2023-07-24 22:08:02
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is known for delivering extraordinary performances at New York’s MET and Madrid’s Teatro Real, but he wanted to immortalize his love of classic popular Mexican songs on an album of his own.
“Mexican music has always been present in all my performances since I was a student, out of pleasure, out of pride, I think even out of interpretive necessity,” Camarena said in a recent interview in Mexico City.
This is how “Javier Camarena – La voz de México” emerged, his most recent album entirely dedicated to the Mexican songbook. The tenor said that he took pains not to make a “typical record of an opera singer singing popular songs.”
“For me it was the opposite, it was to take my voice to the field of bolero, to the field of ranchera music, to the field of this intimacy that can exist in certain songs and make my voice an instrument that has this possibility and this ability to nuance and these qualities of sound”.
The album is a tribute to composers such as María Grever, Álvaro Carrillo, Juan Gabriel, José Alfredo Jiménez, Armando Manzanero, José Saber Marroquín and genres such as son jarocho, huapango, boleros and ranchera music, in a portrait of the musical diversity that exists in the country.
It was recorded on the outskirts of the capital at the Sony Music Mexico studios with an ensemble of more than 20 performers of string instruments, marimba, accordion, percussion instruments, saxophones, trumpets, piano and many others, summoned by producer Kiko Campos.
The album is accompanied, in its physical format, with a DVD with music videos and a documentary regarding its making. The songs are also available on digital platforms.
Camarena’s interpretation of Grever’s “Júrame” stands out. Previously, she had included the song on her 2015 album “Recitales” accompanied by piano. This time he turns it into a bolero, in a more dynamic version.
“That was one of the most difficult songs for me, because I didn’t want to make it operatic and because I had to find my own interpretation out of the classical,” he said.
In the case of “La malagueña”, her voice and falsetto stand out among huapango guitars and violins.
“It’s how I learned it millions of years ago and it’s how I’ve sung it all my life,” he said. “It’s one of the songs I enjoy singing the most.”
The album becomes a party with “the jarocho hymn par excellence”, as Camarena describes “La bamba”, which he performs with Yuri, a singer who, like him, is originally from the coastal state of Veracruz, whose inhabitants are colloquially called jarochos.
“I admire her all my life,” Camarena said. “I consider her a great singer, one of the most beautiful voices our country has given…she is a person with a joy and love for life that spreads to you.”
Another of her guests is the Mexican-American singer Lila Downs in “Que seas feliz”. Downs joined Camarena’s album following having invited him to her concert at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
“He studied music, he knows what operatic singing is, there is a mutual admiration,” said Camarena. “That hoarse voice of Lila, with the way she also says and interprets, has been a pleasure”.
Eugenia León and Tania Libertad accompany him for “Qué bonita es mi tierra”, in which marimbas, trumpet and guitars sound with a touch of mariachi.
“Actually it was three o’clock,” said Camarena, regarding the song for which Guadalupe Pineda was also invited, but who due to a mishap might not participate. De León, Pineda and Libertad have a joint project called Las Tres Grandes with which they have performed in concert and have released albums.
“I think they are one of the most precious voices we have had in our country,” added Camarena.
The biggest surprise is perhaps Jesús Navarro, the vocalist of the pop trio Reik, who joins Camarena for the bolero “Sabor a mí”.
“The click was immediate,” Camarena said. “The collaboration was so easy. I really liked what he brings with his musical sensibility”.
Camarena also included “Nocturnal”, to which he gives a tropical flavor. The original theme of Saber Marroquín brings back memories of her father.
“My dad always liked music and whenever he had a chance at family gatherings he would grab the guitar,” he said. “Almost every time he grabbed the guitar it was: ‘Through the palms / that sleep peacefully / The silver moon / lullabies in the tropical sea’”.
The fact that they are popular songs does not mean that they were easier for Camarena, as happened with “Hasta que te conocí”, by Juan Gabriel.
“It’s a very bad song (difficult to sing),” he admitted without reservation. “It’s very theatrical, the entire first part is like a dialogue with yourself… So evocative of nostalgia for lost happiness, for a person who comes to fruition with ‘until I met you’”
Audio for some of the songs was not recorded with the artists simultaneously in the studio, but the live recordings they made while filming their respective music videos were available on YouTube.
Camarena won first place in the Carlo Morelli National Singing Contest in Mexico and the Juan Oncinas Award in the Francisco Viñas Contest in Barcelona.
Among his many honors, he has received the Opera News Award, the Fine Arts Opera Medal, the ISPA Distinguished Artist Award, the Mozart Medal and the title of Male Singer of the Year by the International Opera Awards.
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