The Beautiful Country of Santa Esperanza
There is an old
adage in journalism that says, “Write about the things you know”. For music, I
suppose they say, “Write songs about
the things you know”. It sounds simple. But the hallways of the overpopulated literary
and music worlds are littered with material written by people composing things
they definitely don’t know about. In the industry, there is a technical
name for these people: “Wannabes”.
So, when I heard
about a jazz band from Santa Cruz,
I was both curious and skeptical. Jazz, after all, has traditionally been
identified as an urban style of music. But this quartet more than proved their
worth at the recent Tamarindo Jazz & Blues Festival, held at Ristorante La
Laguna del Cocodrilo. At that show, they played more of a straight jazz set,
because they can, and that is what was expected of them. The band is comprised
of Jose’ Contreras on flute, saxophone and lead vocals, Pedro Golobios on Bass,
Mauricio Vargas on piano, and Greivin Vallejos handling the percussion. I spoke
with the band after their set and found out they have a self-produced CD which
has just come out, titled “Lindo Mi Pais”. Listening to it the first time
through, it was quickly obvious to me that these guys are apostles of Rule #1
in writing (see above). The songs are like a travel guide to Guanacaste. In fact,
the first song on the disc, “Santa
Cruz”, is demonstrative of the format for the whole
disc. It is rife with local references of all things Guanacastecan. The terrain
and divergent landscapes are constant reference points on the entire CD, as are
the pueblos and townships of Filadelfia, Santa
Cruz, Monteverde, Diria, and Tilaran. Even Liberia gets a
mention or two.
When I spoke with
Pedro about this venture, he echoed a concept that is recurrent among modern
day Costa Rican musicians. The trend throughout this country has been to preserve
traditional, historic musical styles, presumably to keep them from fading into
obscurity, while adding your own, contemporary signature to the style of
songwriting. This has been anathema for Papaya Music, the biggest recording
label in Costa Rica.
The goal of Santa Esperanza is regionalized to Guanacaste, as they stay true to
Rule #1. I mentioned to Pedro that the goal and style reminded me a little of
the Tierra Seca CD, on the aforementioned Papaya label. His eyes lit up, as he
asked me, “How do you know about Tierra Seca?” As it turns out, the bandmembers
are friends and musical associates of Max Goldenberg, one of the two founders
of Tierra Seca, a folkloric Guanacaste band, with a similar mission statement.
So, “Lindo Mi Pais”
is not what I would term a traditional jazz composition. The two instrumentals
on the disc, “Malamba” and “Nosara”, certainly fall into this category. With their
catchy saxophone hooks and refrains, they sound like something you might here
late at night in a quiet bar anywhere in the world. The rest of the songs on
the CD, all of them also originals by the band, are basically modern Guanacaste
folklore, with Santa Esperanza’s own spin on it. In this case, beyond the
traditional local music, the band has an at least jazz-influenced approach. There
is a very comfortable feeling in the end result. And well there should be. They
are playing music about the things they know.
The Santa Esperanza
CD, “Lindo Mi Pais” is available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo,
Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly sample the music for their
customers. All comments concerning thhis article are welcome.
