Overview

Con la msica a otra parte is the result of a long journey, a trek along a path that is a sublimated sublimation; that is, it channels and transforms one impulse, to practice music, into another: to write about music. It is a sublimated sublimation because the redirected desire is not a socially unacceptable force; the diversion did not intend to arrest a destructive urge. Both impulses are socially acceptable, but making music was transformed into writing about music because each practice has its own track, requiring full attention. These are eight tales based on Puerto Rican popular songs, each one taking music to a place that sometimes the song titles do not anticipate and sometimes is a congruent destination but unexpected, in its outcome or its details or both. Con la msica a otra parte is an example of what Gabriel Garca Mrquez said should be invented: ""fiction from fiction."" These are tales that despite originating in songs and being peppered with the occasional event or personal reference, are like the horse that turns into a unicorn and exists as a new being. They have a rhythm that obeys a special, distinct clave; it is not son, or brazilian, or iga but it still has a pulse that controls everything else: melodies that can be as strong as they are delicate and harmonies that swirl because they are true, even though they don't exist outside the tales that emerge from the songs. They are fiction from fiction and therein lies their truth. Their charm is both their novelty and their familiarity. Con la msica a otra parte changes music as it passes from one medium to another, as it transfers from storied truth to fable. The book is a run through orchestras, discography, and protagonists of musical and everyday life that traces the social, political, and cultural complexities of Puerto Rico throughout the 20th century. This book invites us to scrutinize the soundtrack of a bygone era and to reflect on the familiarity that the songs evoke in us, in the process unmasking the harshness and complexity of the human condition.

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9798900709383

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Reviews

Con la música a otra parte weaves fiction and reality to tell the stories that may have inspired some of the most emblematic songs in the Puerto Rican popular repertoire. Through a narrative filled with contradictions and paradoxes, the author reveals how songs, far from stating everything straight-up, hide profound truths. The book is a run through orchestras, discography, and protagonists of musical and everyday life that traces the social, political, and cultural complexities of Puerto Rico throughout the 20th century. This book invites us to scrutinize the soundtrack of a bygone era and to reflect on the familiarity that the songs evoke in us, in the process unmasking the harshness and complexity of the human condition. --Noraliz Ruiz-Caraballo, etnomusicóloga, investigadora asociada del Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico, y directora musical de la Orquesta Jíbara Dr. Francisco López Cruz, Puerto Rico. Elena, Perico, el negro bembón ... behind every character there is a fascinating story. Cruz reminds us that Puerto Rican popular songs are chronicles of everyday life in the barrios. And further, that Caribbean music has redemptive power as it turns tragic events, crimes of passion, the forbidden, and misfortune into collective joy. A great contribution to literature and to the cultural study of Puerto Rican popular music! --Jaime O. Bofill Calero, catedrático asociado de etnomusicología Conservatorio de música de Puerto Rico.

Author Information

A native of San Juan, he was raised in El Fanguito and Barrio Obrero, Santurce, Puerto Rico. He holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies with a concentration in literature and history from Queens College-CUNY and a doctorate in political science from the Graduate Center-CUNY. He is professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York at Albany. He has published books with Temple University Press, Lexington Books, and Centro Press, and numerous articles in newspapers, encyclopedias, and academic journals. His short stories have appeared in the newspaper El Sol Latino, published in Amherst, Massachusetts, and in the journals 80grados, Alhucema, Confluencia, Cruce, Latin American Literary Review, Sargasso, Siglo22 y Trasdemar. His anthologies Formas lindas de matar (Author's Edition, July 2023) and El plato de barro (Author's Edition, January 2025) contain stories published from 2020 to 2024. He is also president of Jazz/Latino, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Albany, New York, dedicated to the promotion of Latin jazz. He is the producer of the albums El pauelo de Pepa (CZ 056, 2019), Olas y Arenas (JL 010, 2021), and Obsidian (JL 030, 2024). Contact: cruzjose5319@gmail.com; www.jazzlatino.org

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