Reviewed November 2007
Replacing the Open Studio Tour is the First Friday Art Walk - http://www.artwalkmazatlan.com/
The art scene is growing quickly in Mazatlan. This January was the 3rd annual Mazatlan Open Studio Tour . This year's tour was supported by many local businesses including Pacifico Brewery. The web site for Open Studio Tours will be updated frequently with ongoing art related events in Mazatlan.
An excellent set of recent photographs depicting the artist and cultural scene in Mazatlan can be found here .
Current information on Carnaval in Mazatlan is only a click away http://www.carnavalmazatlan.net/.
DavidShafer August 27, 2005
LinRobinson - Dec 21 2003
Mazatlan JAZZ Scene!!!
Mazatlan, of all places, is turning into quite the JAZZ locale!
Meanwhile, inside Pedro and Lola you can hear JOCK every night but Tuesday and Thursday, 6-9 playing superb sax, flute and clarinet. Jock is a real asset to the music community of Mazatlan. See an article about him here .
The jazz is spilling over to the Malecon as well. Canucks restaurant features SWAY on Tuesdays for sunset, then later in the evening for dancing and merriment. Lorenzo and Gayle come in on Friday nights for sunset. And Thursday sunsets feature Greg Brady and Freddy Pinzon doing wonderful sets of acoustic guitar. See the line up on Canucks site here.
LinRobinson - Dec 13 2003
MAZATLAN TYPES OF MUSIC (Part One: Country/Northern)
Musically, Mazatlan is a major spot on Mexico's musical map. Not as much so as Mexico City or Guadalajara, perhaps, but for a city of our modest size (currently about a quarter of a million souls, another few thousand of the soul-less), and isolation in the wild Northwest, we have produced some major impacts on the national musical character. Not necessarily for the better, as you will see. And perhaps not even agree. But one thing is obvious from the start: Mazatlan throbs with music. Out in the "Golden Zone" of high-rise beach hotels, there is so much music you get confused. When good bands play at Tony's, people stand outside to listen and waiters circulate, selling drinks to people on the sidewalk. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of pulmonias passing: open Volkswagen buggies with huge stereos that turn them into mobile juke boxes, generally blasting the hot song of the moment, "Toda La Vida", replaced by "La Macarena", then "Mambo #5", and on to the next foolishness. The hotel bars, the discos, the bordellos in the Zone and along the miles of Malecon can keep you walking in rhythm from one end to the other. Down in the Old Quarter there are jazz cafes, art music bars, and several conservatories where young people play classical music. It seems as though every block has a record store, you squeeze by little stalls on the sidewalks selling pirated cassettes and CD's with photocopied jackets. The main reason that Mazatlan doesn't have an international reputation as a music Mecca, like Havana, is that the regional music is too crazy and cowboy to suit international tastes.
In a way, Mazatlan's location is ideal to create a vivid palette of Mexican musical styles. It is located in the Northwest, in cow country, gateway to the wild Sierra where the bandits and drug growers play, where a man would feet naked with out his cowboy hat, fancy boots, mustache, pickup truck and sheath knife. This is Norteno country, the home of Banda. We would be as ranchero as Monterey or Ciudad Juarez except that we are also located on the sea, which has always been as big an influence on this city as the countryside around us. Those cowboys sit in their bars drinking Pacufico beer, with the big whale on the quart bottle. So there is also a great deal of port music here, beach music. Which in Mexico means Cumbia, the lilting Caribbean beats also known as Tropicales.
Mexico's lower classes essentially line up with either one of these musical poles or the other. Pop comes and goes, mariachis and protesta and trova are essentially novelties for the over-educated. Most common people favor either the rancho sound or the tropics. You can almost tell which by the way they dress. The cowboy hats are going to listen to Radio Ranchito and spend their Saturday nights dancing quebradita at places with "Rancho" or "De Norte" in the name, probably with picture of a horse or fighting cock in there somewhere. The more relaxed types in loose, bright-colored clothing and marlin fishing T-shirts are going to be doing cumbias at some place made out of bamboo and palm thatch with the word "Tropical" somewhere visible.
