Remember CDs? A silver disc that you put in a slot or on the car dashboard, or on the side of your laptop. or a box on a shelf, and it played music. It even came with artwork and a little booklet with lyrics and credits, and a bio of the artist.
Of course, now you can get all of this online, or at least most of it. Spotify, for instance, gives you cover art, “about the artist” (which is sometimes informative and sometimes not), and in some cases, you can even get the lyrics and a video. And you can get credits and other information. But the sound quality of the CD is generally better (unless you set Spotify Premium for Lossless).
I was given a CD over dinner last week by the renowned Mexican singer Jaramar. Jaramar Soto – her full name – is a Mexican singer, composer, and visual artist known for blending medieval, Renaissance, Sephardic, Baroque, Indigenous, and contemporary Mexican music with elements of folk, rock, and jazz. Over three decades, she has recorded at least 15 albums with groups like Escalón, Ars Antiqua, Caída Libre, collaborations with Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and released solo albums and songs, often reimagining ancient repertoires with modern arrangements like the blues.
Her work has earned her major recognition, including the 2016 Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Album for “El hilo invisible: Cantos sefaradíes,” recorded with Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and national festival prizes with Escalón. Jaramar has toured extensively throughout Mexico and has taken her projects to international stages in Europe and the Americas.
And like many Mexican artists, she is part of and is continuing an artistic dynasty. Her parents were involved in the arts: her father, Alfonso Soto Soria, was a noted museum designer and a painter; her mother, Alma Rosa Martínez, was a contemporary dance ballerina and choreographer.. Her two children are continuing the family’s artistic heritage: her daughter is a filmmaker with musical projects, and her son is a drummer and producer who often plays with Jaramar and produced Memoria. She is also training a new generation of Mexican singers, teaching in a state-sponsored program of voice coaching.
In short, she is both on the cutting edge of Mexican music and deep into its history. Plus, if that was not enough, she is an artist with paintings and sculptures in places like the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, various public collections, gallery shows, and private collections. A Renaissance woman, a Jill-of-all-trades.
So, of course, her new CD is a work of art — 25 songs, and a beautifully illustrated booklet with lyrics, plus her paintings on the covers. The music is astonishing. Jaramar’s new double album Memoria is split into two contrasting sound worlds: one largely acoustic and rooted in medieval and traditional song forms, and another that is more experimental and electronic.
In disc 1, the songs have rhythm, often provided not by percussion but by plucked strings and what sounds like castanets, as in “Tu”. The song “Aliento” moves with what sounds like an electrified cello as her voice creates the sonic world. “Luz” is gently propelled by a stand-up jazz-like base, and “Casa” sounds like electronic-Spanish-tropical.
In the second disc, 12 songs, her performances (they sound more like performances than studio recordings), the dreamy “El Azul”, the heart-rendering “Naranjas”, and the gentle “Caida” all scaffold and frame her voice like a work of art. The songs flow from medieval Spain to modern Mexico, always mesmerizing the listener with the beauty of her voice (one of the best in Mexico) and her ability to create relatable but ancient-sounding sonic landscapes.
I loved being able to pop the CD in my player (yes, I still have one), appreciate Jaramar’s paintings, and follow the lyrics (not available on Spotify) and have all the music together in front of me.
In CD or a stream, Memoria is an acquired taste in some songs, and easy listening in others – normal for a 25-song project. This is not pop or rock (although she does that in other albums), but an adventure in music forms and geography. Some songs you hum along with at first listen. Others, you go back to and discover that her voice and the compositions have layers of experimentation and subtlety that you missed the first time around.
Whether you order the CD or stream the songs, you will be rewarded with a trip through the avant-garde of Mexican music delivered by one of its most versatile artists.
You can order a CD directly from Jaramar on either through her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jaramar , or her Instagram page, https://www.instagram.com/jaramaroficial/. Just DM her. Or you can stream it on Spotify which links to both discs.
