Emerging from sabbatical at the end of 2019, Mexican singer and songwriter Natalia Lafourcade and friends performed a benefit concert for the restoration of Centro de Documentación del Son Jarocho (CDSJ) a musical and arts space in Jáltipan, Veracruz founded by Ricardo Perry and the band Los Cojolites. The CDSJ also serves as a repository for information about the area's native son-Jarocho musical style, which fuses the traditions of pre-Columbian regional cultures with the diasporic son of Spain and Africa. Damaged during Mexico's 5.4 earthquake in 2017, Lafourcade performed a three-hour sold-out concert in November 2019 that featured Jorge Drexler, Mon Laferte, Carlos Rivera, Pepe Aguilar, Los Cojolites, Café Tacuba, Panteón Rococó, Emmanuel del Real, and others. Un Canto por Mexico, Vol. 1 attempts to re-create the feel of that show in a recording studio. A second volume will follow later this year.
The material is chock-full of Lafourcade's songs as well as traditional and classic material, performed by a large mariachi orchestra and chorus directed by Nando Hernandez and produced and arranged by Kiko Campos. The set opens with a stellar medley of José Pablo Moncayo's standard "El Balaju," and Pedro Infante's "Serenata Huasteca," with the orchestra and Los Cojolites setting the alternately romantic and celebratory feel of the proceedings. Rivera appears next, reprising his duet role from Lafourcade's Musas album on the track "Mexicana Hermosa." "Veracruz" is another beloved standard penned by Augustin Lara. It was originally intended for inclusion on 2013's Mujer Divina, but left off at the last minute. The lilting strings, jazzy, muted trumpet, and hand percussion create a dreamy foreshadowing of Lafourcade's gorgeous mariachi waltz "Una Vida," a brand-new song. The version of "Hasta La Raiz" here features a union of Los Cojolites with Argentine Latin ska band Los Auténticos Decadentes. The sprightly yet aching paean to an absent lover was delivered originally as a duet with Leonel Garcia. Instead he appears on a glorious reading of Juan Gabriel's sensual "Ya No Vivo Por Vivir." Its arrangement -- with prominent strings, jazz phrasing, and aching, entwined voices -- recalls Frank and Nancy Sinatra's on "Something Stupid" a bit. Drexler returns to assist in delivering a true set highlight: the sultry, romantic meld of jazz and bolero "Para Que Sufrir." Café Tacuba's Emmanuel del Real duets on the luxuriant corrido "Lo Que Construimos." Mexican ska heroes Panteón Rococó back Lafourcade on the dramatic anthem "Un Derecho de Nacimiento," heightened by the sweeping mariachi orchestra. Set-closer "Cucurrucucú Paloma" is another Infante classic which he originally delivered in the 1954 Rogelio Gonzalez film Escuela de Vagabundos. Lafourcade reinvents the ballad as a tender pop ranchera. While this volume of Canto por Mexico is offered as a benefit recording, it is wonderfully representative of Lafourcade's late-2010s work that has focused deeply on Mexico's musical traditions. Highly recommended.