After three decades living outside of Uruguay, Jorge Drexler felt the urge to strengthen his connection with his homeland. The moment coincided with several significant events in his life: the death of his father, as well as the discovery of a new generation of Uruguayan musicians that fascinated him and the notable evolution of candombe, a traditional Uruguayan music and dance declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.
Organically, candombe ended up being the thread that ties his new album, Taracá, together. The 11-track set, released on Friday (March 13) under Sony Music Spain, offers listeners a complete sonic experience, with lyrics and drums as protagonists in almost all the songs. The title comes from an onomatopoeia for the sound of the small drum or tambor chico. The other possible translation is more symbolic and means “estar acá,” “to be here.” Or, as they would abbreviate colloquially in the Río de la Plata region, “tar acá.”
“This is an album of mourning, but for some strange reason, it has a clear celebratory nature,” Drexler tells Billboard Español. “It’s an album very much for the body, for dancing. Grief and despair take unpredictable forms, and sometimes what one does to save oneself from despair is singing.”
Taracá is the first album he has recorded in Uruguay in 20 years, although he also worked on it in Puerto Rico and Spain. For this production, the Oscar and Latin Grammy-winning artist collaborated with guest ranging from Puerto Rican urban star Young Miko to Uruguayans Rueda de Candombe, Américo Young, the murga group Falta y Resto, guitarist Julio Cobeli, and the Spanish cantaora Ángeles Toledano. As for producers, it features names like Lucas Piedra Cueva, Facundo Balta, Mauro, Tadu Vázquez, Gabo Lugo, Andrés “Fofo” Story, and Carles “Campi” Campón.
Drexler explains that his new LP is presented as a work of generational and geographical, stylistic, and temporal bridges. An example of this is the track “¿Qué Será Que Es?,” a Spanish adaptation of the iconic “O Que É, O Que É?” by Brazilian Gonzaguinha.
Below, Drexler delves into five key tracks from his latest project. To listen to the full album, click here.
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“Toco Madera”
Is the opening song in the album. It’s a tribute to the clave of candombe, the wonderful gift that Africa gave to the American continent, because that same clave that goes “pa-pa-pa-pa-pa” is present in bolero, in son, in Rio de Janeiro’s funky carioca, crossing over into a multitude of genres, and also in candombe. There must be something amazing about it for that rhythmic pattern to last so long and expand across so many musical genres.
“Toco Madera” also plays with the ambiguity of touching wood as a superstition — in [British] English they also say “touch wood” (in the U.S., “knock on wood”), and in candombe, “tocar madera” means playing the clave on the wooden side of the drum.
Listen to it here
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“El Tambor Chico,” with Rueda de Candombe
It describes one of the drums used in candombe that I love. It’s the first drum, the one beginners play when they start, but it only seems like a simple drum to play because, even though it has three beats, “ta-ra-ca” — guess the onomatopoeia. “Ta” is a hit with the hand, “ra” and “ca” are two hits with the stick. Even though it only has three beats that always repeat the same way: the “ta,” which is the hit made with the hand and is the strongest, is the accented one. However, it does not land on the strong beat of the measure; it’s displaced, creating a kind of rhythmic illusion when you hear it that is very hypnotic. That’s why it also says that “with the drum, you also pray,” because playing the drum is also a spiritual experience, and that’s what this song is about.
Listen to it here
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“Ante la Duda, Baila”
This is a song-essay, a spoken song, danceable, with a sung chorus. It narrates, as if it were a TED Talk, the story of the prohibition of certain dances, selecting five historical periods and presenting them chronologically: the zarabanda, the chuchumbé, the candombe, the tango, and reggaeton. But all of those genres are still alive today and thriving, except for the chuchumbé, which I’m not sure if it’s still alive in Mexico. Prohibiting a musical genre doesn’t make any sense — that’s something the song aims to show. And the world, polarized as it is, with these prohibitions and prejudices — in other words, just in case, let’s dance. Who knows when it will be forbidden.
Listen to it here
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“Te Llevo Tatuada,” with Young Miko
This is a song that I really like. It’s a love song that says sometimes we carry people tattooed deeper than if we had them tattooed on our skin. It was recorded with Young Miko’s production team in Puerto Rico. I liked so much how Mauro [Díaz] and Gabo Lugo, the two producers, worked that I decided to invite them to work with me on the album in Uruguay.
Listen to it here
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“Las Palabras,” with Falta y Resto
Is the song that closes the album, and it features the murga Falta y Resto, which is truly an institution within Uruguayan music. A murga is a choral ensemble, a genre that has developed throughout the 20th century in Uruguay but originates from Cádiz, Spain. The murga arrived in Uruguay in 1908 with a group from Cádiz, but in Uruguay, it evolved so much that it now has its own unique language.
Listen to it here
