The Cantoamerica-Papaya Connection
The history of the
Costa Rican band Cantoamerica spans a quarter of a century. And this country’s most popular music label,
Papaya Music, has been around for about half that time. Both of their stories have
been chronicled in previous articles in this column, so I’ll keep the synopsis
brief. There won’t be a quiz.
Classically trained
pianist Manuel Obregon founded Papaya with the intent of preserving as much what
remains of Costa Rica’s
musical past as possible, before it disappears. He also wanted to generate an
outlet for an upcoming generation of musicians to help put them on the global
musical map. He is to be commended for his intent, his foresight and his
success.
Manuel Monestel
grew bored with the music scene in San Jose in
the early 1970s and embarked on a trip down the Caribbean
that changed his musical tastes for the rest of his career. He soon founded
Cantoamerica and became a modern protégé for the likes of Walter Ferguson, as
Monestel carried the Calypso torch into the Twenty-First Century.
The musical scene
in Costa Rica
has always had a strong element of camaraderie, so it makes sense that these
two local pioneers would meet and work together. In fact, Monestel worked with
Papaya on one of their first projects, Orquestra de Papaya, a CD showcasing a
collaboration of musicians from five different Central American countries.
Monestel also released “Songs of a One Pant Man”, a solo effort on Papaya, as
well as appearing on the Calypso Legends CD on that label. In addition, he
traveled with Obregon to New Orleans
in 2003 to participate in a world music festival with him there.
Meanwhile, Manuel
Monestel continued to work with his own band, Cantoamerica, releasing a total
of twelve independently produced CDs with them. The newest chapter in this
musical relationship has been for Papaya to release a compilation of those
albums. The concept is not new for Papaya. They extended the same courtesy to
Honduran legacy Guillermo Anderson and to the modern Nicaraguan rock band
Perrozompopo. The idea has been to give a condensed sampling of these artists
to a much broader listening base. Once again, Obregon appears to have hit a
musical home run.
The new
Cantoamerica CD, “Vientos Del Caribe”, has just been released in Costa Rica.
Papaya has culled through a treasure trove of songs and come up with thirteen
nuggets to represent this fabled band’s achievements over the past twenty-five
years. The sixty minute disc has done a commendable job of displaying Cantoamerica’s
mastery in the musical styles of calypso, salsa, son and bolero. Along the way,
it presents a nice chronology of the development of the band through the years.
This is the kind of stuff that music geeks like me revel in.
Highlights on the
new CD include “Maria Calypso”, “Tacuma and Ananasi’s Party” and “El Espejo”. I
enjoyed listening to the development of the band’s rich horn arrangements and
its unique style of layering their percussion section. I think this kind of
exposure for Cantoamerica will give them the recognition they deserve.
Papaya Music CDs
are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and
Nuevo Arenal. Where they will gladly sample the music for their customers . All comments concerning thhis article are welcome.
