Son Jarocho is a Spanish/Creole/African musical fusion from Mexico’s southern coastal plain area of Veracruz. Son Jarocho musicians gather often in public festive musical and dance parties called fandangos during which all members of the community are welcome to participate in making music.
Instruments particular to the genre include a jarana, a quijada, a requinto, a mariumbula, a harp and a wooden dancing platform known as a tarima that the musicians actually consider a percussion instrument and factor into the arrangement of traditional songs.
A tarima is a rectangular wooden platform that doubles as both a stage for dancing and a percussion instrument during a Mexican son jarocho fandango. Son Jarocho dancers wear hard-soled shows in order to make substantial sounds on the tarima when they dance.
“La Gucamaya,” a son jarocho classic from Veracruz in Mexico, is much more than just any old Spanish song about a bird. A guacamaya is a parrot, though All Around This World can’t say exactly what kind of parrots exist in Veracruz. Instruments particular to son jarocho include a jarana, a quijada (a donkey jawbone used for percussion, which is what Jay played during the recording), a requinto, a mariumbula, a harp and a wooden dancing platform known as a tarima that the musicians actually consider a percussion instrument and factor into the arrangement of son jarocho songs.
Pobrecito guacamaya, you’re a hungry little bird
You’re a hungry little bird pobrecito guacamaya
Pobrecito guacamaya, I will share my food with you
If you only help me too, pobrecito guacamaya
Fly, fly, fly, can you teach me how to fly?
Pobrecito guacamaya, we can leave the world behind
Vuela, vuela, vuela, can you teach me how to fly?
Pobrecito guacamaya, we can leave the world behind.
Gabriel Guzmán: jarana, vocals
Julia del Palacio: bailadora, vocals
Juan Carlos Marín: requinto, vocals
Emmanuel Huitzil: marimbol
Carlos Cuestas: leona, vocals
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Son Jarocho is a Spanish/Creole/African musical fusion from Mexico’s southern coastal plain area of Veracruz. Son Jarocho musicians gather often in public festive musical and dance parties called fandangos during which all members of the community are welcome to participate in making music.
