Clásicos de la Provincia
Encyclopedia
Clásicos de la Provincia is the breakthrough album
by Colombian
singer/composer Carlos Vives
.
Released in late 1993, internationally on February 22, 1994, it contained three chart-topping hits ("La Gota Fria", "Alicia Adorada", "La Hamaca Grande") that propelled Vives to fame in Latin America. It is Vives's sixth album overall (when counting earlier releases), and also the album that popularized the vallenato
genre, both for the younger generation in Colombia
and international audiences. The album was a winner for the Billboard
Latin Music Awards Best Album, and paved the way for Colombian successes Shakira
and Juanes
.
singer on the international stage. He began his career as a soap opera
star in such telenovelas as "La Conciencia de Lucía (The Conscience of Lucía - 1989)" and "L.P. Loca Pasión (Crazy Love - 1989)," and then tried his hand in a dual career as both television star and romantic balladeer. While he gained domestic attention through his first few albums in the late 1980s, (including the title track from 1989's No Podrás Escapar de Mí
), his synth-pop style did little to differentiate himself from other musical artists of the era. It took a few years for Vives to find inspiration out of the limelight in Bogotá
and back to his roots in Santa Marta
.
In 1991, when Carlos was approached to play the part of Rafael Escalona
in the biographical film Escalona
(1991), it would not only be a star-turning role for the rising actor, but the beginning of Carlos's musical breakthrough. Playing the famous musician, Carlos used his own musical talents to reinterpret Escalona's music, embedded in the traditional Colombian style of music known as vallenato
. With vallenato being the musical style of Colombia's northern coast, the location of Carlos's Santa Marta birthplace, Vives found success embracing his hometown roots. While vallenato was a musical style that had slowly lost popularity with Colombia's younger generation, Escalona would inspire Carlos to fuse the vallenato with modern rock, a sound that would break Carlos not only in his own Colombian homeland, but the entire Latin American music market.
With Carlos's backing band, La Provincia, Carlos took a cue from his successful interpretations of Rafael Escalona, and decided to delve deeper into the famous artists of Colombia's vallenato past. The result would be Carlos's first true breakthrough hit Clásicos de la Provincia, in 1993 (1994 internationally). As the title implies, the album consists of Colombia's vallenato standards, not only popular during its time, but in a new rock style, nearly turning the songs into new compositions. For example, the album opener "La Gota Fria (The Cold Drop)", when compared to the original by Emiliano Zuleta, sounds like two distinct songs, if one were to ignore song lyrics.
The album covers well-known songs from artists as Juan Pablo Valencia ("Alicia Adorada" - Adored Alicia) and Leandro Díaz ("Matilda Lina"). Most of the songs are embedded in the vallenato sound. Carlos's right-hand man Egidio Cuadrado, the accordionist who nearly steals the spotlight from the singer, begins the songs with a short accordion
instrumental, quickly followed by the rest of La Provincia chiming in, and ending with Cuadrado's accordion playing the last few bars. The album contains some other musical spots in experiemental styles, "Pedazo De Accordion (Piece of Accordion)", performed by Egidio & Heberth Cuadrado, is a Cartagena
-influenced dance number that has a rapid rhythm. The album also has a ballad, "Altos de Rosario," which is a slower jazzy composition. Carlos ends the album with the humorous "Contestacion A La Brasilera (Response to the Brazilian Woman)" a one-minute short sung a cappella by Vives.
With the debut single "La Hamaca Grande" (The Big Hammock - #13 Billboard
Hot Latin Tracks), and peaking with "La Gota Fría" (#6), the reaction was tremendous. The hit single, as well as other album cuts such as "Alicia Adorada" (#25), and "Matilde Lina," would be embraced by older generations, vallenato enthusiasts (with some mixed reactions), and younger listeners, transfixed by the mix of percussion, accordion, and of course, rock guitar. "La Gota Fría" went into high rotation. So popular is this album, both fans, and even Carlos himself (as can be noted on his website http://www.carlosvives.com), consider this Colombian classic to be his "first" album.
