Music Migration

11/28/2007

Like migrant workers who follow the harvest, Latino music has traveled to all pockets of the country. Along the way, it's shaped some of the classic, top–40 American rhythms of the past century. A groundbreaking exhibit on the influence of Latino music kicked off last month (October) at Seattle's Experience Music Project. And curators say it finally shines a light on a piece of American history that's been left in the margins. KUOW's Liz Jones has reports.

TEJANO MUSICIAN JUAN BARCO LANDED IN SEATTLE MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO, BY WAY OF TEXAS, THEN COLORADO, OHIO, MICHIGAN, CALIFORNIA ... THE LIST GOES ON. FROM PLACE TO PLACE, HIS FAMILY WORKED IN THE FIELDS, PICKING EVERYTHING FROM COTTON TO SUGAR BEETS. FOR HIM, THIS NEW EXHIBIT IN SEATTLE STIRS UP THOSE MEMORIES.

BARCO: "It was like watching my childhood all played back to me. And I could go a push the button and revisit some of it."

BOLD COLORS AND PULSING SOUNDS SPILL FROM THE EXHIBIT WALLS. POSTER–SIZE MAPS PINPOINT MAJOR CITIES WHERE U.S. AND LATINO MUSICAL STYLES INTERSECT. MANY OF THOSE CROSSROADS OVERLAP WITH THE MIGRANT TRAIL, LIKE THE ONE BARCO'S FAMILY TOOK NORTH FROM TEXAS. THE EXHIBIT INCLUDES SOME OF HIS MUSIC AND MEMORIES.

AND WHAT BARCO REMEMBERS MOST IS HOW THE MUSIC MORPHED ALONG THE WAY, AS HE LEFT THE TRADITIONAL SOUNDS OF THE BORDER.

BARCO: "Or we could just go into the Black neighborhoods and start listening to ...[Guitar: 'Stormy Monday'] Or close to the ocean it would be ...[Guitar: 'Wipe Out')Or we could put a nickel in the juke box."

BARCO SOAKED IN THE MUSICAL FLAVOR OF EACH PLACE. AND, AS THE EXHIBIT SHOWS, THOSE PLACES ABSORBED LATINO MUSIC. AS LATINOS AND CHICANOS FORGED COMMUNITIES, MUSICIANS FOUND NEW FREEDOM TO PLAY WITH TRADITIONAL AND MODERN STYLES. AND SOME NEWFANGLED SOUNDS STORMED THE COUNTRY.

LIKE THIS 1960S HIT, "96 TEARS", BY QUESTION MARK AND THE MYSTERIANS. MICHELLE HABELL–PALLAN IS A CO–CURATOR OF THE EXHIBIT.

HABELL–PALLAN: "What people don't know is these kids are Mexican–American kids and the hook of the song, which is the organ."

HABELL–PALLAN: "That was pounded out on an accordion. So this sound of what we recognize as garage music, or what would become punk, has this conjunto influence."

CONJUNTO MUSIC IS A TRADITIONAL STYLE POPULAR IN NORTHERN MEXICO AND TEXAS. THE BUTTON ACCORDION AND BAJO SEXTO, OR 12–STRING GUITAR, GIVE IT A DISTINCT SOUND.

MEANWHILE, THE LATINO INFLUENCE ON OTHER POPULAR MUSIC WASN'T IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED, OR RECOGNIZABLE.

DUDLEY: "Rapper's Delight, which was the first big commercial hip–hop song, it starts out with Latin percussion."

SHANNON DUDLEY IS AN ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST AND A CO–CURATOR OF THE EXHIBIT.

DUDLEY: "And then it goes into boom, boom."

DUDLEY: "Which is the baseline from Good Times by Chic, right? Now everybody knows that's a Disco hit. And people might think, 'Well that's kind of funny that a disco hit is in the first rap song.' But what it turns out is that Latinos and Blacks were all into club culture and discos and dancing and DJs."

THE EXHIBIT HIGHLIGHTS HOW MUCH THAT SOUND MIXING TOOK PLACE, AS CULTURES AND MUSICAL TRADITIONS MERGED, ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, AND ALL ACROSS THE RADIO DIAL.

ONE STYLE THAT POPS UP OVER AND OVER AGAIN ON THE TOP 40 CHARTS IS ROOTED IN A TRADITIONAL MEXICAN STYLE CALLED HUAPANGO OR SON HUASTECA. JUAN BARCO PLAYS A SAMPLE.

BARCO: "It's just this three chord thing, then you know Richie Valens, or the Beatles: 'Shake it up Baby', 'La Bamba', 'Hang on Sloopy', 'Louie Louie', 'Wild thing', and so I mean you could go on for ever."

LATINO SOUNDS ARE PREVALENT IN POPULAR AMERICAN MUSIC. BUT RECOGNITION HAS BEEN SLOW TO FOLLOW. DUDLEY SAYS PART OF REASON IS CULTURAL.

DUDLEY: "I think there's always been a tendency to want to keep Latin music as a foreign, exotic thing. And not regard it as part of our country. These are not people from our place. There people from somewhere else. And we really enjoy their music, but they're not from here."

DUDLEY'S WIFE IS MARISOL BERRIOS–MIRANDA. SHE'S A FELLOW ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST AND CO–CURATOR. SHE HOPES THIS EXHIBIT CAN HELP MEND SOME RACIAL AND CULTURAL MISCONCEPTIONS AND GIVE LATINOS A NEW FLAVOR OF "AMERICAN PRIDE".

BERRIOS–MIRANDA: "So the kids can look and say, 'This looks like my grandfather, or this looks like my aunt, or this looks like my abuelita.who everyone else looks at her like a cleaner or attendant, or a waitress.' These people are all beautiful, and they've contributed a lot to this country."

IF YOU LISTEN TO THE MUSIC, IT TELLS A STORY OF WHAT LATINOS LEND AMERICAN GENRES, FROM PUNK TO POLKA. IN THAT EXCHANGE, MIGRANTS OFTEN PLAYED A UNIQUE ROLE AS CULTURAL MESSENGERS FROM ONE PLACE TO THE NEXT. SEATTLE MUSICIAN JUAN BARCO SAW MUCH OF THAT FIRST–HAND.

BARCO: "There was this thing that I feel that we had. We venture out and learn other people's cultures and stuff. I felt coming from Texas and having like free form kind of like out there, that we opened the door to a lot of things."

THE EXHIBIT EXPLORES A CROSS–CULTURAL SONGBOOK FROM OBSCURE TUNES, TO THOSE MORE FAMILIAR. IT'S CALLED "AMERICAN SABOR", AND FEATURES FIVE MAJOR CENTERS OF LATINO–AMERICAN MUSIC: NEW YORK, L.A, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN ANTONIO AND MIAMI. IT RUNS IN SEATTLE THROUGH NEXT NOVEMBER, AT THE EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT. IT THEN TRAVELS TO SAN ANTONIO. CURATORS ARE ALSO WORKING TO LINE UP TOUR STOPS IN THE FOUR OTHER FEATURED CITIES. LIZ JONES, KUOW NEWS.

© Copyright 2007, KUOW