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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Master Cooder's Latest Gem of American Music, 22 Jun 2005
I will begin by declaring my enormous respect and love for Cooder's music. Ever since Chicken Skin Music -ironically, another beauty honoring the Mexican influence on American music- Cooder has been one of the "saints of my devotion," as my father used to say.
In Chavez Ravine, an album he's been working on for about three years, Cooder researched the disappearance of an area of Los Angeles, and long-standing Mexican community, that was erased to make way for what would become Dodgers Stadium.
The album that has resulted from his interest is, then, a political statement about the legacy of Joe McCarty, an elegy about old neighborhoods paved over by a twisted sense of progress, and an amazing group of songs showing the deep gift of Mexican-American music.
With the same cool touch and deep affection that Cooder already demonstrated for Malian music (Talkin' Timbuktu) and Cuban grooves (Mambo Sinuendo and Buena Vista Social Club), Ry gathered a host of incredible Mexican-American musicians from the Fifties, to invoke the spirit of this story.
Ersi Arbizu, Lalo Guerrero, Don Tosti and Little Willie G. -all great performers, most of which may be unknowns to most of us- take turns singing songs that conjure up the longings, loves and betrayals from the Chavez Ravine odyssey.
Now, let's be clear, do not think this is ethnographic research for the Smithsonian archives or a dry document of music gone by.
This album grooves ("Poor Man's Shangri-La" or "Onda Callejera") and gets down ("Muy Fifi" and "3 Cool Cats") as well as it will move you with some slow burners ("It's Just Work For Me") and beautiful ballads ("In My Town," "3rd Base, Dodgers Stadium" and "Soy Luz Y Sombra").
In conclusion, this is some of the most soulful music you may come across this year. It proves, too, that you can move your body with abandon and reflect on serious issues at once.
Meaning and grooving, with passion and concern, master Cooder takes us for another ride through the real America, where great and forgotten voices get to sing aloud again.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's not the Buena Vista Social Club - thankfully, 28 Dec 2005
I make no claim to be a Ry Cooder fan. I don't know much about him or his work. I bought this album having read an interview with Mr Cooder somewhere, and I thought it sounded vaguely interesting."Vaguely interesting" does not do this justice. This could easily have been an historical document that I'd listen to once, nod, stroke my beard, and put away, never to be heard again. That ain't gonna be happening. This is a living, breathing record, full of soul, vitality, and great tunes. I put it on, listened, then it put it straight back on again. Hell, if it can make me get up and dance around my living room, it's doing something right. The Buena Vista Social Club was awesome - this is Cooder using regional music in a vastly different way, and it works perfectly.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anti-Pop, 20 Jul 2005
If you are looking for a nice safe pop album, then avoid this like the plague.Cooders style has never been mainstream, and his new album an eclectic hybrid mix of different styles held together by a narative about an area of LA bulldozed in the name of progress.Cooders style has never been safe, but it has always been authentic, in a world where any idiot with a hit album is hailed as a "genius" he just might be the real deal.His new album is both angry and nostalgic, it is a difficult listen but worthwhile, it is a work by an artist that cares about his craft, it is totally unique.
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