Cumbia music is not actually of Mexican origin (nor is Salsa, which came from New York). It originated in Columbia, and Colombian cumbias are somehow hotter, slicker and faster than our local variety. The is Caribe music to us, Musica Tropicul. If you want to hear to best of it, try a Sonora Dynamita CD, songs like "Oye" and "Saca la Maleta" are timeless. This is sunny, happy music designed to feel good lying on the beach or shuffling around the dance floor or making love under palm trees (or in sandy sheets under a rising moon and rotating fan). I've heard it called "Reggae without guilt"–tropical Caribbean island music racial distinction, and with the easy rhymes and beats of Spanish. It's very popular for dancing because you don't have to know how to dance to it. You just sort of move around, find something to do with your arms. Party music, even among the upper classes. This is the kind of music you will hear in Olas Altas bars like CopaCubana or the Shrimp Bucket, or Golden Zone spots like Alleluya Republic. It is for the part of Mazatlan with that keeps its toes in the water.
Nortenn music, on the other hand, has a very definite lower class image. Nobody with a college education listens to it. It's great music for dancing: the basic two-step is simple enough, but you can have a lot of fun with the strutting, spinning, heel-kicking variations. But put it on at a party of the type of people who own cars and wear guayaberas and somebody will just go take it off and scowl at you. A woman I know who loves to dance (and does so very beautifully) told me her family has practically disowned her because she likes to listen to Norteno and dance the quebradita. I'll admit, the quebradita is pretty scandalous, can be a lot more pornographic than Lambada. It's an up between the legs, laying around on each other, hip shaking sort of dance done with flat cowboy expression. You will find low classes places out on Ejercito Mexicano, near the bus station, or even right in the Golden Zone, that feature this music. Look for horseshoes and ropes on the signs outside. You will not look right going there in your beach casuals and sandals: everybody else will have a cowboy hat and boots. Even the girls: there is a sort of Mexicana cowgirl look you see in ranchero joints that I find very sexy. Pert hats, blouses with holes cut for the shoulders to peek through, short skirts or very tight black jeans, shortie high heeled boots. Cute little vaqueritas out to kick up their heels and spin around.
In Mazatlan, ranchero music is a sort of proto-Banda (please see my entry on Banda further down) but it's still very much a part of the culture, and has produced some of Mazatlan's best-known and best-loved musical stars.
LinRobinson - Dec 12 2003
MAZATLAN TYPES OF MUSIC (Part 2 – The Traditions)
The heroes of Mazatlan music, people with national (and even international) impact, tend to be the sort of people who sing wearing Stetsons or sombreros. That's the kind of state Sinaloa is: you wouldn't expect Texas entertainers to sing musical comedy in tuxedos. There are a great many recording stars with Mazatlan roots (and some from nearby cities that we sort of claim as cousins, such as the beautiful, husky-voiced Ana Gabriel) and their names can be seen, along with their handprints, in the cement of the huge plaza off the Paseo Claussen where the cliff divers dive off the cliffs. But there are a few people who stand out even among the stars.
Don Cruz Lizarraga, who developed the first Banda Sinaloensa, is a major international figure. But the First Lady of Mazatlan music is Lola Beltran. It is impossible to find a Mexicana ranchera figure who is not influenced by La Beltran. By which I mean, women who sing wearing sombreros or cowboy hats, nice rebozos, charra outfits. "Country" singers, if you will, although in Mexico that also starts to be sort of like "Folk" singers. You hear a lot of Lola in Linda Ronstadt's "Canciones", for example. Sra. Beltran, who died in 1996, had a career that spanned the entire modern era. She pioneered recording, performed with mariachis, with the conjuntos (or "combos") of ranchero music, with symphony orchestras, with Don Cruz and other great Bandas. Her persona, a motherly woman in a shawl, her sombrero thrown back, singing her heart our over love gone wrong, is classic and indelible. Her death filled up the newspapers and television screens all over the country: I saw hundreds of people crying in the streets. There is a street named after here in Mazatlan, look for it where it enters the Malecon–there is a bust and monument. But I think her true monument is in people's hearts. That might sound corny and trite to you, but you have not stood on the sidewalk watching a family of poor Mexicans staring through a store window at a television screen showing scenes of Lola's funeral and her career, the whole family openly sobbing. I don't think there is anybody in American music culture that I could compare her to, a singer with that stature and reach into people's lives. Which is a shame: it is good for a people to be brought together at times, whether with the pleasure of music or even by a shared grief.
