambale live Continue reading