We love the unearthing or rare gems which also included previously unreleased ones and especially when they come from other parts of the globe were we might never have had the opportunity to be exposed to. But those who are on the hunt, always seem to put the good working to bring things to light and to the attention of music lovers seeking more. Desierto Records has been finding a few of those gems as of late and their upcoming release, Mex Funk is a heave slice funk that gets the nod from us here at Nostalgia King and will surely be in rotation.
Excerpt:
A few years ago, in a town in southern Mexico, I found several marimba records, including interesting covers of bands that sometimes go unnoticed during digging because they’re classified as regional or tropical music. Our interest in something unknown led us to discover the music of Conjunto Luna Azul and Maderas Felices, rescuing two melodies that fuse regional, tropical, and mambo rhythms with funk music. These melodies preserve the sociocultural stories of Mexican bands that managed to capture their musical experiences on vinyl. This fusion, which we’ve called Mex Funk, an onomatopoeia between popular-tropical music and Mexican funk, should be rescued, played, and danced to.
During the trip through the south, I met an old friend who had bought a whole collection of varied music, including regional music, but he didn’t give it much thought; his tastes focused more on ballads and English-language music. Among so many albums, both regional Mexican and tropical bands from the region, I found two sealed copies of Conjunto Luna Azul. At first glance, it looked like tropical music on both sides of the record, but the cover was distinguished by the fact that it depicted the band wearing flared clothing. Often, this distinction isn’t entirely positive when it comes to indicating that the song has something funky about it. Even with the best groovy cover, the songs later turn out to be ballads or tropical songs more or less perfectly fine. But that blue album contained, on its B-side, something energetic that led us here. The song “Baile con la Luna” had that regional soul with mambo rhythms, drum breaks, an organ melody at the end, playing in the style of Jackie Mittoo, and their songs about the moon, all of which inspired me to learn more about them.
Nothing was known about them anywhere, whether they were originally from the region or Central America. After several months of research, we were introduced to a group called Indomable, where relatives of Conjunto Luna Azul currently play. It was through the son of one of the members that we learned they were originally from Tonalá, Chiapas, and we set out to interview them there, proposing the project of making a 7″ from the region that combines melodies with funk. This project, and the history of the groups, is the result of rescuing two forgotten melodies from two Chiapas groups who managed to combine their tropical vibe and marimba with Latin funk in the 1970s.
On the southern coast of Mexico, in the municipality of Tonála, Chiapas, Conjunto Luna Azul emerged in 1969, led by the Villanueva family. One of the most versatile groups in the state of Chiapas, it fused tropical music with Mexican funk. Mr. Constantino Villanueva had a group called Estrellita de Oro, a project where his children, the Torres family, and other local residents developed their musical skills. Due to arguments among the members of Estrellita de Oro, Mr. Villanueva decided to start another group, which he called Conjunto Luna Azul, a small orchestra made up only of the Villanueva and Torres families, playing three trumpets, three saxophones, a bajo sexto, drums, and a marimba.