Gaby Moreno & Van Dyke Parks album ¡Spangled! from Nonesuch (10/04/2019)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by pghmusiclover, Oct 2, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

    [​IMG]

    1 Across the Borderline (Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Jim Dickinson – USA, 1982) 6:22
    2 Alma Llanera (Pedro Elías Gutiérrez, Rafael Bolívar Coronado – Venezuela, 1914) 2:13
    3 The Immigrants (David Rudder – Trinidad, 1998) 4:28
    4 Historia de un Amor (Carlos Eleta Almarán – Panamá, 1955)3:26
    5 Nube Gris (Eduardo Márquez Talledo – Peru, 1949) 3:17
    6 I'll Take a Tango (Alex Harvey – USA, 1976) 3:02
    7 Esperando Na Janela (Targino Gondim, Manuca Almeida, Raimundhino do Acordeon – Brasil, 2000) 4:01
    8 El Sombrerón (Revisited) (Gaby Moreno – Guatemala; Ari Shine – USA, 2008) 3:39
    9 O, Cantador (Dori Caymmi, Nelson Motta – Brasil, 1967) 4:04
    10 Espérame en el Cielo (Francisco López Vidal, Puerto Rico, 1955) 2:47

    Gaby Moreno & Van Dyke Parks ¡Spangled!

    Even if you neglected to listen to a single lyric, ¡Spangled! still comes off as a powerful political statement. Performed by 37-year old Guatemala City singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, and 76-year old Mississippi composer Van Dyke Parks, the ten-track LP shows the duo recreating music from the Americas, melding together disparate but similar genres while showcasing Latin songwriters.

    As Parks — an iconic musical arranger who's worked with Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and most famously, the Beach Boys — gives these songs a rich and celebratory sound, Moreno keeps the tracks grounded, playing tribute to exotic genres such as joropo (the traditional "Alma Llanera") tropicália (Gilberto Gil's "Esperando Na Janela") and Mexican show tunes ("Nube Gris" by Pedro Infante).

    Even when they take on English songs by Ry Cooder ("Across the Borderline") and Cilla Black ("I'll Take a Tango"), Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks manage to make ¡Spangled! sound less like a musically themed project and more like a labour of love.

     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2019
  2. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

    Gaby is a wonderful performer — I saw her touring as part of Hugh Laurie’s band a few years back.

    I’m looking forward to hearing this on Friday.
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2019
  3. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

    Listening on Spotify this morning and this is wonderful — beautifully sung and gorgeously arranged.
     
  4. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

    Lovely 4-star review from The Scotsman:

    Album reviews: Gaby Moreno & Van Dyke Parks | Judy Soundtrack | The Darkness

    The musical stars have aligned in the collaboration of LA-based Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno and Beach Boys/Brian Wilson’s right hand arranger Van Dyke Parks. ¡Spangled! showcases the magnificent Moreno channelling Linda Ronstadt in her Latino rapture over Parks’ twinkling orchestral arrangements to create a glorious symphonic suite of classic songs from across the Americas.

    Moreno has form with such pan-American fare, having worked with cosmic country band Calexico on a concert of border songs. There is probably never a bad time to celebrate the time-honoured tradition of human migration but a couple of these numbers feel especially piquant today.

    Ry Cooder, another great chronicler of the Chicano experience, guests on an exquisite rendition of Across the Borderline, which he co-wrote in 1982 with John Hiatt and Jim Dickinson. His unmistakeable guitar work is further complemented by guest vocals from Jackson Browne on this bittersweet border ballad, cautioning that the grass is not always greener in the “broken promised land.”

    David Rudder’s The Immigrants is a more defiant celebration of the immigrant foundations on which the US is built (“we all came here to take the plunge”) but beyond the obvious political resonances, ¡Spangled! is a loving salute to the timeless potency and emotion of Latin song, stretching back more than a hundred years to the trilling poetry of Alma Llanera, Venezuela’s unofficial national anthem, before moving up to date with Moreno’s own dramatic tribute to a hypnotic travelling troubadour, El Sombrerón.

    The rest of the collection encompasses the ravishing Panamanian waltz ballad Historia de un Amor, the adoration of the Puerto Rican lament Esperame en el Cielo (Wait for Me in Heaven) and the girlish sashay of Peruvian song Nube Gris, which belies a darker lyric about holding someone back. On the contrary, it is impossible not to be swept along by this life-affirming album.
     
    MartinGr likes this.
  5. writteninwater

    writteninwater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo
    Need to get this. Love Van Dyke Parks' playfulness with music.
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  6. Fantastic album. Stunning
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  7. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

    So happy someone else is listening to this beautiful work!
     
    Mazzy likes this.
  8. She had me when I saw the names Van Dyke Parks and Ry Cooder. But looking into more of her work now...
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  9. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    I’m trying to order the LP on the Nonesuch site and they want to charge me $10.99 for standard shipping to California? I’ve ordered from their site before and certainly don’t remember paying that. Anyone else encountered this? I just sent an email to customer service asking for clarification.
     
  10. sharedon

    sharedon Forum Zonophone

    Location:
    Boomer OK
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  11. MartinGr

    MartinGr Senior Member

    Location:
    Germany/Berlin
    I hadn't heard of Gaby Moreno before, but I'm collector of Van Dyke Parks' works.
    I was overwhelmed by the video above - Jackson Browne fits great and it's so heartwarming to see the maestro conducting!
    So I bought the vinyl album on Friday and I love it a lot. (Great sound, too)
    The arrangements are sooo typical Van Dyke, and I think all of them are stunning. He does the best for these songs and for an enchanting voice.
    Cover art: Klaus Voormann, by the way....

    P.S.:
    In retrospective, I'm not very happy with his collaboration with Inara George (An Invitation). Her songs are so pure and simply beautiful, but the orchestra is much too dry and busy to my ears. No wonder she re-recorded some of them with much more simple arrangements on her album "Accidental Experimental". And I prefer them, even as a Van-Dyke-Parks-fan.
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  12. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member Thread Starter

  13. gkella

    gkella Glen Kellaway From The Basement

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    as soon as I see Ry Cooder..I’m in.
    Was not aware of this artist...in the cart at amazon.ca !!!
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine