The Mirrors of the Life (Los Espejos De La Vida) is an eclectic mix of Jazz, Latin American Folk, Classical and Soul music enrapt with Ray's innate sense of melody on the guitar.
Come home, breathe deep
Away from the cry of false alarms
Heartfelt expression
Walking at the edge
Of a cement encased river
Longing to breakout and flow free
All at once
La música de Ray Sandoval...
by María Elena Gaitán
Like an endangered *saguaro in the urban sunset, braided between los freeways and the city lights, making our way through the rubble of deceptive commercial stages, we desert walkers who prefer to sing heartfelt into the howling electric wilderness, are Chicano musicians.
Son of a Japanese mother and the Arizona desert, guitarist composer Ray Sandoval is such a musician, an accomplished artistic voice, sencillo y pasional. Like urban graffiti, las canciones de Ray Sandoval spray themselves across our consciousness marking us with his melancholic brew, at once familiar and unknown. His melodies are undeniable, as if he were waiting for us fondly al voltear la esquina, just 'round the bend...
Breathe Deep
We who are strangers in our own land
We who inhabit
At the intersection of pain and tenderness
Offer up
These canciones sencillas,
Deceptive in their unpretentious cloak
Casting coral purple shadows
On the ancient scorched sands between the freeways,
Away from the cry of false alarms.
Heartfelt expressions
Walking at the edge
Of a cement encased river
Longing to break free and overflow
All at once.
From the silence
Esa canción surprises us kindly
Written in the crosswinds
Against the current
But always with the flow
Sangre y sueños
Los espejos de la vida
Waiting for things yet to come
In the mystery of the obsidian night.
Take me there
To the place where you are without pretense
To the place where no words are necessary
To the place where you can cry and moan
At the edge between the worlds.
Take me to that crossroads
Where you conjure up las voces
From wood and nylon strings
From the fire of chile
And the nectar of a cactus bloom,
Where you make all
From nothing at all
Creating the path
One step at a time
In the moment
Rupturing the silence
Reaching for el recuerdo
De un beso endulzado
Emerging from the shadows
Of the mystery of **Nepantla,
The place in-between,
The world between worlds.
In the war for hearts and minds
Among the battles for recognition
Let me ramble loose and easy
In a minor key
In that unfamiliar place
Perdida en una lágrima de cristal
Where your fingers glide instinctively
Without effort
Melting down the tensions
Like the whisper of an Earthmother's lullabye
Calming the cry of the cosmic child
Alma infinita
Bathed in clear waters
Come home
Breathe deep
About Chola Con Cello...
East L.A. native María Elena Gaitán , also known as 'La Chola Con Cello' is Chicana musician, performance artist and writer, and a friend of Ray Sandoval.
www.cholaconcello.com
Footnotes:
*The Saguaro is the tree of the Sonoran desert, a giant cactus that lives in desert slopes and flats, especially in the rocky bajadas. The magnificent saguaro wraps its roots around rocks to anchor itself from the blowing winds and grows very slowly, -- perhaps an inch a year -- to a great height of up to 50 feet. The largest plants, with more than 5 arms, are estimated to be over 200 years old and can only be fertilized by cross-pollination - pollen from a different cactus. The creamy white saguaro flowers bloom in the mystery of the night, secreting nectar into their tubes, awaiting pollination.
**"Nepantla" is a word used by Nahuatl-speaking Aztec people in the sixteenth century to define their own situation in relationship to the Spanish colonizers. Dominican missionary Diego Durán wrote an ethnographic history of the Nahuatl speakers from the Valley of Mexico. He asked one of his Indian informants what he thought about the difficult cultural situation that had been created for his people by the Spanish invasion. The indian responded, "estamos nepantla."
This pre-Columbian concept of nepantla has been described as "the crack in the world" by Chicana poet and writer Gloria Anzaldúa. It is a place of transition, the world in-between in which we move from the familiar to the unknown in order to reach a new understanding. Nepantla is the uncertain terrain we sometimes enter willingly. Other times nepantla is forced upon us by the circumstances of our lives. Nepantla has been interpreted by Chicano scholars as "a state of resisting the mainstream, in order to reinterpret and redefine cultural difference as a place of power." Nepantla can also represent the process of people who do creative work, who must enter the realm of the unknown in order to emerge by creating their own understanding of the world.
Breathe Deep: The Music of Ray Sandoval
© María Elena Gaitán 2004
The Mirrors Of The Life
Waiting For Things Yet To Come
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Art Hirahara - Piano
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Tony Austin - Djembe
Mira La Que Chevere
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Ray Sandoval - Guitar, Tres
Joey De Leon - Congas, Timbales, Guiro
Rocio Marron - Violin
Gabriel Gonzalez - Vocals
Eastside Sunset
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Joey De Leon - Congas
Recuerdos De Isabel
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Ray Sandoval - Guitar, Handclaps
Joey De Leon - Congas, Guiro, Cowbell
Kiko Cornejo - Maracas
Cristina Nava - Handclaps
Dream Etude
Rene Camacho - Bass
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Piensalo *
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Art Hirahara - Piano
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Joey De Leon - Congas, Guiro
Gabriel Gonzalez - Vocals
Pat Me
Bryon Holley - Drums, Brushes
Rene Camacho - Bass
Art Hirahara - Piano
Ray Sandoval - Guitar, Guitar Synth
Joey De Leon - Congas
Brad Dutz - Tan Tan
At The Edge Between The Worlds
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Art Hirahara - Piano, Rhodes Piano
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Joey De Leon - Chekere
Brad Dutz - Triangle
Rocio Marron - Violin, Viola
John Krovoza - Cello
Tranquilo **
Bryon Holley - Drums
Rene Camacho - Bass
Ray Sandoval - Tres
Joey De Leon - Congas
Brad Dutz- Agogo, Tan Tan, Caxixi
Destani Wolf - Vocals
Fussa Lullaby
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
Alma Infinita
Bryon Holley - Drums, Tambourine
Rene Camacho - Bass
Art Hirahara - Rhodes Piano
Ray Sandoval - Guitar
All music and arrangements by Ray Sandoval Music (ASCAP)
except where noted
*Music and Lyrics by Gabriel Gonzalez and Ray Sandoval
Bikabur Publishing, ASCAP, Ray Sandoval Music, ASCAP
**Music and Lyrics by Destani Wolf and Ray Sandoval
Destani Wolf Music BMI, Ray Sandoval Music ASCAP
Thanks to: My mother Tatsue Hasegawa, Dad and Margaret Sandoval, Maria Elena Gaitan, MH3, Chiyoko Tanaka and Allan Moyle, Mika Akao, Jason Kennedy, Tomoko Kiriishi and Gloria Anzaldua R.I.P., Gabriel Tennorio for use of his guitar in the video, Tony Austin for getting tones on the Drum Kit, La Gente en Echo Parque.
Special thanks to: all the musicians who contributed their talents on this record. Shin, Miho, Shusaku, at Music Camp.
Recuerdos de Isabel was written for Las Isabelas, a cancer survivor group.
Produced by Ray Sandoval
Recorded at Phocus Studios, Los Angeles, CA, March 2004
Additional tracks recorded at Akao's Studio in Tokyo, Japan, May 2004
Mixed in Tokyo, Japan at Akao's Studio, May 2004
Recorded and Engineered by Ray Sandoval
Mixed and Mastered by Ray Sandoval
Remasterd by Tucky at JVC, June 2004
All Compositions and Arrangements by Ray Sandoval, except where noted
*Music and Lyrics by Gabriel Gonzalez and Ray Sandoval
**Music and Lyrics by Destani Wolf and Ray Sandoval
Gabriel Gonzalez appears courtesy of Vanguard Records, a Welk Music Group Company
Ray Sandoval uses Groove Tubes Pre-amps and La Bella Strings
Copyright 2004 Ray Sandoval
All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.