Alt.Latino's favorite songs of 2024
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From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Ana Maria Sayre. We have with us today Isabel Gomez-Armiento. Yay, Isa. Okay, we did albums last week. Now we're here with a bunch of songs. We are talking songs, man. That was the most excited I've ever heard Felix be. What? Yay? Yay, yay, yay. Songs! We're going to talk songs. Nice to see you. Isa, you get the honors. You get to go first.

Thank you so much. Okay, I'm very excited for what I brought today. This is a song called Motorizado by the trio Santa Marta. They're a Madrid-based trio. Their singer, Luislo, is Colombian and Venezuelan. And again, this is off their debut album, Pasarela, which is really rooted in the migrant experience and sort of like holding your head up high and the positive aspects of what it's like to be a migrant. But yeah, this is the song Motorizado. ♪

foreign

This was a song that really caught my ear and I keep coming back to. I love the throwback salsa vibe. Lyrically, I love that it's sort of rooted in like riding a motorcycle around the city at night and finding solace in that. And it really kind of reminds me of

Like Rue and Blades, Maestra Vida, like cotidian life in a city, the everyday experiences of Latino immigrants, Latin migrants. Like, I just love the feeling and the way that they texturally capture that with the motorcycle sounds, the percussion. Like, it's so Caribbean. And the singer, Luislo, his voice is just so silky and is really giving me this like 90s tropipop, vos veis feeling. I think it works so well with the instrumentation.

They're one of those bands that I've been like waiting, waiting, waiting to see what happens because they really do love embracing that Caribbean spirit. They both have Caribbean roots as well as Andalusian roots. And last time I saw them, actually, I was thinking about this this morning, was I want to say over a year and a half ago. And there was something special about them. There's a spark to them. There's an energy to them that I was like, oh, this is going to be something really cool.

But I don't know if they're there yet. And then they released this album and I was like, okay, they found their sound. Because they were looking, right? They were looking for a way to fuse all these things together. And they've always had this quality of no two songs sound the same. And now it's working so well for them. I love this record. They really, really found their voice. Yeah. And the singer's voice to me sounds a lot like...

Tropi Pop, like, voice bass, like, 90s groups of all these men harmonizing. Like, it's just so silky smooth and it, like, works so well with all of that instrumentation. I really love this song. And he himself as a mezcla, he's Colombian and Venezuelan, but totally puro Caribe. Like, that's his energy. And I think it's, like, the double migrant experience, too, of, like, having a Colombian family that, growing up in Venezuela and then moving to Europe, like, you carry that sort of double migrant energy.

lineage. It's really powerful how they explored it on this record. Sorting that identity out through the record. Totally. So cool. Nice Ruben Blades reference to Maestro Vida, one of his unheralded, no, seriously, one of his unheralded albums that really was way ahead of its time mixing in all the sound effects and all that stuff.

One of my favorites of his, it just doesn't get enough attention. So thanks for the shout out, man. That was cool. I knew I was going to get points from you for that one. She literally said to me, we're walking in here and she goes, Felix is going to love this song. And that's Motorizado by the group Santa Marta off of their debut album, Pasarela. Okay, Ana, your turn. Me? Already? Yes. Are you sure you want to do that, Felix? Okay, so this is an example of...

of an artist where I liked the record, didn't get to talk about it, but this song in particular like truly knocked me off my feet. Felix, I don't know if you remember because I do believe I brought this to you earlier this year, but you probably forgot, so congratulations. I'm bringing it to you again.

This is Mala Rodriguez, Spanish rapper, innovator, really a pioneer in the Spanish hip-hop space, especially for women. Felix, you know her. You remember her, right? You saw her at South By or something a lot of years ago? Yes, I did see her in South By. She came back with her first album in four years. A new album this year, Un Mundo Raro, and this is the song off of that called Casi Nada. ♪

♪ ♪

♪

I just, I love when a hip hop artist or rapper comes back and they say, you know what?

Yeah, I'm going to do all my super intense spirit, my dropping all these really incredible bars, whatever. But first, the first thing you're going to hear from me in four years is you're going to hear me singing like this. I mean, her voice shines so beautifully, so deeply on this track. It's one of those tracks that I play over and over and over and over again. And also to come back...

With indifference. Like her entire evaluation, oh, I've spent time away and what I can tell you is no me importa casi nada. It's really chilling to me. Yeah, that wasn't what I was expecting to hear at all. As you were setting that song up, like I didn't expect it to be this like soft, vulnerable intro. It was really moving, really, really beautiful. Like I have goosebumps from that.

I'm a fan. I've always liked her stuff. Even going back to when I saw her in South By, the story was that I saw her in a restaurant. I had left my umbrella and she was just the nicest person after I had seen her the night before. She'd be so ferocious, so intense on the stage, right? It's like this duality of these personalities sometimes because she's just so present when she performs. I think that that makes a lot of sense though, Felix, with this song specifically because it's such a soft song.

side that I personally don't remember ever hearing from her. There's like a serious vulnerability and it feels as though taking space, having all these years in this industry allowed her to finally be at a point where she's like, actually, this is how I feel, which is really, it's incredible. I don't know. It makes me think, Felix, you always talk about, you're like, young artists don't have that much to say.

