Sol y Canto
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Sol y Canto

| INDIE | AFM

| INDIE | AFM
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"Springfield Republican"

Springfield Symphony Orchestra concert takes on Latin flavor (Excerpts)

03/01/2004

SPRINGFIELD, MA - Blending peppery beats with delicious Latin melodies, Sol y Canto and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra concocted a tasty sonic salsa Saturday night.

Sol y Canto is a Cambridge-based Latin music group led by the husband and wife team of Brian and Rosi Amador. The eight-piece band joined the orchestra Saturday in a rousing display of evocative music.

Symphony conductor Kevin Rhodes and the string section of the orchestra warmed up the audience slowly with a few sambas and bossa novas before Sol y Canto took the stage.

Sol y Canto then appeared and performed four songs without the orchestra. The first of these was a light, jazzy piece titled "Capullito de Aleli" which showcased compelling solos by bassist Carlos Del Pino and flutist Jon Weeks, who also later played saxophone. It understandably took a few minutes for the instruments' volume levels to be adjusted for the percussion-heavy band, but the eight pieces were sorted out by the second tune, "Papel de Plata."

This song featured vocalist Alan Del Castillo doubling on a series of ocarinas, which are oval-shaped clay flutes. The first ocarina played was a low-toned instrument, evocative of a whale's song. But as guitarist Brian Amador modulated keys, Del Castillo quickly and nimbly switched to increasingly higher pitched ocarinas, much to the audience's delight.

The third selection was the bluesy "Tonada de Luna," which rode on a pulsing guitar rhythm while Rosi Amador's vocals floated ethereally above. The third verse was sung a capella and resembled a motet, with Brian Amador anchoring the three-part harmony with a haunting, chant-like bass note.

This minor key piece was one of many during the night, and showed the oxymoron of the band's name: Sol y Canto means "sun and song" but their music often leads listeners into more shadowy corners of lost love and moonlit longing.

But Sol y Canto then switched gears with two fun songs, "Fiesta del Tren," and the festive "Brown Rice" - the lyrics to which Brian Amador admitted were actually a rice recipe. The orchestra then joined Sol y Canto for several pieces before intermission. The first was a bolero, the trumpet-fueled "Sabor a Mi," which was then followed by the urgent "Asi es Mi Tierra," which featured Sol y Canto keeping the throbbing pulse while the strings added dramatic counterpoint accents.

After intermission Sol y Canto did two songs alone. "Obsession" was a bolero, highlighted nicely by a Weeks' sax solo, and "Beso Discreto" ("A Discrete Kiss") featured both a lively pace and the percussive kissing sounds mouthed by the Amadors.

The orchestra then rejoined the fray for three final pieces, the last being a five-part sojourn through numerous Latin styles: bolero, guaracha, tango, bomba and a ballad. These final pieces, although mostly slow or mid-tempo, allowed Rosi Amador to showcase her clear, emotive voice. Although the faster, familiar Latin beats may have caught the audience members' ears, it was the slower more complex tunes that captured their hearts.

The evening wound up with a rousing encore, "Que Bonita Luna," which featured a hearty audience clap-along led by Rhodes. - George Lenker


"THE WORLD (Public Radio International)"

http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/23321

A fabulous feature story and music by PRI host Lisa Mullins about Sol y Canto's new CD, "
Cada Día un Regalo/Each Day a Gift" with Rosi & Brian Amador - Lisa Mullins, Anchor


"Billboard Magazine"

Sol y Canto is Rosi and Brian Amador, backed by a group of extraordinary players, including Nando Michelin (piano), Jorge Roeder (contrabass) and Bernardo Monk (saxophone, flute). The act's sound is acoustic and Latin roots-oriented. Its taste is elemental, and the results are unfailingly inspiring. The Amadors and their cohorts bring a tremendous virtuosity to their music -cue up "La llorona" (The Weeping Woman) and listen to Rosi Amador sing. Her interpretation of this classic folk tune is wonderfully evocative. The magic continues with another elegant arrangement and Rosi Amador's angelic voice in "Hasta la Luna"-a song Brian Amador wrote for his daughters. In a more uptempo groove, note the act's persuasive take on the Cuban bolero/cha cha cha number "Obsesión."
- Philip Van Vleck (11/2008)


