Chavez Ravine

Chavez Ravine Artist: Ry Cooder
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 075597987720
EAN: 0075597987720
ASIN: B0009353IW


Release Date: 2005-06-14

Chavez Ravine


Related Categories:

Contemporary Blues Contemporary Blues
Categories | Blues | Styles | Music
Alt-Country & Americana Alt-Country & Americana
Categories | Country | Styles | Music
Latin Pop Latin Pop
Categories | Latin Music | Styles | Music
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General General
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Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)
Categories | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. Poor Man's Shangri-La
  2. Onda Callejera
  3. Don't Call Me Red
  4. Corrido de Box Eo
  5. Muy Fifi
  6. Los Chucos Suaves
  7. Chinito Chinito
  8. 3 Cool Cats
  9. El U.F.O. Cayo
  10. It's Just Work For Me
  11. In My Town
  12. Ejercito Militar
  13. Barrio Viejo
  14. 3rd Base, Doger Stadium
  15. Soy Luz Y Sombra

Similar Items:

  1. Master of Disaster
  2. My Name Is Buddy
  3. Dimanche a Bamako
  4. Mambo Sinuendo
  5. Paradise and Lunch

Amazon.com

Ry Cooder might have been tempted to bill this as the Chavez Ravine Social Club. After generating such popular and critical interest in Cuban music of decades past with the Buena Vista Social Club, Cooder applied a similar approach closer to home, extending his fascination with the Mexican-American culture that flourished in 1940s and '50s Los Angeles. The result is an CD that sounds like it's aspiring to be something far more ambitious: a DVD, a theatrical production, even a time machine. Cooder and a cast of seminal Chicano artists present a song cycle that conjures an era of UFOs, the Red Scare, and political machinations that leveled the Chavez Ravine barrio to lure the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. In his celebration of a vibrant community that doesn't know it's on the verge of displacement, Cooder enlists Thee Midnighters vocalist Little Willie G. (whose songwriting collaboration with Los Lobos's David Hidalgo on "Onda Callejara" highlights the album). and Pachuco patriarchs Don Tosti and Lalo Guerrero, with the latter reviving his dancefloor favorite "Los Chucos Suaves." The accordion of Flaco Jimenez adds conjunto flavor to "Barrio Viejo." Throughout the album, Cooder plays a typically tasteful, understatedly virtuosic guitar, assumes a variety of vocal roles--including a cool Chet Baker homage in duet with pianist Jacky Terrason on "In My Town"--and provides the provocative social context. --Don McLeese

<span class="h1"><strong>More Ry Cooder</strong></span> <table cellpadding="4" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="4">

<tr class="tiny" valign="top" align="center"> <td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005J56.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>Buena Vista Social Club</I> (producer and performer)</td>

<td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007H1Y2.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>Mambo Sinuendo</I> (with Manuel Galbán)</td>

<td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005L9Z.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>A Meeting by the River</I> (with V.M. Bhatt)</td> </tr>

<tr class="tiny" valign="top" align="center"> <td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002KC4.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>Paradise and Lunch</I> (solo)</td>

<td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002N0X.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>Music by Ry Cooder</I> (film music compilation)</td>

<td> <img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002KBW.01.SWATCHZZ.jpg">
<I>Into the Purple Valley</I> (solo)</td> </tr> </table> </p>

Album Description

Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine is-a post-World War II-era American narrative of "cool cats," radios, UFO sightings, J.Edgar Hoover, red scares, and baseball.Using real and imagined historical characters, Cooder and friends creates an album that recollects various aspects of the poor but vibrant hillside Chicano cummunity, which was bulldozed by developed in the interest of "progress."

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Where have I been?.......2007-04-24

Out of it in Japan, actually. I only learned about this excellent album while reading a review of Mr. Cooder's My Name is Buddy and I'm not even sure why I was reading that, never having been much of a fan. Mistake. Every song on this album is a winner; the beautiful Soy Luz y Sombra even got me choked up in the middle of traffic out on the ugly-as-sin 'hatchi go sen' (that would be Hwy 8). Each song has a quite distinct emotional and musical life while the 'concept' is artistically embellished and embroidered. Mr. Cooder orquestrates a very 'simpatico' ensemble. In addition the music not only entertains but educates as well - a look at midcentury LA before the Dodgers - and improves your spanish o tu ingles as it comes with a nicely done booklet of lyrics and translations, 52 pages worth! One can imagine the good times and love that went into this production; the music certainly reflects that. A keeper. Impressive. Thank you.

4 out of 5 stars Ry Cooder is a musician's musician.......2007-03-19

This is an elegantly produced album the captures an LA sound that deserves the treatment given. Each cut grows on you with every play -- the mark of good music.

1 out of 5 stars Ry Cooder.......2007-03-19

Although the first and second track were my favourite, it is a good album and Would recomend if you want a chill out music.

2 out of 5 stars Not very listenable.......2007-01-06

I'm a longtime Ry Cooder fan but this doesn't rank as even listenable. Can you even hum or remember any of these weird tunes? As a soundtrack to some PBS documentary, maybe this might be acceptable, but for pure listening enjoyment go somewhere else. I bought this, struggled to listen to it once and won't play it again. Go to "Paradise and Lunch" or "Bop Til you Drop" to get vintage Ry Cooder roots music.

2 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

  1. The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning ~ Chicago
  2. One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found ~ Various Artists
  3. Stories of a Stranger ~ O.A.R.
  4. As Is Now ~ Paul Weller
  5. The East Village Opera Company
  6. A Fever You Can't Sweat Out ~ Panic! At The Disco
  7. Anthology ~ Bryan Adams
  8. Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State ~ Sufjan Stevens
  9. Jagged Little Pill ~ Alanis Morissette
  10. What I Really Want for Christmas ~ Brian Wilson

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

'Round Midnight ~ Alan Broadbent

Love Dancin ~ Rodney Franklin

Deep in a Dream ~ Al Caiola

Birth of Bebop ~ Various Artists

Life: Big Bands Music From the War Years ~ BBC Big Band Orchestra

Herbie's Here ~ Herbie Steward

Cuatro Caminos ~ Caf%C3%A9 Tacuba

It's Our Dance ~ Voda Nova

Maritim ~ Marina Rossell

A Cappella Song Book: Keisuke Kuwata Works ~ S.M.O.J.