I'm putting you on blast. But when I hear an artist like this who has like years and years and years under her belt and is pioneered in the space, then coming out with a song like this, that's when that really clicks for me. Like, yeah, it took this many years for her to get to this point. Yeah, Malo Rodriguez is one of the names I associate with the earliest days of alt Latino. I'm going to call one from the line. I'm going to play a track that's not on the list. It's called Maria Cervantes and it's by pianist

Zakai Curtis. And I picked a track that goes all the way back to the earliest days of jazz. This is Maple Leaf Rag from the earliest days of New Orleans jazz. And this is what he does with it. He puts some Afro-Caribbean spin on it. Check it out. ♪

Zaki Curtis is a piano player based in New York. He's part of this Curtis family of amazingly talented musicians. Lucas Curtis, his brother, I just saw him play with Eddie Palmieri a while back. He put out this great record this year called Q-Bop Lives, and it's a reference to the earliest days of Afro-Cuban jazz in New York. It was bebop and Cuba. Initially, Latin jazz was called Q-Bop, believe it or not. ♪

I could do my whole TED Talk PhD lecture on the connection between Cuban music and New Orleans music and the way it's coming out of New York, but I won't. Let me just say that this whole album...

The whole album is this really wonderful collection of songs and tunes, solo piano, great group and ensemble playing. That's just a nod, a reference to the earliest days of African jazz coming out of New York in the 1940s and 50s.

Felix, I'm not going to lie to you. I wasn't sure if I could see the vision until we got to that one part. And I was like, oh, this is really cool. Okay, I had the opposite feeling because I was going to be like, the piano alone is so beautiful. It doesn't need anything else. And then the other instrument started and I was like, whoop, never mind. This is incredible. Also, we should call it Q-Bop again. Q-Bop. I was in a band called Q-Bop for a while.

The album's called Q-Bop Lives. Way to go, Sakai. Okay, we're going to take a break, and then we're going to come back. What? We're going to take a break? We're going to come back to more music? Stop a dad at a baseball game. Okay, way to go, Sakai. Stop it. Stop it. He gets it. He feels me. Come on. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back. This message comes from Charles Schwab. When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices, like full-service wealth management and advice when you need it. You

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Okay, who's next? Isa, you're up. I'm next? Yeah. Isa. All right, because it's so cold and it's freezing outside, I'm going to keep our music today very Caribeño. The song I'm bringing today, this is a well-known song for the all-Latino fam, is Dumbai by Catriel y Paco Amoroso off of their album Baño María. Oh my gosh.

That song is just so good. It's so fun. And I am obsessed with

the vocal differences between Paco and Catriel. Like, Paco has this, like, old Spanish man, like, Alejandro Sanz rasp to his voice. And then Catriel is, like, moving from these... Yeah, Catriel is moving from these, like, really delicate little falsettos to, like, this baritone. Like, the way that they both manipulate their voices and play off of each other and the beat is just so much fun. Like, I cannot get enough of this song and I cannot get enough of these guys.

The only thing I will say is that everyone really likes to talk about how the instrumentation on the Tynes, it's like, oh, it's so different from the recordings, whatever. True. And of course I hear this song and I immediately, the instruments from the Tynes fill my brain. But...

That is not to say that the recorded version doesn't have something special to it. I think that the contrast, there's a difference in the richness, obviously, of the live instrumentation versus the original recording. But the original recording here really, to me, does stand on its own as something unique. Totally, which is why I picked this song because I think, again, I love all the discourse that their Tiny Desk started around LLM.

electronic recorded music versus live instrumentation and what are we looking for and do we need more organic live bands and you know all of those discussions which these guys have proven they can do both and they can pull them both off really well but I think this song in particular like it's

It shines both ways. You know, I was talking with a friend who's a producer over the weekend and he was saying, like, you have to know what the rules are before you before you strip it back. The music has to have the bones before you can do, you know. And let's say he's like people in Mexico who are playing with R&B maybe don't have all the tools to understand the roots of R&B in that same way or whatever. He's a Mexican producer.

And I think that for them, they have all the bones. Like they proved themselves so well in the Tiny Desk, like very clearly they have the classical training. So to pull back and do the electronic version feels not empty to me in the way that it could have if they didn't have that. And I think you can hear that in the track.

Okay, two things. First of all, that's something I always say. You got to know what the rules are before you can break them. And now you're crediting somebody. How long have I been saying this to you? What's that word? My friend who's a producer, you guys might not know him. What's the word? Karma? I think it's karma. Payback? I don't know. Okay.

So anyway. This is what it feels like. How's it feel, Felix? Oh my God. And the other thing is about this particular recording, this song, it all comes back to the song. If the song is great,

It's going to work if people deliver it in the proper way. And they did it on the tiny desk with the instrumentation. They're doing it here. If you start with a great song, I think that's what your friend is saying. If you start with a great song, you can't go wrong. That's exactly what the Argentine duo, Catriely Paco Amoroso, did on this song, Dumbai, off their album, Baño Maria.