"Christian Science Monitor"

In spite of personnel changes during their quarter century, this Boston-based band has maintained a steadfast Pan-Latin tinge entirely their own. A constant has been the leadership of guitarist/singer-songwriter Brian Amador and his wife, Rosi, sensitive interpreters of Chilean, Venezuelan, Cuban, and Mexican traditional folk songs, as well as original tunes with those flavors. This is the most diverse and accomplished album of Sol y Canto's career, opening with a dramatic burst of jazz-flamenco singing and closing with an aptly named instrumental titled "Like Flying." Midway is a penultimate romantic Cuban ditty about kissing. Rosi's vocals winningly modulate from coolly coy to warmly committed.
- Norman Weinstein (12/2008))


"The Boston Phoenix"

Sol y Canto leaders, the husband-and-wife team of Brian and Rosi Amador, create a musical marriage made in heaven. Brian is an inventive nylon string guitarist, vocalist and composer; a Spanish modernist poet in the guise of a musician. Rosi is a highly instinctive mezzo-soprano. - Norman Weinstein


"Daily Hampshire Gazette"

Rosi Amador has a smile that melts glaciers and a voice to match! - John Stifler


"Reviews & Adult concerts/music"

"Rousing..." - Washington Post

"...boasts a sweet, sophisticated Pan-Latin folk sound built around the gorgeous mezzo soprano and the vocal harmony and pristine guitar of her husband, Brian." - Rhythm Magazine

"...Sol y Canto [brings] the warm equatorial flavor of its brand of Cuban-Afro-Latin folk music...rousing!"
- Chicago Sun Times



- Various


"The Boston Globe"

Boston's sublime ambassadors of pan-Latin tradition ...
-Scott Alarik

Sol y Canto is...destined for international renown...Rosi has a voice like clean spring water: it's smooth, it's clear and, somehow, you come to believe that it's necessary for life.
-Alisa Valdes

MUSIC REVIEW/Family concert presented by World Music
Sol y Canto gets playful for kids' show

By Scott Alarik, Globe Correspondent, 11/4/2003

There is a joke told around the world that if you know many languages, you are multilingual; if you know two, you are bilingual; and if you only know one, you are American. Sol y Canto has made a globe-trotting career out of introducing non-Hispanic audiences to pan-Latin music, making it the perfect ambassador to introduce children to the joys of knowing more than one language. It is a mission the Cambridge-based group cheerfully accepts on its new Rounder Kids CD, "El Doblo de Amigos/Twice As Many Friends."

The band performed two CD-release concerts Sunday for a total of more than 1,000 kids and parents, displaying a buoyant but grown-up stage savvy that paid off handsomely in the faces of unusually attentive children and grateful parents.

Sol y Canto appears in configurations ranging from the duo of husband-and-wife founders Brian and Rosi Amador to much larger ensembles. While some children's shows are stripped-down affairs, with tape loops and funny sound effects substituting for real live music, the Amadors brought the whole shebang on Sunday: nine first-rate supporting musicians, the eight-voice Amigos School of Cambridge chorus, and their 7-year-old twin daughters, Sonia and Alisa, for whom their father wrote most of the CD's songs.

"You're the only one exactly like you," Rosi Amador sang in her crystalline mezzo, announcing the show's theme of tying self-esteem to a multicultural, openhearted view of the world. So many of Brian Amador's songs combine the playful and the useful, offering Spanish and English lists of the days of the week, numbers from one to 10, and phrases such as "do you want to play?" and "what's your name?"

The songs came in a dynamic array of styles, from reggae to calypso to merengue to the bewitching Afro-Brazilian ijexa. Band members shuffled percussion instruments, horns, and flutes. The Amigos chorus was robust and sweetly harmonic, and the Amador twins sang lustily, often acting out their parts. In a very funny quick-change chorus of animal imitations, they scurried behind Mom to supply the additional appendages necessary for a proper octopus impression.