The Tigres del Norte are not, technically from Mazatlan (neither is Vicente Fernandez, Sr. First Tapatio, actually from Guadalajara, not Frank Sinatra from New York or Las Vegas) but they are definitely favorite sons and maintain a presence in the city. Again, it is difficult to propose an American equivalent to the Tigres. They have always been THE Norteno group, the first to experiment, yet also the most deeply set in tradition. Their throbbing accordian, heartland vocals, and catchy classics like "La Puerta Negra" have set the standards for cowboy hat music for several generations. Yet they have always been pioneers: controversially, they were the first established Mexican group to incorporate elements of "rap" into a song. Think of Johnny Cash doing that, if you think I used the word "controversially" lightly. The Tigres have just always been there. They are always on the juke box, always on the radio, always doing concerts in a town near you.
I would suggest that anyone interested in Mexican music listen to a Tigres del Norte recording. Try to get a "Greatest Hits" package that contains "La Puerta Negra", and maybe another timeless classic, "Tristes Recuerdos", but any CD will give you the idea. As will any Lola Beltran album. If you like sweeping, weeping strings, pick one with mariachi. If you like big brass, one with Banda. A hit package from "Banda Recodo" will acquaint you with Don Cruz and his contribution. And, probably best suited to American pop tastes, any album by Ana Gabriel is sure to delight, especially those with "Es Demasiado Tarde" or "Ni Un Roce" showing off her curiously sweet rasp to great advantage.
LinRobinson - Dec 12 2003
MAZATLAN TYPES OF MUSIC (Part 3 – Banda)
Some of the world's cities are fortunate to be associated with the birth of new forms of music: New Orleans jazz, Chicago blues, Liverpool "beat", Seattle "grunge", Guadalajara mariachis. Mazatlan is the undisputed birthplace of a distinctive type of music called Banda Sinaloensa, but I'm not sure how fortunate we are to have had that honor. This is not jazz or tango or bossa nova: this is some pretty strange music that turns me crazy in minutes and has become a symbol of machismo and, more recently, drug trafficking. Banda (also called Tambora) is absolutely Sinaloa music, and definitely invented in Mazatlan.
Banda is similar to Norteno in many ways, but takes the idea of cowboy polka much further. Much further than necessary, many might say. Just as Mariachi was created by adding trumpets to the traditional string bands (in order to make them workable on radio, believe it or not) Banda supercharges the basic ranchero sound with brass. Lots of brass. Lots and lots of brass. It's nothing for a banda to have twenty musicians, most of them playing trumpets, trombones, clarinets, and tubas, maybe even a saxophone or two. Bass drums are played, but in the style of a marching band, not a drumset: if they want snare drums in their sound, they hire a guy to stand there and play snare drum. I've heard Americans refer to the resulting sound as "Ooompapa": the name John Philip Souza comes up frequently. And that is the result: a big Souza-style marching band, standing around a restaurant table playing all the parts and harmonies and fills, added "Oooomp" and "Boomp" to polka beat music sung by cowboys in hick accents, and probably with lyrics dealing with drug trafficking.
Probably that sounds somewhat surreal to anybody not accustomed to Mexican music, and especially the narco-cultura of the Northwest. But there are reasons it got to be that way, and some history. For one thing, people find it odd for Indian cowboys to be playing polka on accordions and guitars, but it's not that unusual for cultures to borrow instruments from other societies. In fact, isn't that what blues, and even jazz, are supposed to be? Slaves playing their African sensibilities on the European instruments they found in the New World? And, come to think of it, wasn't New Orleans jazz originally marching music, played by brass bands for funerals? Is Dixieland any less surreal than Banda? Or any less obnoxious?