All right. I'm going to keep it Southern Cone, but a little further, maybe west, is it? I don't know my geography. I'm going to go to Chile by way of New York. Someone get this man a map. No, you're right. Chile, a little bit west of Argentina. Thank you for that. By way of New York. This is saxophonist Melissa Aldana. She had a really, really great record. Oh, I remember her. Echoes of the Inner Prophets, the name of the record.

This track is called A Purpose. Melissa's been in New York. She's been making a name for herself. I think this is her strongest, strongest statement ever. Check it out. ♪

There are a number of great, great jazz albums out this past year from Latinos, from people from Latinos that sit all over Latin America. And Melissa is at that point now where, you know, with the whole jazz thing, it's like you've got to be able to hear, like, two notes and know who the player is. And that establishes you as, you know, someone significant on the scene. And she's at that point now. She has her own sound. Her compositions are just something that can only come from her.

And I'm just happy to bring this in for one of my best songs of the year. Felix, you stole from me. I was so angry when I saw on our NPR best songs of the year list, which everyone can go check out at npr.org slash music. You had...

chosen the Residente 313 track off of his new album. He released a new album this year Las Letras Ya No Importan and this song, when I heard this song I literally, I mean this isn't that surprising but I cried. I seriously cried and then I cried again and then I cried like 50,000 times when I listened to it over and over and over again. I think it's literally poetry. It's so beautiful I go back to it all the time so this is my moment of retribution This is 313 by Residente

It includes Penelope Cruz, Silvia Perez Cruz, who we love, one of our favorite, favorite, favorite Spanish vocalists, and Residente. We're just going to listen to the Residente part.

La playa que se respalda con el pelo de tu sola, con la arena de tu espalda y los rumbos se encaminan en la mirada de tus ojos porque nunca se terminan. Los abres y me estrellos, se rompen las nubes, se disparan los destellos y viajé cuando me vieron.

♪ Porque son como los cielos que se abrieron ♪ ♪ Porque nunca están vacíos ♪ ♪ Están llenos de corriente ♪ ♪ Como cuando se desborda el río ♪ ♪ Eres una vez sola ♪ ♪ Te disparas como una pistola ♪

You are one of those who dared, like all the lips that my kisses knew. We discover ourselves like a single requinto, like the sun discovers the mornings by instinct. It's going to turn the planet around with the comet stars, release the brakes of the bicycle, while the sky cracks with its violet palette, take the full wave with everything that comes. Open your mouth and let the snow melt,

me

This is clearly a piece that has come out of years and years of trying and creating and living and falling and getting back up. I mean, it's like all of these things to me encapsulated. And it's really, it's a reflection in many ways on...

on the essence of life. It's poetry. It really is. Yeah, he's the Pablo Neruda of our generation. Totally. Like, Residente is one of our deepest thinkers, most beautiful writers. Yeah, I had a really amazing opportunity to interview him in front of a live audience in New York in April. And we talked... I was there. And we talked about some of the things that led up to this record being

And this particular song is about, it's a reflection of someone who he lost. Very, very dear friend who he lost. So it has all of these deeper moments, all these different, deeper meanings. And something you just said right now, you said the Pablo Neruda of Latin music. I've always called him the Eduardo Galeano, the sociologist writer, right? But he's transitioned on this particular cut and maybe in general from absorbing the world and

And now just reflecting in poetry. You know, he was angry. He was angry and rightfully so. Like he was angry and he wanted to talk about problems and he still does. But in a way where he's also like end life flows. And so much of this song is, yeah, I mean, he says he's like, we have to end so that other things can be born because the world always changes.

continues. It's interesting to watch him and Ana Tijoux put out a statement of that capacity at the same time when their careers have both followed very similar arcs in that sense of like the political, social war that they've grappled with in their music. The chaos doesn't stop. You just learn to manage it, right? And then just like learn to absorb the world. So these two musicians...

who are younger than I am, but they're growing and becoming these really amazing people, and it reflects in their music. All the music this week for the songs, looking back over the year, and we just touched the tip of the iceberg. There's so much, so much great stuff out there. It was difficult to do, but somebody had to do it. We had to narrow it down. Thank you guys for trying to make this representative of the great year of music, man. ♪

You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music.

Our audio editor is Simon Retner, and we get editorial support from Hazel Sills. The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung. Saraya Muhammad is executive producer of NPR Music and is behind the knobs and switches. Say hi, Saraya. Open your mic and say hi. Hello. Our jefe in chief is Keith Jenkins, VP of Music and Visuals. As always, thank you so much, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento.

You guys for having me. It's been a good year. We've got maybe, I think we have one more show to do, but then we're going to take some time off. But just take some time. Go back over your playlist. Look back over all the great music that was out there. Stuff we don't even know about. And write in if you have some stuff that you say, how in the heck did you not hear this song this year? Alt.Latino at NPR.org. The alt dots.

I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Thank you so much for listening all year. How fun. Thank you. Gracias.

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