I was inspired by my son's recital.  Enjoy.

Snow White Remix Whistle While You Work

Composed and arranged by Alex Alvear

Having spent a great deal of time working with Puerto Rican musicians and community, I have become fond of the culture, especially the music. Plena is a really great traditional style from Puerto Rico which I love playing. For the instrumental interludes in this song we go back and forth between Plena and Mozambique. For the verses I used the exact same chord progression of the great Jaco Pastorius' "Teen Town" and a couple of sax riffs also quote parts of the original melody. Gilenny again, nailed this not very easy nor conventional melody in just a couple of takes! As we move to the Coro section we start with a funky instrumental interlude which leads to the call response with some burning "soneos" (improvisations) by Manolo. The Mambo section is pretty cool, it has an uneven meter which you can hardly notice. Musicians will catch it quite easily but you can be dancing to it and not be aware that a beat has been skipped. We the return to another breakdown with me doing the soneos as we move to the outro. The very last coro we sing is a quote of an old Plena I heard played by Cortijo. 

The song is basically a tribute to Latin music and its immense beauty and diversity.

Lyrics

PLENA BLUE (Spanish) 

DE LA MUSICA LATINA YO ME HE ENAMORA’O 
CADA PUEBLO TIENE SU SABOR Y SU TUMBA’O 
FLORES DIFERENTES 
QUE HAN NACIDO DE UNA MISMA MATA 

CANTOS AL AMOR A LA ESPERANZA Y LA ALEGRIA 
CANTOS DE DOLOR DE PENA Y DE MELANCOLIA 
MUSICA PARA BAILAR, MUSICA PARA PENSAR 
MUSICA REBELDE QUE NOS DA FUERZAS PARA LUCHAR 

DESDE LAS TUPIDAS SELVAS A LOS VERDES LLANOS 
DESDE LAS CALIDAS PLAYAS AL FRIO ALTIPLANO 
UN TORRENTE INTERMINABLE DE COLORES MUSICALES 

CANTOS AL AMOR A LA ESPERANZA Y LA ALEGRIA 
CANTOS DE DOLOR DE PENA Y DE MELANCOLIA 
MUSICA PARA BAILAR, MUSICA PARA PENSAR 
MUSICA REBELDE QUE NOS DA FUERZAS PARA LUCHAR 

PLENA BLUE (English) 

I have fallen in love with Latin music 
Each people/town has its own flavor and groove 
Different flowers which have been born from the same plant 

Songs to love, hope and happiness 
Songs of pain, grief and melancholy 
Music to dance to, music to think 
Rebellious music which gives us strength to fight 

From the thick jungles to the green fields 
From the heat in the beaches to the cold in the mountains 
An endless flow of musical colors 

Songs to love, hope and happiness 
Songs of pain, grief and melancholy 
Music to dance to, music to think 
Rebellious music which gives us strength to fight

Credits

from MANGO, track released 26 January 2011 
Alex Alvear - Bass, Lead & Bckgnd. Vocals 
Rebecca Cline - Keyboards 
Karina Colis - Timbal 
Ernesto Diaz - Congas 
Eric Doob - Drums 
Gonzalo Grau - Minor Percussion, Vocals & Keyboards 
Gilenny Guzman - Lead & Bckgnd. Vocals 
Manolo Mairena - Misc. Percussion, Lead & Bckgnd. Vocals 
Felipe Salles - Tenor Sax 
Jared Sims, Alto Sax 

Produced by Gonzalo Grau 
Mixed by Fernando Aponte

Snow White Remix Whistle While You Work

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