Chalino Sánchez • Nieves de Enero Musart/Craft Recordings CR000783
Sánchez’s story is a tragic one. Born in 1960 in the coarse environs of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico, he fled to Tijuana at 15 after killing a man who had raped his sister. While there, he operated as a “coyote,” smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants across the border. This led to his arrest, after which he spent nearly a year in a Tijuana prison. In 1977, Sánchez left for the United States, where he eventually settled in with his aunt in Inglewood, California, a community southwest of Los Angeles. After his older brother, Armando, was murdered in 1984, Sánchez wrote his first corrido, entitled “Recordando A Armando Sánchez,” a homage to his brother. It was around this time he was arrested for petty crimes and imprisoned for a brief time in La Mesa, California. While incarcerated there, he developed his songwriting skills by composing songs for his fellow inmates. After his release, he found there was a demand for those songs on the outside and he began writing them on commission for others. His first cassette recordings, sold at local street markets and swap meets, were made in the late 1980s with the norteño group Los Cuatro del Norte. By the end of that decade, Sánchez’s reputation as a singer/songwriter had grown to the point that he was known throughout Southern California, creating demand for personal appearances at nightclubs and dancehalls.
In late January of 1992, while performing in a Coachella, California, nightclub with his band, Los Amables Del Norte, Sánchez was shot four times by a drug-addled man who had jumped onto the stage. True to his image, Sánchez returned fire using the pistol he carried in his belt. He missed his target, but the bullet found a 20-year-old spectator, killing him. Sánchez ended up in the hospital, the failed assassin in a jail cell. Despite the tragedy of this incident, Chalino Sánchez’s press exposure and his cassette sales, audience sizes and airplay soared. Sadly, as the line between his craft and life grew fuzzy, there would be no happy ending. Four months after the incident in Coachella, his body was discovered in a canal in Culiacán. He was blindfolded, bound and had been shot twice in the back of the head. To this day, his murder remains unsolved, and Chalino Sánchez has achieved legendary status. I don’t read, write, nor speak Spanish, so I had to rely on Google’s translation app for assistance in unraveling the titles and lyrics. But the language barrier did not stop me from totally enjoying what I was hearing. First, if you enjoy accordion as much as I do, you’re going to love this album, thanks to José Ignacio Hernández, leader of Los Amables Del Norte and virtuoso accordion player. He injects each song with an infectious, light-hearted, almost puckish touch that most certainly would get people off their chairs and onto the dance floor. This, coupled with the gruff, amateurish voice of Chalino Sánchez and the ubiquitous bajo-sexto (12-string guitar tuned an octave lower than a regular guitar) is attention-grabbing. Of the 15 songs on the album (all waltzes), only two last over four minutes. The others weave their stories in less time. The first four songs are love ballads with titles such as “Me Persigue Tu Sombra” (Your Shadow Chases Me) and “Florita Del Alma” (Little Flower of the Soul). The remainder of the tracks tell stories about specific individuals, such as “Juan Machado” and “Arcadio Barraza,” who meet with various types of misfortune, usually death. The final song, “Hermanos Mata (The Mata Brothers),” telling the story of two brothers who kill each other over a calf(!), begs to be taken seriously. Thanks to Craft Recordings you won’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on this album, even if you could locate one for sale. Discogs shows none for sale at the present time, with the last copy sold, a cutout, this past May for $85.95. Prior to that, a copy sold for $333.33 last November and for $366.49 last July. After more than three decades, this landmark of the regional music of Mexico is available again. The engineers did a good job on this recording, preserving the dynamics, clarity and punch intrinsic to this music. The accordion and bajo-sexto are up front, with Sanchez's voice, receiving just a hint of reverb, sharing the stage. You can also relax knowing your new copy from Craft will be clean, flat and sound as good as it ever has, due to mastering from original analog sources by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. There are two versions of the LP: a traditional one on black vinyl, and a special marble-colored variation that is currently sold out. The jacket and distinctive record label are fine facsimiles of the originals. You don’t have to understand the mechanics of
Picasso’s art in order to “get” it and be emotionally affected. Similarly,
you don’t need to understand Spanish to be moved by Chalino Sánchez’s music.
Yes, there’s a sameness to the music heard on this LP, especially for ears not
accustomed to the combination of instruments and rhythms, but to me that’s a good
thing -- I love accordion and waltzes. If you enjoy energetic, hard-hitting music with
stories to tell, aimed to get people sashaying in a dancehall, this album will make you
smile and feel good, despite the often dark subject matter. |
osalino
Chalino Sánchez, known as "El Rey del Corrido" (The King of the Corrido), was
perhaps the first and most revered exponent of the musical genre narcocorridos. A
corrido is a narrative ballad, and adding “narco” results in a
“drug ballad.” It is dance music of the highest order heard throughout both
sides of the US-Mexico border incorporating the energetic rhythms of the polka and waltz.
Its lyrics are documentary in style, dealing, in often graphic terms, with the suffering,
rebellion and larger-than-life tales of the valiente (brave men) often associated
with drug wars. As defined by many critics, it is music the listener’s grandparents,
aunts and uncles may have listened to. Its popularity and impact are comparable to
America’s gangsta rap. Nieves de Enero (Snows of January) is arguably the
artist’s most famous and desired LP and a classic of the Latin genre.
