José Luis Chacín and Juliana Barrios were both fantastic musicians in their own right, long before fates conspired to bring them together. Chacín had spent many years both as a member of the legendary
Guaco and penning tunes for many Latin music luminaries, like
Ricardo Montaner,
Gilberto Santa Rosa, and
Ricardo Arjona. Barrios had similarly spent many years writing and performing songs for film and telenovelas. It was the Latino media crossroads of Miami that brought the two together and birthed the duo, deemed
Bachá, representative of the fusion they hoped to create. Striving to mix and mingle styles as diverse as cumbia, salsa, meren-bomba, jazz, flamenco, and guaguancó, these creative rivers have merged to flow into the sea they call contemporary tropical. Oftentimes playing stylistic alchemist can mean that no element emerges intact or identifiable. This is certainly not the case with
Bachá's self-titled 2004 release, which got them nominated for Best New Group at that year's Latin Grammys. This is probably thanks to the involvement of producer Angel Carrasco, who has stood in the booth for some of the decade's best Latin music releases. The light that
Bachá sheds onto the wide landscape of Latino music is acoustically warm and charming. There's a funky folk sensibility to all the arrangements, using pop polish only in very careful measure. This is an album to own, and a duo to be watched. ~ Evan C. Gutierrez