Music Appreciation (no soda, but maybe lederhosen)

Again on the message boards...
Q: "Uh, dude, do Latin Americans just drink a lot of soda? Because, yo, I see a lot of soda in the Latin American stores."
A: "Well, dude, Mexicans DO drink a lot of soda..."

[Sorry folks, if I am getting blitzed with over 100 emails a day with this stuff, you are fair game for my blog]

I'd like to spin that and instead talk about Latin American music.

One of the things I like to do with A when listening to music is ask, "Where do you think this came from?" So, some ethnomusicology...

Cafe Tacuba is an "alternative" music band from Mexico. A friend invited me to a live show of Cafe Tacuba's, and one piece that stood out in particular was a cover they did of the traditional (non-Mexican) folk song "Ojala Que Llueva Cafe" complete with traditional Mexican fiddler. Everyone in the audience went nuts. I had listened to mariachi music before, but during this non-mariachi tune I thought, these guys are really yodeling. A seems to like this song a lot, as well.

Links about the German influence in Mexican music:

From this site

and

From PBS (click on German Texans on the right).

On another occasion, I was at an Upper West Side book signing, and a strangely familiar yet exotic music could be heard. I could almost place my finger on it, but could not quite. What was it? It's Cuban, declared the host at the UWS signing. Now, Maitresse knows Cuban when she hears it. Cuban it was NOT. The host showed me the cover of the CD. Ah, Senegalese. They're a band from Senegal. Influenced by Cuban son, these guys have created a sound all their own. Popular in Europe, I chose the CD with the word "Pirate" in it because it was the coolest.