Anyway, the basic norteno music originally developed in Texas, Mexicans (or Chicanos or Texmex or whatever–Texas identities are very confused, especially historically) enjoying the polka beat and accordions brought over by the thousands of German immigrants to the Rio Bravo area. The music seeped into Mexican culture from the North (which is why it is called norteno) and became identified as cowboy music. "Country-Northern" music. It was very popular in Mazatlan. Where there was also a European tradition of band music. There were a great many brass bands and military bands in Mazatlan before and after the Revolution of 1910, often playing Sunday concerts on the decorated kiosks and bandstands in the cities plazas. Cross-pollination was inevitable.
But the major moment in the development of the banda came in the late fifties, practically invented by one man, Don Cruz Lizarraga. Don Cruz forged the prototypical Banda Sinaloensa, the famous Banda Recodo. This band was the Beatles of Banda, really. They are still one of the best-selling bands in the country, even though most of the original members have passed away. The band is now led by Don Cruz' son, and there is another band, made up of sons of the originals, called "Los Recoditos". It is not often that a sound or type of music is brought into being so distinctly. Nowadays, bands like "Banda Limon" and "Mr. Lobo" pack halls, not only in Sinaloa, not only in Mexico, but throughout Latin America, including Latin American places like Los Angeles and San Antonio. If Banda Recodo announced a concert at the LA Coliseum next week, it would be sold out within days. Across from the Aquarium is a stature of Don Cruz, commemorating the birth of Banda.
The current state of Banda is powerful, gaining in influence at the same time it reaches new audiences. A lot of groups make recordings "con banda" to increase sales. Even MARISELA! released a CD of some of her songs re-mixed with Banda tracks. This would be similar to Madonna putting out a greatest hit collection with all the songs backed up by football bands playing polka music and shouting rebel yells. A lot of the notorious new narcocorrido bands like "Los Tucanes de Tijuana" are essentially bandas without all the instruments, sort of pop versions of the backhills drug dealer songs. A Tucan is a toucan, a bird with a REALLY big nose. Get it? If not does it help to hear of song titles like "The Little White Powder"? The Tucanes' monster hit, "Bailando Con El Tucanazo", means dancing with a cocaine high. "Living La Vida Coca" one might say.
But wait, you might be thinking, what does all this polka and cowboy and tuba stuff have to do with drugs? Well, to a Mexican the relationship is obvious, but I can see how it would take a little explanation, some of it found in my narco-cultura journal. Basically, in Mexico drug trafficking has always been a rural thing: bandidos in the Sierra growing mota and running opiates across the border. The heartland of this form of agriculture and business is in the mountains of Sinaloa. The image of the narco-vaquero is as associated with drug dealing in Mexico as Armani suits and Ferraris are in the United States. Maybe those Miami Viciosos like Jan Hammer music and Miami Sound Machine, but down here drug dealers are tough guys with cowboy hats and they like banda. Or, as they well often call it, tambor. Same music, two different names. They narcos go wild over it. You walk in a restaurant and see one cowboy sitting alone with a banda playing to him, he's probably in the drug industry. One semi-joking explanation for the narcos' love of tambor is that only they can afford the rates for such huge bands. You could also get academic and recall that another meaning for banda is "gang". Banderos are gangsters, the old word bandito is from the same source. Still, I'm sure it seems odd to foreigners that drug cartel lieutenants would sit around listening to big band cowboy polka instead of something slick and urban from the "Miami Vice" soundtrack. Well, welcome to Sinaloa. Drug images here don't come from importing, they come from raising, harvesting and exporting. You might call it supply side esthetics
