Join us for an afternoon of music from Javier Montano followed by a discussion and Q & A about traditional Mexican music in North Carolina.
Javier Montano is a 21 year old singer-songwriter from the small town of Walstonburg, NC. He was raised in a middle class, immigrant family, with parents from different states in Mexico (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Chiapas, Mexico). In his music he moves easily between the popular regional styles of Norteño, Banda, and Sierreño. He works to bring a piece of Mexican culture in each and every one of his songs. Stick around after the performance for a discussion of traditional Mexican music in North Carolina, facilitated by PineCone Executive Director David Brower. You’ll be able to submit your own questions via Zoom, too!
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Únase a nosotros para una tarde de música de Javier Montano seguida de una discusión y preguntas y respuestas sobre la música tradicional mexicana en Carolina del Norte.
Javier Montano es un cantautor de 21 años de la pequeña ciudad de Walstonburg, NC. Se crió en una familia de inmigrantes de clase media, con padres de diferentes estados de México (Monterrey, Nuevo León y Chiapas, México). En su música se mueve con facilidad entre los estilos regionales populares de Norteño, Banda y Sierreño. Trabaja para traer un pedazo de la cultura mexicana en todas y cada una de sus canciones. Quédese después de la presentación para una discusión sobre la música tradicional mexicana en Carolina del Norte, facilitada por el director ejecutivo de PineCone, David Brower. ¡También podrá enviar sus propias preguntas a través de Zoom!
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Norteño is a style of folk music particularly associated with northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It has roots as dance music, having developed from a mixture of Mexican and Spanish oral and musical traditions that were then further blended with music and dancing of German and Czech immigrants who settled in the area. These immigrants brought the accordion and European folk dances such as polkas, waltzes and others into the Northern Mexican culture and into their music as well. Vocals became part of the music much later.
Banda is a style of Mexican music that traditionally features brass instruments and percussion. The tambora, a drum covered with animal hide, is the instrument most often identified with Banda. This music style often includes woodwinds and singers as well. German immigrants who brought polka music to Mexico helped drive new combinations of the two traditional music forms, creating a new genre that appealed to both rural and urban residents and exploded in popularity until the late 1890s. During the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s, revolutionary leaders such as Pancho Villa would bring wind bands everywhere they went, helping it continue to spread and sustaining its popularity into the 20th century. Instruments used are tubas, bass drums with cymbals, clarinets, snare drums, trombones with valves and saxhorns. As a recognized musical genre in the 1940s, bands average anywhere from nine to 12 members, typically with a lead singer and a second voice. The 1950s and 1960s saw the incorporation of new instruments such as slide trombones and saxophones, allowing bands to perform mainstream dance music and popular pieces like the big band mambo. Banda continues to draw a wide range of danceable rhythms, including polka, fox trot, bolero, cha-cha, waltz, cumbia and mambo.
Sierreño is a genre of Mexican music that most often consists of a trio of musicians playing acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and accordion (piano keys or buttons, but most of the time buttons). Other Sierreño groups can also have two acoustic guitars (for example, a Bajo Sexto and a Bajo Quinto), and either a tuba or bass guitar. A Bajo Sexto (“sixth bass”) is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in 6 double courses that is an octave below a six-string guitar. A Bajo Quinto (“fifth bass”) is a closely related instrument with 10 strings in five double courses.
