Termed a "floating" band in that their personnel evolves and changes with every album or even track-to-track,
los Cenzontles ("the Mockingbirds") mix Tex-Mex and blues music with funk, flamenco, merengue, and even a bit of densely conceived voodoo.
David Hidalgo (
Los Lobos) and founding member Hugo Arroyo front the band singing and playing, but it is the influence of
Taj Mahal -- singing and playing several different instruments (guitar, keyboards, ukulele, banjo) -- that takes the band's allure to a much higher level. Tapping into traditional themes and originals from several bandmembers, this cross-cultural fusion works in a unique manner unlike any other attempts to combine sounds of north and south.
Mahal is very comfortable in diverse settings, adding his blues and English lyrics to the steady, rocking "Suenos/Dreams," his familiar "One Hot Mama" with some get-down piano, the slow, get-me-through-the-night song "La La Fuerza" adding organ. "La La Luna" and the flamenco/merengue guitar-flavored combo of "Cascabel" have the most segregated Tex-Mex feel, while the waltz "Tecolote/Owl" has
Mahal on banjo in a rustic, vintage country tone.
Hidalgo and Arroyo's singing is impressive throughout, but check out the latter's four-step tuba during "Solo Quiero Bailar" with jazzy woodwinds and the pristine vocalist Luciano Rodriguez, the spare, sweet "Carpintero," or the pretty "Voy Caminando" urged on by hand clapping for the lyric "tomorrow, I go walking." A completely soulful and diverse project with much more music than can be briefly mentioned,
American Horizon deserves attention as a premier project of tradition and great spirit. ~ Michael G. Nastos