Pimping the Public Library: Latin Sounds of the Library

Welcome back to this semester's first edition of Pimping the Public Library. Your guide to the vast sea of musical selections from the vast sea of Austin's public libraries! Tonight we discover the Americas with the two disc release: Latin Sounds of the Past: Original Recordings 1927-1941. This is a nice compilation of popular music from the larger Latin American countries- Mexico, Brazil, Argentina etc. Many of these songs are familiar to our western ears but are earlier inspirations from a Latin artist - La Cucaracha or Mexicali Rose. What I like about this compilation is that it puts a lot of Latin sounds into a small sampler. I've researched the holdings at the Benson and there are too many to start with. This is a good survey of popular latin styles of dance music such as the samba, rumba, conga and tango. The latter style is described in the liner notes as a place where "the milieu was sordid, full of hard, bitter men and fatalistic women - where packets of cocaine (called ravioli) were often passed around." This dude also says "fortunately, a musical legacy that started decades ago is still going strong today. While Carmen Miranda and Pedro Vargas are no longer with us, we now have the likes of Gloria Estefan and Ricky Martin to keep this tradition alive and well." Thank God! So live "La Vida Loca" and check out Latin Sounds of the Past. Don't forget the "ravioli!" This can be found at the fine arts library MU 36,238. If you are not a current student at UT don't worry. The UT libraries are at your finger tips by obtaining a TX Share Card which is 100% free!