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JENNY VINCENT TRIO
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BELOW | Jenny Wells Vincent, long-time musician and folk music practitioner, is well known as a promoter of the Spanish folk music of New Mexico and the Southwest. Although classically trained, her public and private school education was rich in folksong and dance. She has presented workshops for teachers in bilingual programs from headstart through college. Her previous recordings include Spanish American Children's Songs on LP (1956) and cassette (2000), and Musica para una Fiesta with Trio de Taos on cassette (1977). This is her first recording with Audrey and Rick.
Beginning as a classical violinist in New England, Audrey Davis brings over 30 years of professional experience to the Jenny Vincent Trio. In addition to playing in orchestras, jazz groups, and being a founding member of Manachi Rio Grande in Taos, she received training in the Suzuki Method of Violin instruction, and for 18 years has been teaching the children of Taos and surrounding towns to play violin. During the past decade, she has expanded this to include teaching violin to student Mariachi groups in the Taos County Public schools. She currently performs with Marachi Azteca of Santa Fe.
Rick Klein has played music all his life. In Taos, over the last 30 years, he has played drums with The Oriental Blue Streaks, the Taos Jazz Quartet, The Taos All-Stars, and the TZ Wright Band among others. For the last decade he has worked mainly as a guitarist accompanying fiddlers, Taos to Texas. |
For a larger version of this photograph click here...
| Spanish American Dance Tunes of New Mexico
WPA 1936 - 1937
The era of the WPA in New Mexico marked the first time that an effort was made to systematically study and record the cultural activities of the state's rural communities. As part of this effort, the recording and notating of the music of these isolated communities was given a top priority. It marked the first time that what had heretofore been regional folk music played and enjoyed by the local people was finally written down and preserved. Unfortunately, little was done with this great collection of music and it has languished now for over sixty years, largely ignored by the outside world and nearly forgotten by the very people who played it. Fortunately, this recording makes some of these popular tunes and their attendent dances available to a new generation that is eager to learn and revive parts of their culture that have become endangered by the onslaughts of socio-economic forces which are rapidly usurping the folk roots of people everywhere. The WPA archives in New Mexico contained four volumes of which only the first volume was published, containing children's songs, singing games and sayings. Volumes 2 and 3 contained folksongs in Spanish, with English translations, sources telling of the singers, and melodies in notation. Volume 4 contained some 30 dance melodies, transcribed and arranged with piano accompaniment, but no mention of the musicians who played the music. Transcriptions and arrangements were credited to Aurelio Armendaris. The older generation still dance the Varsoviana, and the polkas and valses remain very popular. Preservation of the traditional dances is occuring with specific groups that specialize in folk dancing, and in school programs for special occasions.
New Mexico folk dances are mostly of European origin; polkas are probably from Czechoslovakia, where "pulka" means "half' referring to the quick small step; valses (waltzes) of New Mexico and the San Luis Valley of Colorado have definite names and patterns. They are usually two parts; A and B, part A being the specific pattern, and B, a free-form waltz, with a fast tempo, and small steps, the overall effect being more vertical than honzontal.
DANCE TUNES ON THIS CD:
1. Polka #3 (1:42)
2. Vals de los Panos (3:29)
3. El Chotis (3:06)
4. Vals de Cadena - Chimayo (1:52)
5. La Indita (2:19)
6. El Paso Doble (2:46)
7. La Varsoviana (2:26)
8. Polkas #'s 1 &r 2 (2.>6)
9. El Talean (1:49)
10. Amor Ardiente - Vals (2:55)
11. La Chinche - Rye Waltz (1:44)
12. Recumbe (l:S8)
13. Spanish Waltz (2:07) NOTES ON THE DANCE TUNES
Valse de los Panos: 2 tonadas (melodies) 1) a Taos melody; 2) WPA. This is a handerkerchief dance, probably originating in Spain at a time when it was immoral for a man and woman to dance together. In this dance, the man is in the center holding a handerkerchief in each hand, with a woman on each side, the two groups of three facing each other. Part A they waltz toward each other, and back; then Part B they waltz in and out, the man guiding the women with his handkerchiefs.
El Shotis (chotis, or el chote): A favorite social dance, possibly brought into New Mexico with the westward expansion. It originated in Scotland, spread through Europe and to the new World. This three-part version is unique among the many melodies.
Vals de Cadena: is more widely known as the waltz from Chimayo. It has a chain pattern.
Indita: This is a distinctly New Mexican dance, which also often has words to accompany the dance steps. Its name suggests both Mexican and Pueblo influences, and there are numerous tonadas and verses. It is a couple dance with a pattern and a free form part.
El Paso Doble: Very little is known about this two-part dance. Its two parts are different in mood, the first being slower than the second. It bears no resemblance to the Spanish paso dobles, which are identified with bullfights.
La Varsoviana: Varsovia is the Spanish word for Warsaw, and it was danced in the courts of Poland, probably traveled to Mexico with Maximilian and Carlota, vanished from Mexico with them, and came north to New Mexico, where it is still a popular social dance. It is also known as "Put your little foot." The melody here is one of many New Mexico versions.
El Talean: Its original title was probably El Italiano and it is an unusual waltz, with specific patterns for the three parts of the melody danced by four couples in a square formation. It is not widely known today.
Armor Ardiente is a song and a free-form waltz.
La Chinche is the Spanish word for "bedbug" and turns up in Lloyd Shaw's description of the >bug waltz." The melody is the Scottish folk song "Comin' through the Rye." The dance was popular in the Taos area in the late 1930's. It has a definate pattern for the first part of the song. It goes something like this: heel and toe, heel and toe, slide and slide and slide. Dancers are in couples in ballroom position. Part 2 is a waltz, ending with three slides.
Rechumbe: Also known as "Churrumbe," it bears resemblance to the Indita by way of its rhythm. It is rarely danced today, except possibly as a performing dance. There is no word in the Spanish dictionary for rechumbe or for rechumbar. However retumbar means to resound or to rumble, like water tumbling over rocks. The dance is vigorous with footwork that could be the sound of rushing water over rocks.
Spanish Waltz: Classic waltz of Spanish origin, slower than the traditional New Mexican valses, and is frequendy danced in performances, rather than as a social dance.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Original transcriptions by Aurelio Armendariz
Arrangements by Jenny Vincent Trio
Recorded by Johnney Archulata Studio, March, 2000
Mastering by Frank Vuotto
Cover and inside photos by John Collier, Jr., courtesy of the Collier Family Collection.
Trio photo by Bill Davis, 2000.
Explanatory notes by JWV, with grateful thanks to Bill Davis and Terry Klein for their input.
Produced by Cantempos Records
FOR DANCE INSTRUCTIONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Vincent - Ray, Phd - Bailes y Musica para una Fiesta. Cantemos Records, 1995.
Stark, Richard - Music of the 'Bailes" in New Mexico. International Folk Art Foundation, Santa Fe, 1978.
Lucero-White, Aurora - Folk Dances of the Spanish Colonials of New Mexico, 1937.
Loeffler, Jack & Katherine, & Enrique Lamadrid, Phd - La Musica de los Viqitos. UNM Press, 1999.
Shaw, Lloyd - Cowboy Dances. The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID, 1939. |
