New Audio: Los Cenzontles Shares Gorgeous and Soulful “Sobre Una Tumba, Una Rumba”

Deriving their name from the Nahuatl word for The Mockingbirds, the Richmond, CA-based Los Cenzontles (pronounced senn-SONT-less) — is an acclaimed touring and recording band and nonprofit cultural arts academy for kids. Over their three-plus decade history, the recording and touring outfit has dug deep into cultural traditions, creating a vibrant, contemporary sound infused with the gutsy soul of Mexico’s rural roots, releasing over 30 albums. 

The collective have supported those albums with tours across the US, Europe, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico. And they’ve collaborated with an eclectic array of acclaimed, internationally recognized artists including The Chieftains, Los Lobos, Los Tigres del Norte, Ry Cooder, David Hidalgo, Linda Ronstadt, Taj Mahal and a lengthy list of others. 

Their core members also serve as the programming staff and teachers of Los Cenzontles Academy, where they have been passing on musical traditions to new generations and inviting their students to perform with them on stage and participate in production projects since 1994. 

Released earlier this year, the Richmond, CA-based outfit’s remarkable 33rd album Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano sees the prolific collective collaborating with son jarocho masters Grupo Mono Blanco and Cuban cuatro master Kiki Valera to create material that meshes Cuban Son cubano with Son jarocho from the Mexican state of Veracruz. 

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about two album singles”

The Mono Blanco-penned “Matanga,” a virtuosic and shimmering mesh of Mexican folk and Cuban folk cultures built around an arrangement that features Cuban congas; Zapeteado de tarima, a percussive drum-like instrument that you tap your feet on; quijada, a percussive instrument made from the jawbone of a donkey, cow, horse or mule that’s cleaned of tissue and dried out, so that the loose teeth rattle when struck with a fist; jarocho jarana, an eight-stringed guitar-meets-mandolin-like instrument with the strings in five courses — usually arranged in two outer strings with three double-courses in between; requinto, a smaller, higher-pitched version of a guitar, and used throughout much of Latin America; cuatro cubano, another mandolin-meets-guitar-like instrument that can be single-stringed, double coursed or tripled coursed paired with Mano Blanco’s soulful delivery singing lyrics that tackle the universal themes of love and loss. 

“Matanga” was rooted in a unfussy production that captures remarkable musicianship and old-fashioned craftsmanship with the immediacy, familiarity and playfulness of a bunch of friends jamming together on the porch on a Sunday afternoon, playing the beloved old songs and finding something new every single time.

“Como un Perro” is a slow-burning and shimmering ballad that meshes both Cuban and Mexican folk traditions that sounds like the salsa, meringue and bachata ballads.

Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano‘s latest single “Sobre Una Tumba, Una Rumba” is a great old standard that sees the prolific Californians collaborating with Group Mono Blanco and Kiki Valera. The new single continues a remarkable run of material rooted in virtuosic and soulful playing, an unfussy yet clean production that captures an you’re-in-the-room immediacy while seamlessly meshing Cuban and Mexican folk traditions in a way that bring back fond memories of my own childhood here in Queens.