This album holds importance for not only reintroducing the vallenato to Colombia's youth, but as the first Colombian album to sell 1 million copies worldwide, exposing then vallenato
sound to countries unfamiliar with it (such as Spain
). The album is still regarded with great popularity as Vives's biggest album, and would go on to win the Best Album prize at the 1995 Billboard
Latin Music Awards. Clásicos would give birth to Colombia's answer to their first modern superstar, paving the way for future Colombian rockers Shakira
and Juanes
.
Technical Credits
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by Colombian
Colombian people
Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
singer/composer Carlos Vives
Carlos Vives
Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
.
Released in late 1993, internationally on February 22, 1994, it contained three chart-topping hits ("La Gota Fria", "Alicia Adorada", "La Hamaca Grande") that propelled Vives to fame in Latin America. It is Vives's sixth album overall (when counting earlier releases), and also the album that popularized the vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
genre, both for the younger generation in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and international audiences. The album was a winner for the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Latin Music Awards Best Album, and paved the way for Colombian successes Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
and Juanes
Juanes
Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez , better known as Juanes is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album Fíjate Bien won three Latin Grammy Awards.Juanes has sold more than 13 million albums...
.
Overview
Before Clásicos de la Provincia ("Classics of the Province"), Vives was not considered a famous ColombianColombian people
Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
singer on the international stage. He began his career as a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
star in such telenovelas as "La Conciencia de Lucía (The Conscience of Lucía - 1989)" and "L.P. Loca Pasión (Crazy Love - 1989)," and then tried his hand in a dual career as both television star and romantic balladeer. While he gained domestic attention through his first few albums in the late 1980s, (including the title track from 1989's No Podrás Escapar de Mí
No Podrás Escapar de Mí
__FORCETOC__No Podrás Escapar de Mí is the second album released by Colombian singer/composer Carlos Vives.Released on June 6, 1987, Vives was better known as a television star of soap operas at the time of its release. The album contains romantic ballads laden with synthesizers, predating Vives's...
), his synth-pop style did little to differentiate himself from other musical artists of the era. It took a few years for Vives to find inspiration out of the limelight in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
and back to his roots in Santa Marta
Santa Marta
Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia...
.
In 1991, when Carlos was approached to play the part of Rafael Escalona
Rafael Escalona
Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen.He...
in the biographical film Escalona
Escalona
Escalona is a municipality located in the north part of the province of Toledo, which in turn is part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain...
(1991), it would not only be a star-turning role for the rising actor, but the beginning of Carlos's musical breakthrough. Playing the famous musician, Carlos used his own musical talents to reinterpret Escalona's music, embedded in the traditional Colombian style of music known as vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
. With vallenato being the musical style of Colombia's northern coast, the location of Carlos's Santa Marta birthplace, Vives found success embracing his hometown roots. While vallenato was a musical style that had slowly lost popularity with Colombia's younger generation, Escalona would inspire Carlos to fuse the vallenato with modern rock, a sound that would break Carlos not only in his own Colombian homeland, but the entire Latin American music market.
With Carlos's backing band, La Provincia, Carlos took a cue from his successful interpretations of Rafael Escalona, and decided to delve deeper into the famous artists of Colombia's vallenato past. The result would be Carlos's first true breakthrough hit Clásicos de la Provincia, in 1993 (1994 internationally). As the title implies, the album consists of Colombia's vallenato standards, not only popular during its time, but in a new rock style, nearly turning the songs into new compositions. For example, the album opener "La Gota Fria (The Cold Drop)", when compared to the original by Emiliano Zuleta, sounds like two distinct songs, if one were to ignore song lyrics.
The album covers well-known songs from artists as Juan Pablo Valencia ("Alicia Adorada" - Adored Alicia) and Leandro Díaz ("Matilda Lina"). Most of the songs are embedded in the vallenato sound. Carlos's right-hand man Egidio Cuadrado, the accordionist who nearly steals the spotlight from the singer, begins the songs with a short accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
instrumental, quickly followed by the rest of La Provincia chiming in, and ending with Cuadrado's accordion playing the last few bars. The album contains some other musical spots in experiemental styles, "Pedazo De Accordion (Piece of Accordion)", performed by Egidio & Heberth Cuadrado, is a Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
-influenced dance number that has a rapid rhythm. The album also has a ballad, "Altos de Rosario," which is a slower jazzy composition. Carlos ends the album with the humorous "Contestacion A La Brasilera (Response to the Brazilian Woman)" a one-minute short sung a cappella by Vives.