Belying the tired notion that kids need silly costumes, funny noises, and ditty-dreadful melodies to hold their interest, Sol y Canto had the crowd at its quietest during soft, complex songs such as Brian Amador's gentle "Arco Iris/

Rainbow" and Tom Paxton's adult lullaby "Peace Will Come," a lovely but difficult meditation on the disquieting distance between inner and outer peace. After a full hour, when kids would usually show how ready they are for other activities, Sol y Canto literally had them dancing in the aisles, and on top of seats, to the joyful Nicaraguan anthem "Banana." But all the wiggling stopped at a cascading horn-section solo, the crowd listening hard and "ooh"-ing audibly before resuming the dance.

- Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.


- -


"The Boston Globe"

MUSIC REVIEW/Family concert presented by World Music
Sol y Canto gets playful for kids' show

By Scott Alarik, Globe Correspondent, 11/4/2003

There is a joke told around the world that if you know many languages, you are multilingual; if you know two, you are bilingual; and if you only know one, you are American. Sol y Canto has made a globe-trotting career out of introducing non-Hispanic audiences to pan-Latin music, making it the perfect ambassador to introduce children to the joys of knowing more than one language. It is a mission the Cambridge-based group cheerfully accepts on its new Rounder Kids CD, "El Doblo de Amigos/Twice As Many Friends."

The band performed two CD-release concerts Sunday for a total of more than 1,000 kids and parents, displaying a buoyant but grown-up stage savvy that paid off handsomely in the faces of unusually attentive children and grateful parents.

Sol y Canto appears in configurations ranging from the duo of husband-and-wife founders Brian and Rosi Amador to much larger ensembles. While some children's shows are stripped-down affairs, with tape loops and funny sound effects substituting for real live music, the Amadors brought the whole shebang on Sunday: nine first-rate supporting musicians, the eight-voice Amigos School of Cambridge chorus, and their 7-year-old twin daughters, Sonia and Alisa, for whom their father wrote most of the CD's songs.

"You're the only one exactly like you," Rosi Amador sang in her crystalline mezzo, announcing the show's theme of tying self-esteem to a multicultural, openhearted view of the world. So many of Brian Amador's songs combine the playful and the useful, offering Spanish and English lists of the days of the week, numbers from one to 10, and phrases such as "do you want to play?" and "what's your name?"

The songs came in a dynamic array of styles, from reggae to calypso to merengue to the bewitching Afro-Brazilian ijexa. Band members shuffled percussion instruments, horns, and flutes. The Amigos chorus was robust and sweetly harmonic, and the Amador twins sang lustily, often acting out their parts. In a very funny quick-change chorus of animal imitations, they scurried behind Mom to supply the additional appendages necessary for a proper octopus impression.

Belying the tired notion that kids need silly costumes, funny noises, and ditty-dreadful melodies to hold their interest, Sol y Canto had the crowd at its quietest during soft, complex songs such as Brian Amador's gentle "Arco Iris/

Rainbow" and Tom Paxton's adult lullaby "Peace Will Come," a lovely but difficult meditation on the disquieting distance between inner and outer peace. After a full hour, when kids would usually show how ready they are for other activities, Sol y Canto literally had them dancing in the aisles, and on top of seats, to the joyful Nicaraguan anthem "Banana." But all the wiggling stopped at a cascading horn-section solo, the crowd listening hard and "ooh"-ing audibly before resuming the dance.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
- Scott Alarik


"Star-Telegram, Forth Worth, TX"

Sol y Canto makes its latest album [El doble de amigos/Twice as Many Friends]a family affair for your family to enjoy...a fun, danceable blend of Latin music. - "What to Listen to"


Discography

Cada Dia un Regalo/Each Day a Gift (MusicAmador Productions 2008)
Twice as Many Friends/ El Doble de Amigos (Rounder Kids 2003)
En Todo Momento (Redwing Music 1999)
Sendero del Sol (Rounder Records 1996)
Sancocho (Rounder Records 1994)

Photos

Bio

Joyful, original Latin roots music! Sol y Canto creates music and performances that move, delight, excite and connect - connect the audience to the richness of Latin American culture; connect individuals, Hispanic and non-Hispanic, to each other through shared experience of music, poetry, humor and a joyful, playful vibe; and connect us all to our hopes and visions of a better world. (See below for full group biography.)

