New Audio: Los Cenzontles Teams Up with Grupo Mono Blanco on a Timeless Fusion of Mexican and Cuban Folk

Deriving their name from the Nahuatl for The Mockingbirds, the Richmond, CA-based Los Cenzontles (pronounced senn-SONT-less) — is a band and nonprofit cultural arts academy for kids. Over their three-plus decade history, the 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.

The Richmond-based outfit’s remarkable 33rd album, Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano was released earlier this month. The album sees the 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. Written by Mono Blanco, Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano‘s latest single “Matanga” is a virtuosic and shimmering mesh of Mexican folk and Cuban folk musical 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.

The song is 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.

.