Borderline Latin is an exploration of the influence of Latin music in styles, places and rhythms beyond its traditional borders, and of different types of cross-pollination between Latin music and other musical creatures. Each week, we will feature a song or musical style whose rhythm, themes, melodic inflections or influences have earned it the name of Borderline Latin.
This week’s borderline Latin is both a hundred percent borderline and a hundred percent Latin. When checking out today’s California scene for last week’s post about Cypress Hill a friend of mine pointed out L.A.’s La Santa Cecilia for me, and I have to say this: these guys are good. This band is composed of six members, but it is the voice of powerful singer La Marisoul –a.k.a. Marisol Hernandez, what gives it its distinctive flavor, su sabor.
La Santa Cecilia formed in Los Angeles in 2007. They are named after the patron saint of all musicians. Most of its members were born in Southern California except for Jose Carlos, the band’s accordionist and requintero, born in Oaxaca, Mexico. Their music is a blend of all styles –almost quite literally. Among their influences they mention artists as disparate as the Beatles and Ramon Ayala, Janis Joplin and Mercedes Sosa, mariachi music and punk, The Doors and a little bit of son jarocho. They aspire to represent today’s Latin creativity, which fuses Latin traditional rhythms with rock and world music, and they have gained quite a lot of attention by doing so. In 2009, their son, “Chicle” –a fusion of norteño and ballad, appeared in an episode of Weeds, and their song “La Negra” was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2011.
La Santa Cecilia are currently set to perform in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in the LAMC at the Mercury Lounge in New York City. They are breaking boundaries and shaking the US of A with the hybrid rhythms and Latin spirit. We wish them the best. Enjoy their cover of “Tainted Love” which we premiered last month at Remezcla.
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Download La Santa Cecilia’s 5-track cover EP, El Valor
Click HERE to read more “Borderline Latin” profiles. For comments and tips, please contact me at: Salvador@remezcla.com, and for more info on my “Borderline” works, visit Borderline Projects.