Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1970


La chismosa del solar

Buy La chismosa del solar now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article


'"La chismosa del solar"' is a guaguanc written by Miguel Sarra and first recorded by Los Muequitos de Matanzas in 1970. The song was covered in 1975 by Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros ("Nicolasa") and Sonora Poncea ("Tiene pimienta") and released on LP and single format by both artists. A standard of the rumba repertoire, the song was reworked by Lzaro Rizo, a member of Pancho Quinto's group, as '"Lenguas"', also known as '"Tremendo chuchuch"', which was covered by Orquesta Rev on their successful 1991 album 'Mi salsa tiene sandunga'. The song was later recorded by Pancho Quinto, featuring Omar Sosa on piano, and it has since been covered by other rumba ensembles such as Grupo Mezcla and Rumberos de Cuba.

The song's satirical lyrics deal with gossip and social behaviors in a similar way to "Hipocresa y falsedad" by Ray Barretto, also released in 1970, as well as the poetry of Nicols Guilln.

First recordings



The earliest recording of "La chismosa del solar" was made by Los Muequitos de Matanzas in 1970 for Areito, the main imprint of EGREM, Cuba's national record label. It was one of a series of songs released in the early 1970s by the band, effectively relaunching their career after their many recordings in the 1950s under the name Conjunto Guaguanc Matancero. The band had become Cuba's foremost rumba band, partly due to the success of hits like "Los muequitos", which led to the renaming of the band. Despite not touring internationally at the time, the song made its way to the United States, where trumpeter Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros soon recorded and released the song as a single for Mericana Records. He titled the track "Nicolasa", which is the main character the song is about. It was included in his 1975 album 'Chocolate caliente: Bien sabroso!' without any credit except for Oscar Hernndez, who arranged the track as an upbeat son. In his monograph about Armenteros, Charley Gerard highlighted his "outstanding solos" on the track.

Also in 1975, the song became the "hit title track" of Sonora Poncea's album 'Tiene pimienta', released by Inca records. This salsa version of "La chismosa del solar", produced by Larry Harlow and featuring Luigi Texidor on lead vocals, became one of the band's most successful songs, but it gave no credit to the song's author, like in Armentero's case. The single's B-side was the guaracha "La fiesta no es para feos", which was correctly credited to Walfrido Guevara.

Lenguas



Rumba singer and percussionist Lzaro Rizo Cuevas wrote a new version of the song with the title "Lenguas" (instead of the previous main character, Nicolasa). This version had new lyrics and melody and was first recorded by Orquesta Rev in 1991 in a timba arrangement. This recording was titled "Tremendo chu chu chu" and included in their successful album 'Mi salsa tiene sandunga'. ("Interview with Elio Rev") In 1997, the song was included as the opener of Pancho Quinto's critically acclaimed debut album "En el solar la cueva del humo". Quinto's rendition has been described as "a rousing rumba that gets a little added muscle from the piano of Omar Sosa, Rahsaan Frederick's bass and the tres of the album's producer, Greg Landau". Quinto's rumba arrangement has been covered by Grupo Mezcla in their 2001 album 'Las puertas estn abiertas' (JM Music) and Rumberos de Cuba in their 2018 album 'Descargando una rumba' (EGREM), the latter as "Tremendo chuchuch".

References




Buy La chismosa del solar now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1970



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1045004517.