GUACO
AMAZONAS

Produced by Juan Carlos Salas, Jose Luis Chacín & Gustavo Aguado

"I have been a fan of Guaco for years.  I know their music and I believe that they are one of the most exciting examples of Latin expression.  Their contribution is unique and tremendously exciting."    Carlos Santana

Direct from equatorial Maracaibo, one of the hottest towns in Latin America, comes Guaco, Venezuela's super-group.  For over thirty years Guaco has been Venezuela’s most popular musical institution.  From their humble beginnings as a traditional gaita group to their evolution into one of the greatest tropical orchestras of all time,  Guaco truly represents the Venezuelan spirit.  In Venezuela they are a household name and a national treasure.

Despite their success, Guaco has remained fiercely independent, refusing to adjust their music to commercial formulas.  They have always maintained their musical roots and identity:  as the music evolved into the Cuban based salsa format, they continued to include the original gaita instruments such as the charrasco and the tambour, giving Guaco its unique sound and swing.

Amazonas is the crowning achievement of over thirty years of development, fearlessly integrating rock and roll, funk, jazz, avant-garde and folkloric elements into the swinging salsa of a magnificent multi-generational machine which, despite its sophistication, swings hot and hard and drives the Venezuelan crowds straight into “guacomanía”.

Gustavo Aguado, whose brother Alphonso founded the group in the 1960’s, is the band’s magnificent leading voice and driving force as musical director.  The album begins with Deshonestidad, a strong salsa statement, sung by Gustavo, which leads into Esperandote, a catchy arrangement sung by budding young super-star Fernando Borjas.  Si Usted La Viera, based on a poem by Eusebio Blanco and adapted by the brilliant young composer/singer Jorge Luis Chacin, comes next, sung by Chacin, whose voice resembles that of Ruben Blades and whose extraordinary songwriting dominates this album. 

Commercial, catchy songs such as Deja and Causas are interspered with surprisingly avante garde selections such as Acere Bongo and Ese Rumba Es De Los Dos.   This is one of those records that can be listened to over and over, always finding more interesting musical details.  The rhythms, which may sound complex and unusual at first, begin to penetrate one’s sensibility and the listener begins to discover a different swing, that of the Venezuelan gaita. 

Although Amazonas is Guaco's 25^th album, it is their first to be released  in the United States.  Recorded in Caracas in the band’s own state-of-the-art studio, this new Ashé Records edition was remastered in New York by master engineer, Vlado Mellor, with new packaging by the award-winning Ann Petter Design.

The title of the CD, Amazonas, refers to a subject dear to the heart of leader Gustavo Aguado – the Venezuelan culture and the earth from which it came.  This concept truly reflects the values of Guaco,  who have never lost their respect for their roots, whose music is as endlessly fertile as the natural world and whose creativity is as boundless as the Amazon jungle.

TRACK LIST

Deshonestidad	3:44
Esperándote	4:30
Si Usted La Viera (El Confesor)	5:01
Deja	5:03
Ese Rumbo Es De Los Dos	5:22
Ella Sabe	3:44
Remembranzas	4:33
Me Cuentan	3:56
Cuando Recuerdo	4:41
Seguiré Sin Soñar	4:24
Causas	4:59
Pronto Llegará	4:21
Acere Bongo	4:10

 

GUACO is not just a band, it is truly a national treasure.

GUACO has never lost their roots in  Maracaibo, one of Venezuela's most beautiful cities.  They have dedicated one song in each of their twenty-seven albums to Maracaibo's patron saint Our Lady of Chiquinquinrá (popularly referred to as "La Chinita") 

GUACO is also a tropical plant from the rainforest, considered to have many healing qualities.