Chavela Vargas ha muerto

[Guest]

Must re-locate the tape where Charlie Gillett and Lhasa de Sela discussed the grand lady.
Gone at 93 but performed in Madrid during July.

[amateur51]

Must re-locate the tape where Charlie Gillette and Lhasa de Sela discussed the grand lady.
Gone at 93 but performed in Madrid during July.

I want to find out more about this remarkable artist, remarkable woman, remarkable human being.

Only recently she said in an interview that she did not fear death. "I don't owe life anything and life doesn't owe me anything," she said. "We're quits," she said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQ31m4Yt0s

Attagirl!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well put amateur51!

[johncorrigan]

Thanks for that great clip amateur51.

[Lateralthinking1]

I want to find out more about this remarkable artist, remarkable woman, remarkable human being.

Only recently she said in an interview that she did not fear death. "I don't owe life anything and life doesn't owe me anything," she said. "We're quits," she said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQ31m4Yt0s

Attagirl!

Sad news. Great clip, for which ams many thanks.

Here is her obituary in the Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...la-Vargas.html

She lived to a very old age given her often heavy use of tobacco and alcohol. It would be interesting to hear what the British health police would say if asked to provide comment. I believe that she recorded a CD in her final year setting music to the poems of Lorca. It is impossible to think that it wouldn't be moving. Her music was full of real emotion and the antithesis both of popular music and cultural interpretations in the present day. There is a slightly odd comparison to be made with Pete Seeger who I think continues to record almost at an unprecedented age and was born in the same year. Do we know who has recorded when older?

[amateur51]

Sad news. Great clip, for which ams many thanks.

Here is her obituary in the Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...la-Vargas.html

She lived to a very old age given her often heavy use of tobacco and alcohol. It would be interesting to hear what the British health police would say if asked to provide comment. I believe that she recorded a CD in her final year setting music to the poems of Lorca. It is impossible to think that it wouldn't be moving. Her music was full of real emotion and the antithesis both of popular music and cultural interpretations in the present day. There is a slightly odd comparison to be made with Pete Seeger who I think continues to record almost at an unprecedented age and was born in the same year. Do we know who has recorded when older?

Thanks, Lat. I'm reading quite a bit of Lorca at the moment so I'd be grateful for any further information you have on that CD

From memory, the pianist Mieczysław Horszowski was still performing aged 100 or more - the most difficult part of his later Wigmore Hall recitals appeared to be the shuffle from the stage door to the piano stool

[Paul Sherratt]

A strong recommendation from me is Vargas' ' Noche Bohemia ' which I picked up for a couple of quid in Barcelona, donkeys' years ago.
It may well be tricky to locate but if anyone, late night staff inc. would really like a copy, well ..
On it she performs like the volcano that Almodóvar described his old friend as, yesterday. He used her 'Piensa En Mi' in his 1991 film, 'Tacones Lejanos '
to great effect.

[Paul Sherratt]

Here's the song, ' Macorina ' that Lhasa told Charlie about. The one that she got in to quite a bit of bother
about, back then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF6jEclOMcw

[johncorrigan]

Thanks for that Paul - a delight.
Loved the quote in this article: "the mariachis are silent, as of today, bitterness returns. Ladies and gentlemen, Chavela Vargas is gone."

http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11826:mexico-pays-tribute-to-chavela-vargas&catid=3:world&Itemid=14

[Paul Sherratt]

Thanks for that John. And thanks also to amateur for that tremendous clip which was one of the highlights of, imo, a rather ordinary film, ' Pity no one got around to
persuading Pedro Almodóvar to make one. Unsurprisingly one of the other highlights was provided by the brief appearance by Lila Downs.

[johncorrigan]

Here's the song, ' Macorina ' that Lhasa told Charlie about. The one that she got in to quite a bit of bother
about, back then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF6jEclOMcw

No hablo the espagnol (or anything else for that matter), so I looked up the lyrics, Paul.
Macorina

Put your hand here, Macorina
Put your hand here. (2x)

Your feet left the mat
And your skirt escaped
Seeking the boundary
On seeing your slender waist
The sugar canes threw
Themselves down along the way
For you to grind
As if you were a mill.
Put your hand ...

Your breasts, soursop fruit
Your mouth a blessing
Of ripe guanabana
And your slender waist
Was the same as that dance
Put your hand ...

Then the dawn
That takes you from my arms
And I not knowing what to do
With that woman scent
Like mango and new cane
With which you filled me at
The hot sound of that dance.
Put your hand ...

Can't understand where the problems came from. By the way, here's where the translation came from - quite a gal indeed.

http://www.lolapress.org/artenglish/chabe13.htm

[Paul Sherratt]

Thanks again, John. This was what Lhasa was trying to explain to Charlie ...
This latin literature sexuality professor,Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, do you think she's a fan of The Kinks ?

[amateur51]

Many thanks for the youtube clip of the song Paul Sherratt, and for the translation, johncorrigan

What a voice! What a .. presence!

[Paul Sherratt]

A pleasure, amateur.

John, that Lola reference of the prof's may be directed to Lolá Beltran, but I'm hoping it is
our lads who stimulated it.
Here's Lolá anyway ::: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=756xeDNRoKc

[johncorrigan]

A pleasure, amateur.

John, that Lola reference of the prof's may be directed to Lolá Beltran, but I'm hoping it is
our lads who stimulated it.
Here's Lolá anyway ::: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=756xeDNRoKc

ENCANTADORA, Paul! I read this word on the comments about the Lola Beltran song and thought it appropriate, but I think they had the Kinks in mind right enough. Read the words of Macorina and LaLaLaLaLola and you can determine an easy link between cherry cola and ripe guanabana.