With the debut single "La Hamaca Grande" (The Big Hammock - #13 Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot Latin Tracks), and peaking with "La Gota Fría" (#6), the reaction was tremendous. The hit single, as well as other album cuts such as "Alicia Adorada" (#25), and "Matilde Lina," would be embraced by older generations, vallenato enthusiasts (with some mixed reactions), and younger listeners, transfixed by the mix of percussion, accordion, and of course, rock guitar. "La Gota Fría" went into high rotation. So popular is this album, both fans, and even Carlos himself (as can be noted on his website http://www.carlosvives.com), consider this Colombian classic to be his "first" album.
This album holds importance for not only reintroducing the vallenato to Colombia's youth, but as the first Colombian album to sell 1 million copies worldwide, exposing then vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
sound to countries unfamiliar with it (such as Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
). The album is still regarded with great popularity as Vives's biggest album, and would go on to win the Best Album prize at the 1995 Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Latin Music Awards. Clásicos would give birth to Colombia's answer to their first modern superstar, paving the way for future Colombian rockers Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
and Juanes
Juanes
Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez , better known as Juanes is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album Fíjate Bien won three Latin Grammy Awards.Juanes has sold more than 13 million albums...
.
Track listing
- "La Gota FríaLa Gota FriaLa gota fria is a 1938 Colombian Vallenato song, known and respected in Colombia and many other countries. It was composed by Emiliano Zuleta. It has been proposed as an unofficial Colombian anthem...
" (E. Zuleta) – 3:32 - "Amor Sensible" (F. Molina) – 4:26
- "Alicia Adorada" (J. Valencia) – 4:15
- "La Hamaca Grande" (A. Pacheco) – 3:16
- "El Cantor De Fonseca" (C. HuertasCarlos Huertas (vallenato composer)Carlos Huertas Gómez was a Colombian vallenato music composer predominantly, singer and guitarist...
) – 3:07 - "Matilde Lina" (L. Díaz) – 3:57
- "Altos Del Rosario" (A. Durán) – 3:56
- "Honda Herida" (R. Escalona) – 3:03
- "La Cañaguatera" (I. Carrillo) – 3:12
- "Lirio Rojo" (C. Ochoa) – 2:48
- "La Tijera" (L. Martínez) – 3:27
- "Compae Chipuco" (C. Gomez) – 3:16
- "Pedazo De Acordeón" (A. Durán) – 4:06
- "La Celosa" (F. Molina) – 4:12
- "Contestación A La Brasilera (fragmento)" (A. Zabaleta) – 0:49
Chart performance
| Chart (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Chile (APF) | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Latin Albums | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Latin Pop Albums Latin Pop Albums Latin Pop Albums is a record chart published on Billboard magazine. It features Latin music information of the Pop music genre. Established in June 1985, this chart features only full length albums and like all album charts on Billboard, is based on sales. The information is compiled by Nielsen... |
2 |
Personnel
Performance Credits- Carlos VivesCarlos VivesCarlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
- Primary Artist, Director, Vocals - Egidio Cuadrado - Accordion, Vocals (Pedazo de Accordion), Backing Vocals
- Ernesto "Teto" Ocampo - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Guitar
- Luis Ángel Pastor - Bass
- John Jairo Lemus - Conga
- Luis Pacheco - Conga, Guache, Tamboura, Tambourine
- Alexa Hernández - Vocals, Choir
- Amparo Sandino - Vocals Choir
- Aníbal Rivera - Electric Guitar
- Antonio Arnedo - Gaita, Soprano Saxophone
- Eder Polo - Guacharaca
- Bernardo Ossa - Keyboards, Percussion
- Michael Egizi - Piano
- Alfredo Rosado - Tamboura, Tambourine
- Heberth Cuadrado - Violin, Vocals ("Pedazo De Acordeón")
Technical Credits
- Eduardo de Narváez - Arranger, Engineer, Producer
- Ernesto "Teto" Ocampo - Arranger
- Bernardo Ossa - Arranger
- Carlos VivesCarlos VivesCarlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
- Arranger, Direction - Rafael Mejía - Art Direction
- Phil Austin - Engineer
- Jorge Díaz - Engineer
- Robin Jenny - Engineer, Mastering
- Manuel Riveira - Representation