New CD Reaffirms
Veteran's Latino Appeal
By Daniel Gonzalez
At 83, Tucson native Lalo Guerrero is on a roll. A cucara macara heck of a roll.
After slipping into obscurity, the man considered the father of Chicano music is riding the current Latin music wave 60 years after he helped set things in motion with his fusion of Mexican and American swing music.
A CD released this year features newly recorded versions of some of Guerrero's timeless hits. The album, Vamos a Bailar Otra Vez, has introduced a new generation of listeners to such dance-hall favorites as Tin Marin de Do Pingue, with its playful gibberish refrain -- "cucara macara titere fue," similar to "eeny meeny miney mo" -- and the infectious Marihuana Boogie.
Mark Jones, music director for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, arranged both tracks on the album, which capitalizes on the current interest in swing with all new arrangements.
For purists, Guerrero's label, Break Records, also will begin releasing remastered compilations of some of Guerrero's original recordings, dating to the 1930s.
"I kind of took him out of semiretirement," says Benjamin Esparza, Break Records president and CEO.
A music video of the album's title track features Guerrero as an aging pachuco in fedora and purple zoot suit complete with knee-length coat tails.
"His music seems to touch a chord with White folks, Black folks, Latin folks and everybody in between," Esparza says.
Later this year, Guerrero will star in a retro Latino radio series along with such respected actors as Lumi Cavazos (Like Water for Chocolate), Marabina Jaimes (PBS' Storytime, Mi Vida Loca) and Sal Lopez, who starred in the Broadway version of Zoot Suit, which featured several songs composed by Guerrero.
Produced by Family Theater Productions, the new series is called Historias Para Mejorar el Mundo, or Stories for a Better World. They are being produced in Spanish and will explore the traditions, contradictions, cultural conflicts and triumphs of Latinos. Family Theater is negotiating with KPHX-AM (1480) in Phoenix to air the programs, a Family Theater spokeswoman says.