Instruments Archives: Trombone

1. We Are Happy (Hola!)

We sing “We Are Happy” as our hello song at the beginning of every All Around This World Latin America class, changing the greeting to match the featured country of the week. “We Are Happy” didn’t start as a Spanish hello song, but instead as a mashup of two songs the Abayudaya of Uganda sing to greet important visitors to Nabugoye Hill, which is a small area a few miles outside of the Eastern Ugandan city of Mbale. The Abayudya of Uganda are a small community of about 500 Luganda-speaking Bagandans who have been practicing Judaism for over 80 years. Abayudaya community leaders Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his brother JJ Keki wrote the two greeting songs and led the community in singing them for Jay when he first visited in late 1999.

Country Uganda (original)/ On CD:Dominican Republic
Language: this “Spanish hello song” was originally in English, Luganda and Hebrew
Genre on CD: Merengue
Instruments on CD: Piano, Trombone, Trumpet

[wpspoiler name=”Lyrics of All Around This World: Latin America version” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”]Ooh, bop bop bop! Ooh, bop bop bop.
We are happy, we are happy on this day.

¡Hola everybody! (“Hello” in Spanish),
Bom dia everybody! (“Good morning” in Portuguese),
Buiti binafi everybody! (“Good morning” in Garifuna),
Imaynallam everybody! (“How are things going?” in Quechua)[/wpspoiler]

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Credits

Vocals: Jay Sand

Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel

Drums/percussion: Francois Zayas

Instrumental engineering: Mark Wolfe, AudioMind, Philadelphia

Vocals engineered by Erich Miller, Philadelphia

You can listen to the original verson of "We Are Happy" on the Smithsonian Folkways release, Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda.
"We Are Happy" and "Hello" © Gershom Sizomu and J.J. Keki, arrangement by Jay Sand with permission, Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable

17. La Luna

This is a Spanish song about the moon found in several parts of Latin America that accompanies a game during which all the kids dance in a circle around one child who stands in the middle. When the lyrics of the song reach, “Ay ay ay!” the circling children scream “Ay ay ay!” into the ear of the child in the middle. The original lyrics of this song include references to the Spanish region of Catalonia, Catalonian soldiers and the Spanish king, all of which may possibly be a reference to the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)? The words in the All Around This World version of this Spanish song about the moon are more poetic: “I’d like to be the moon way up high high high…. I’d like to be a dove so I could fly fly fly….”

Country: (many)
Language: Spanish
Genre on CD: Plena
Instruments on CD: Bass, Drum kit, Hand percussion, Trombone, Trumpet

LYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION

Quisiera ser tan alto como la luna,
Ay-ay-ay! Como la luna
Quisiera ser paloma y poder volar,
Ay-ay-ay! y poder volar

I’d like to be as the moon way up high, high, high,
Ay-ay-ay! way up high, high, high.
I’d like to be a dove so I could fly fly fly,
Ay-ay-ay! I could fly fly fly

Why the heck didn’t Al Around This World get this guy to record La Luna on our CD?

Credits

Vocals: Tony Perez
Bass: Rob Hagopian
Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel
Trombone: James Negron

Trumpet: Nelson Miranda
Drums/percussion: Francois Zayas
Additional percussion and engineering: Arturo Stable
Engineering and co-production of drums, keyboards and bass by Mark Wolfe at AudioMind.

Vocals and horns engineered by Erich Miller

Original is "High as the Moon" © Alpha Film Music on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, translation and arrangement of "High as the Moon" by Jay Sand with permission, Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable
Listen to an original version on the Smithsonian Folkways release, Latin American Folk Songs: Sung in Spanish by Chago Rodrigo

10. Un Barco Chiquitito

“Barco chiquitito” is a Spanish song about a boat — a fantastic little boat, in our opinion. There are several versions of this song, but in the most widely sung, there is a little boat that can’t set sail for seven weeks, during which time provisions start to run out. In one translation, crew members get so hungry they eat their boots “with red sauce and a walnut,” get very sick and have to turn back. While our version is still a Spanish song about a boat, we not only let the ship sail, but say that it’s unable to stop sailing, then we also sing about an airplane that can’t stop flying, and, in class, we go through other modes of transport and say they can’t stop going either (a car, a bicycle, a pogo stick….).

Country: (many)

Language: Spanish
Genre on CD: Cuban salsa

Instruments on CD: Bass, Congas, Drum kit, Piano, Timbales, Trombone, TrumpetLYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION

Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Que no podia, no podia, no podia parar.

Once upon a time there was a little boat
Once upon a time there was a little boat
Once upon a time there was a little boat
And it could, and it could, and it could not stop.

Credits

Vocals: Tony Perez
Bass: Rob Hagopian
Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel
Trombone: James Negron

Trumpet: Nelson Miranda
Drums/percussion: Francois Zayas
Percussion: Arturo Stable

Drums, keyboard and bass engineered and co-produced by Mark Wolfe at Audio Mind.

