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Roberto LuzThe Road to Paradise

Mambo Balam

The Dance of the Jaguar

 
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MAMBO BALAM is a great collection of music from Roberto Luz and Friends. This record was written for and played by some of the finest musiciansMambo Balam around the lake. It was published in November of 2001 and is the product of the Discos Atitlan cooperative, and was done in a cooperative manner. We call the resulting mix Jungle Bop... so take off your socks and step into the Jaguars cave. This is the band that started Festival Atitlan

The music is very eclectic. You will float like a feather at one moment and find yourself charging across the sand on the back of a camel the next. The styles vary from trippy World jazz to concert rock to experimental blends of everything in between.

Mambo Balam was recorded and mixed  digitally at Cave Art Studio in Santiago Atitlan
Production, engineering, and graphics by Roberto
All songs written by Roberto except Volador and Horizon, by Roberto and Alvaro Silva, Good Morning, by  David Robinson, and Cumbia Sampuesana, that comes from a traditional Colombian folk song

 

You can listen to a couple of the tunes by clicking on the headsets , you can download them by clicking on the world.

LA CUEVA DEL JAGUAR

PROCESSION
Listen to The Esmerald Forest
Download The Esmerald Forest
Listen to Diggin up Uranium
Download Diggin up Uranium

LISTEN

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The CDs are available from me here in Guatemala... I am arranging a US distributor and will let you know when thats set up.

You can buy the CD for $15 (in the US and Canada)including shipping through PayPal by clicking on the "Buy CD" button. You can Download it for $9 by clicking on the "Download CD" button.

 

 

The Songs:

1.) Fluid Motion: Slip sliding through the layers of reality.... This instrumental tune features Cush on the backwards drum kit.....

2.) La Cueva del Jaguar: A Latin Rock song about that cosmic special moment that we all have at least once in our lives... Just how will you act? Spanish lyrics:

Buscando por la montaña
el Secreto vas a encontrar
En la obscuridad andando
En busca del despertar
Al final de tu camino
Que tendras pa relatar
En la Cueva del Jaguar

3.) Volador: Jazz written with Alvaro Silva, the Bass player extraordinaire. He also played guitar on this tune. Mellow and flighty

4.) Mambo Balam (Cumbia Sampuesana): I took the basic melody from a Colombian folk tune, tripped it out, put in some funky bass and a great reggae beat.

5.) Procession: Standing by the side of the road in Bali with my little minidisc recorder and this procession came walking by with gods, saints, people singing and, at precisely the right time, a gamelan started up. It's all right here, in full living Stereo, in the first part of this tune. The second part is a tune I worked out in Thailand on the same trip.

6.) Tweedle Dee: Another flute based instrumental floating tune.

7.) Good Morning!: This tune features Davy Robinson on Kalimba and percussion. Something that crawled out of the woodwork one morning over coffee at Las Milpas, Davy's Backpacker Hotel on Lake Atitlan.

8.) El Viento: There is a breeze that is blowing through Latin America, and I'm part of it. This is a Hippy Manifesto and a call to arms:

Yo soy parte de un viento
que sopla por aqui
barriendo amarguras
donde quiera que los vi
Yo soy parte de la luna
que vine a brillar
cantando mis canciones
ay los pongo a bailar
Vuela mi corazon
vuela hacia los altos
vuela mi corazon
dejame ser feliz

9.) Salvia Divinorum: If you have ever become part of the background and just kinda slipped off the edge it was probably because of Salvia, the magical herb of the Oaxacan shamans

10.) Horizon: Another tune done with Alvaro Silva, with Davy on drums.

11.) Reunion: This tune features the entire Discos Atitlan crew, as I wrote it to perform with that ensemble. It has Cris Ottaviano on guitar, Laura Mendez on Sax, Davy on drums, Bruce Deselle on Guitar, Alvaro on Bass.

12.) It's all in the Breath: This one started out as a breath exercise for my flute playing. It rolls over itself and comes back again.

13.) Donde Esta el Amor?: this is my response to the vast amount of BAD rap in spanish that we are plagued with here in Central America. It asks the eternal question: Where is the Love?

14.) Return to the East: Based on the steel drum, this is a pretty world beat flute tune

15.)Suspiros: whispers and soft breath on a beautiful evening by the lakeshore. Featuring Montse Deu on Vocals

Flutes, whistles, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Piano, Steel drum, Percussion, Drums, vocals, Noise Orchestra, loops by Roberto Luz

All others as noted above

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