Anyway, it's easy enough to hear Banda in Mazatlan, even if you aren't on the guest lists at heroin plantations. If you don't see groups renting out in the seafood restaurants along Playa Norte, just walk up Calle Guiterrez Najera (which starts at the Malecun by the Monos Bichis, two huge nude statues built to commemorate the fishing industry, but more usually associated with giant genitalia) to the first major intersection and look around. You will see garage doors painted with the names of Bandas, all of which sound the same. Just copy down the numbers and give them a call to set up a concert. Maybe the metal doors will be rolled up and you will be able to see the drums and tubas and other musical gear, with a few musicians lounging around waiting for work. If your unfortunate choice of legal means to earn your living does not allow you to afford the high price of hiring a huge band for your party or serenade, ask them where they play at night, where you can hire them on a song-by-song basis. You will discover a basic and eternal truth about this kind of music: it's really, REALLY loud
LinRobinson - Dec 12 2003
MAZATLAN TYPES OF MUSIC (Part 4 – Trios)
Some of the most beautiful Mexican music, and the music which is easiest for foreigners to appreciate, is Trios. I don't mean that in the jazz or classical sense of anything played by or written for three musicians: Trios is a special kind of music that can be played by two, three, or four people. It is essentially vocal music accompanied by guitar, or the same songs just played instrumentally, on two or three guitars. This is a lovely music, romantic, lush, and full of harmonies and intricate embroidery. The best way to hear it would be to obtain a record by "Los Panchos", the classic Trio. On several albums they play and sing with Edie Gorme, which makes them even nicer to listen to. Her wonderful voice is well known in Mexico: I understand she also records in English.
The ideal conditions for listening to Trios, is with a woman with whom you are in love, or better yet, a woman that you wish to be in love with you. Perhaps the little girl has already come through the restaurant selling roses, and you have bought a single red one for your hopeful enamorada. Now, for mere money, you can wrap her in beauty, in romance, in an endorsement of entertwining and harmonious togetherness. You would be a fool not to, she would be heartless to resist. You can still take a taxi to Playa Norte and listen to masters of this musical form while sitting on the rail by the sea. This area was once an entertainment zone, but time has moved on and left a great many empty clubs, caberets, restaurants and bordellos. But in its time, this was a neighborhood saturated with music, and several Trios still maintain their "offices" here. These are old men, veterans of musical delights, who are too set in their patterns to change just because all the people moved up north to the Zona Dorada. They still have little storefronts with metal garage doors in front, painted with fading signs saying, "Trio Tropical" or "Trio Los Isleuos". In the evening they cross the street and sit on the seawall, waiting for the people to come back and here them play. Some of these old gentlemen can no longer sing, but they can still play. And the people do come back. Couples walk down from the Paseo Claussen, having watched the stars and waves under all those sexy bronze statues, and sit on the beach, listening to love songs. Taxis pull up, men in the back seat beckoning the Trio to come up and play in the window to help melt the hearts on the seat beside them. In the United States, you have drive-up dining, ordering food to eat in your cars. I have never understood this concept, and most Mexicans would think it perverted. Here, on the other hand, you can order drive-up music and romance.
On more than one occasion I have seen a drunk, or a crowd of drunks, standing on the Malecun in Playa Norte, listening to a Trio, holding out a cellular phone to capture the sound for somebody on the other end of the line. Probably an irritated wife, but it could be anybody: a boss awakened at 00 AM for a serenade, a sick buddy who couldn't get out drinking with them, a girl reluctant to drop everything and go meet a drunken Romeo on the sidewalk.
But however you listen to a Trio, the result is the same. You glide around on slippery phrases that converge into streams of shining sound that cascade down to a deep, dark, moonswept sea of romance and beauty. If you can't grab a cab down to Playa Norte right now, go order a CD of Los Panchos and La Edie singing "Vareda Tropical". Or better yet, call up a beautiful woman and tell her you are flying her to Mazatlan, taking her out to a fine restaurant, buying her an armful of the deepest red roses, and plying her with gorgeous songs. See what it gets you.
For more on the Mazatlan Trios see THIS ARTICLE