Vocals and horns engineered by Erich Miller

Original is "Un Barco Chiquitito" © Alpha Film Music on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, translation and arrangement by Jay Sand with permission, Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable
Listen to an original version performed by Octavio Corvalan on the Smithsonian Folkways release, "Vamos a Cantar: Let Us Sing: A Collection of Children's Songs in Spanish."

6. Cachumbambe

This is a Cuban kids song All Around This World jazzed up with a merengue arrangement. A cachumbambe is a seesaw. Take a listen to this version from the Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942, currently held by the Library of Congress.
The original version has Old Lady Ines, a beloved archetype of the super-strong Cuban “little old lady,” smoking tobacco but refusing to drink coffee. After much deliberation, All Around This World chose to bring Ines to the U.S. and put her on a health kick, keeping the reference to Cuban coffee but changing the lyrics to suggest she’ll drink guarapo, which is a drink of raw sugar cane juice. How dare we do such a thing to a Cuban kids song?? Not as a slight to the tradition of the hardy Cuban woman! We decided to bring Ines to the U.S. in song in a way that American kids may be more inclined to relate to her, and nowadays cigar-smoking grannies in the U.S. are few an far between. Though, in retrospect, we certainly could have kept a little kick in her and had her eschew the guarapo in favor of a thick cup of coffee. In class we’re able to right this wrong by letting the kids know that Ines may occasionally choose a mild sugary beverage, but she didn’t live long enough to earn the right to be called “Old Lady Ines” by playing it safe.

Thanks to Nestor Baguier for helping us see the light.

Country: Cuba
Language: Spanish
Genre on CD: Merengue

Instruments on CD Bass, Congas, Drum kit, Piano, Trombone, Trumpet

LYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION

Cachumbambe,
La vieja Ines,
Que bebe guarapo y no toma cafe.

Cachumbambe,
Old lady Ines
She will drink guarapo but she won’t drink cafe.

Credits

Vocals: Tony Perez
Bass: Rob Hagopian
Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel

Trumpet: Nelson Miranda

Trombone: James Negron

Drums/percussion: Francois Zayas
Percussion and addtional percussion engineering: Arturo Stable
Engineering and co-production of drums, bass and keyboard by Mark Wolfe at Audio Mind.

Vocals and horns engineered by Erich Miller

"Cachumbambe" is traditional, Englsh lyrics and Arrangement by Jay Sand. Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable.

5. Wan Boto

A Caribbean drumming song, originally from Suriname, which is a small country on the Caribbean coast of South America. Unlike any other country in South America Suriname was primarily a colony of the Netherlands, so the culture and colonial language are not Spanish or Portuguese, but Dutch. Suriname has a very diverse population composed of substantial percentages of East Indians (primarily Hindu descendants of Northern Indian laborers who replaced Africans after the abolition of slavery), “Creoles” (people of European descent born in Suriname), Indonesians and “Maroons” (descendants of escaped slaves). There is also an active minority of indigenous people such as Carib, Arawak and Amerindians who retain their original languages and religions. The official language of Suriname is still Dutch, but many in the country speak Sranan (sometimes called Sranan Tongo, or “Taki Taki,”) which is a creole language that draws upon Dutch, English, Portuguese and a few African languages.

An original version of our call-and-response Caribbean drumming song, performed on traditional drums playing the Afro-Surinamese genre known as awina, can be found on the Smithsonian Folkways recording, “Creole Music of Surinam.” It appears to be a song about and by coastal fishermen. The lyrics translate roughly to, “One boat is coming with just one flag! Why only one flag…?”

Country: Suriname

Language: Sranan Tongo (“Taki Taki”)
Genre on CD: Soca

(original genre: Kaseko)
Instruments on CD: Bass, Drum kit, Guitar, Trombone, TrumpetLYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION

Wan boto e kong nana wan fraga
Wan fraga no’ mo’ hanga de?!?!
One boat is coming with just one flag
Wan fraga no’ mo’ hanga de?!?!
Setish B. and Carlo Jones (on sax) plays kaseko

Credits

Vocals: Jay Sand

Bass: Rob Hagopian

Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel

Trombone: James Negron

Trumpet: Nelson Miranda

Drums/percusson: Francois Zayas

Vocal recording: Bill Moriarty at Walking Studio.

Engineering and co-production of drums, keyboard and bass: Mark Wolfe at AudioMind.

Engineering of horns: Erich Miller

Original is "Wang Boto E Kong" © Alpha Film Music on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, translation and arrangement of "Wang Boto E Kong" by Jay Sand with permission. Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable
Listen to an original version of "Wang Boto" on the Smithsonian Folkways release, Creole Music of Surinam.

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Instruments Archives: Trombone