FUNDING for New England-based non-profit organizations presenting Sol y Canto is available through the New England Foundation for the Arts. Contact info@solycanto.com for Info.

PROGRAMS AVAILABLE
*"Sabor y Memoria: A Musical Suite in Seven Courses," Brian Amador's new musical suite featuring Sol y Canto with an acclaimed string quartet as special guests is about a favorite topic: Latin food!

*Cada Dia un Regalo: Adult concerts featuring passionate Latin roots music celebrating each day as a gift.

*Noche de Muertos: a multi-media concert program celebrating the Mexican Days and Nights of the Dead.

*Family Concerts (with your local community kids choir!)

*Also available: Educational services celebrating Latin musical roots & Mexican Day of the Dead themes

HISTORY/BIO
When Rosi and Brian Amador met and fell in love in 1984, they did not know their relationship would blossom into the musical project of their dreams...

Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and bongo player Rosi Amador and New Mexican guitarist and composer Brian Amador have been lucky enough to spend more than two decades composing, arranging and performing music that moves people inside and out; songs that combine poetic lyrics, commitment to social change, and sabor, the "tastiness" of music that draws you into its story or makes you want to get up and dance. Singing of a longing for peace or of taking care of our planet, telling the story of a solitary kiss or the sadness of losing a loved one, celebrating the Mexican "Night of the Dead" - has put them in touch with people who share their concerns and joy in celebrating Latin culture and what they offer: a personal, idiosyncratic language of music and lyrics revealing a common, human language.

Sol y Canto is their three-time Boston Music Award winning Pan-Latin ensemble and the culmination of their musical vision. Featuring Rosi's crystalline voice, Brian's lush Spanish guitar, and accompanied by virtuoso musicians from Uruguay, Peru, Panama and Argentina on piano, winds, bass, and percussion, the sextet has established a reputation for its quirky original compositions that address matters of the heart as well as social and global aspirations, and its unique and driving interpretations of contemporary Latin favorites.

Since 1994, Sol y Canto has brought audiences to their feet from the Kennedy Center, the White House, and Boston's Symphony Hall to the California World Music Festival, Puerto Rico's Museo de Arte and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Before that, Brian and Rosi were two of the founding members of the Billboard-charting Boston-based Nueva Cancion band, Flor de Cana (1984-1994).

Sol y Canto is known for making their music accessible to Spanish- and non-Spanish speaking audiences of all ages. Brian Amador was the first Latino ever to be commissioned by Boston's preeminent Celebrity Series to compose a Latin orchestral suite, Prisma de amores, which tours nationwide with classical ensembles from symphony orchestras to string quartets. Their debut recording, Sancocho, on Rounder Records, was chosen by The Boston Globe as one of the ten best recordings of 1994. Sendero del Sol, their 1996 Rounder Records release produced by renowned Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Perez, was chosen as "one of the best of the year" by Hispanic Magazine. Sol y Canto's fall 1999 album, En Todo Momento, was featured by People en Espanol as one of the year's HITS in 2000. Their bilingual children's CD and a Parents Choice Award winner, Twice as Many Friends/El Doble de Amigos (Rounder 2003), features a celebratory collection of bilingual children's songs for singing, dancing and learning. Their touring multi-media concert celebrating the Mexican Day and Night of the Dead, "Noche de Muertos: Welcoming our ancestors Home," garnered standing ovations at all of its 2007 debut season venues and is booked all over the East Coast in 2008.

Three time winner of "Best of Boston for Latin rhythms"

Winner: Boston Magazine, "Outstanding Latin Act," &
Boston Music Awards, 1995