By Jim Parisi
Manuel Obregon is an incredible pianist and an incorrigible musicologist who has definitely found his calling in life and is now reveling in it. Even before he helped form the Central American music label Papaya Music, he showed signs of his calling when he became enamored by the music of Paraguayan guitarist Augustin Barrios Mangore’ and transcribed and interpreted the compositions to piano. Along with being a member of Malpais, arguably the most popular band in Costa Rica, playing original tunes in a new style I have dubbed “modern folkloric”, Obregon also commandeers the Orquesta de Papaya, a culmination of musicians and musical styles from all of Central America. His last recorded project, “Piano Malango” was a unique presentation of instrumental interpretations, meandering down the river of historic and famous Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Panamanian songs.
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Filed under: Jim Parisi, Music Review on August 19th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
When it comes to parties, no one does it better than people of the Latin culture. Spirits are high and conversations are animated, but best of all, the food is always delectable and the music upbeat and very danceable. None of these factors has was lost on Putumayo Music when they released their new album, appropriately titled “Latin Party”, a compilation of twelve modern, up-tempo songs from a varied reach of Latin regions and influences. Latin people are very proud of their heritage and I think this CD demonstrates how new musicians pay homage to their musical Latino roots, while putting their own spin on it.
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Filed under: Jim Parisi, Music Review on July 27th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
Be suspicious when someone tells you that size doesn’t matter. On the contrary, when it comes to field guides, for example, the size of the book is a determining factor toward how well it will serve the customer. For example there are several beautiful coffee table books whose subject matter is the wildlife of Costa Rica. But I wouldn’t want to treat that book like a field guide, put it in my backpack and go into the jungle in search of its subject matter. Likewise, there are pocket guides that provide concise snapshots of the most common species of wildlife in Costa Rica, concise being the operative word. Pocket guides are handy but are limited and compact in their information as well.
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Filed under: Book Review, Jim Parisi on July 9th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
Did you know that frogs don’t drink water? It’s true: instead of lapping it up with their tongues in the conventional sense like a dog or a cat, frogs absorb water through their skin. I learned this bit of interesting information, and a lot more, when I recently read Adrian Forsyth’s new book, “Rainforests – Costa Rica and Beyond”. Forsyth, and award winning author and biologist, is definitely at home in the rainforest, drawing on more than forty years of experience as reference to present this publication. And it is some impressive experience that Adrian brings to the table: Vice President of the Blue Moon Fund, Director of Biodiversity Science for the Andean/Amazon Foundation, a PhD from Harvard in tropical ecology, Vice President of Conservation International, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute, and the list goes on from there. Forsyth is also the author of at least five books ensconced in ecology, including the eye-catching title, “The Natural History of Sex”.
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Filed under: Book Review, Jim Parisi on June 30th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
Charles Darwin had it right: the strong survive and adapt to their ever-changing surroundings while the weak ones become mere memories. And the Darwin Theory can be witnessed in action in Managua, Nicaragua with the rock star Perrozompopo. Even the stage name he chose is indicative of his tenacity. Loosely translated, perrozompopo is a colloquialism for “street smart” but the nickname was actually first given to a species of gecko who stowed onboard in crates of goods coming from Cuba to aid the Sandinista uprising in Nicaragua in the 1970s. These non-indigenous lizards, easily identified by the red marking on their foreheads, quickly took over, running out all the local geckos, and a nickname was born.
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Filed under: Jim Parisi, Music Review on June 14th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
It’s a funny thing about music: it does not recognize the imaginary boundaries men have drawn on maps or in the ground. Put simply: music transcends borders. It travels into the ear of its listeners then, hopefully, into their hearts as well, no matter where they live. And music does not need a passport to accomplish this. That is part of the appeal of World Music for aficionados from anywhere on the globe. We have had a plethora of Euro café discs, Middle Eastern lounge CDs and Indonesian trip-hop fusion albums while, regretfully, Central American music has been nearly unheard during this wave of international awareness. Until now. A joint venture by the four most popular and progressive recording labels in this part of the world has begun to fill that void with the release of La Caja de Musica Centroamericana, the Central American Music Box.
This compilation of sixteen songs showcases musical styles that ignore the borders of places we call Nicaragua, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. The Garifuna music represented here from Ivan Duran’s Stonetree label from Belize is a good example. The Garifuna culture was spawned nearly four centuries ago when survivors from two sinking slave ships began cohabitating with the indigenous Carib tribes, including the Arawaks on the islands of Saint Vincent (in the Lesser Antilles), Dominica and Santa Lucia, as well as with other escaped African slaves. Later, under British domain, they were relocated to the Honduran island of Roatan and from there they migrated to the surrounding countries in Central America. The resulting music is unique, mesmerizing, and anything but Latin.
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Filed under: Jim Parisi, Music Review, Uncategorized on May 24th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
It had never crossed my mind that one of the reasons that the Osa Peninsula has remained such pristine terrain is because its isolation has helped it to remain an entity. This geographical logic comes up early in the text of the stunning new book “Osa – Where the Rainforest Meets the Sea”, a successful collage of photographic art and insightful journalistic essays that portray this unique region in southwest Costa Rica like no publication that has preceded it. In fact, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard Professor Emeritus Edward O. Wilson proclaimed the work, “the best way to experience (Osa) short of going there.” High accolades, indeed.
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Filed under: Book Review, Jim Parisi on May 10th, 2010
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By Jim Parisi
