(1) l.- RUMBAS Op. 61 (2004) (10´´ 52)
(2) ll.- *RUMBAS Op. 64 (2006-2007) (7´´ 42)
lll.- *FANTASÍA TROPICAL Op.66 (2008) Suite de Ballet Homenaje a Juan Antonio Rosado
(3) 1.- Preludio "Sueños en la Ribera... Letanías Distantes" (6´´ 45) (4) 2.- Como un Danzón "La Última Noche en este Mundo" (9´´ 51) (5) 3.- Interludio 1 "Danza de la Chaneca" (1´´ 23) (6) 4.- Como un Son "De la Nostalgia" (3´´ 40) (7) 5.- Interludio 2 "Letanías" (2´´ 29) (8) 6.- Como una Rumba "De la Alegría" (2´´ 41) (9) 7.- Postludio "Ensueños y Letanías" ( 3´´ 07)
BONUS TRACK
RISA Y SON para tres guitarras Op. 59 (2003) (10) 1.- Risa (0´´ 04) (11) 2.-Son (6´´ 15) (En vivo, 22 de noviembre del 2010, Centro Cultural Helénico, México D.F. Interpretado por 3NSAMBL3: Guillermo González Phillips, Fernando Mariña y Jesús Serrano)
3NS4MBL3 Guitarra 1 / Guitar 1: Jesús Serrano Guitarra 2, murmullos y risa / Guitar 2, murmur and laugh: Guillermo González Phillips. Guitarra 3 / Guitar 3: Fernando Mariña Guitarra 4 y murmullos / Guitar 4 and murmur: Ernesto García de León
Toda la música compuesta por / All music composed by: Ernesto García de León. Publicada por / Published by: Michael Lorimer Edition (ASCAP New York, NY, USA.) www.MichaelLorimer.com *Primera grabación mundial / World premier recording.
Grabación / Recording: julio / July, 2014
Producción Ejecutiva / Executive Producers: Modesto López, 3NS4MBL3
Producción Artística / Artistic Production: 3NS4MBL3
Grabación / Recording: Jesús Serrano
Locación de grabación / Recording location: En ca'lturriaga
Edición / Edition: Jesús Serrano y / and Ernesto García de León
Asesores de edición / Edition Advisers: Guillermo González Phillips y / and Fernando Mariña
Masterización / Mastering: Jesús Serrano
Diseño / Design: Héctor Santos (Pentagrama)
Fotografías de portada, contraportada e interiores / Cover, back cover, and interior photographs: Rebeca López García de León.
Fotografía 3NS4MBL3 / 3NS4MBL3 Photograph: Carlos García de León
Revisión de textos / Text Revision: Fernando Mariña
AGRADECIMIENTOS / THANKS TO: Yuriria Iturriaga, Michael Lorimer, Clara Huitrón, Gabriel Serrano, Héctor Santos, Erika Rivera, Carlos García de León, Rebeca López García de León, Héctor Rolón López, Erika Mues, y al perro cuando guardaba silencio / and the dog when keeping silence.
"Against the odds, Mexico is still singing her own, secret song, not for us but for herself. It's our good luck to listen in."
Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1991
"Little survives its time and place but art. Often the few names we recall of an historical time or place are only those of artists - composers, writers, painters, and so forth - some who were relatively famous in their day, others who were of low station and little renown. We are hard put to name the elite of European society in the last years of the eighteenth century - the kings and queens, the aristocracy, the generals, the financiers, the wealthy bourgeoisie - but we always remember the names of two men who captured that time and place in music, Mozart and Haydn.
The music of Ernesto García de León may or may not be of the calibre of a Mozart or a Haydn, but his pungent evocations of his land and time promise to make his name remembered with affection, especially by those who love the guitar, long after the names of Mexico's present rich and powerful are forgotten."
Michael Lorimer New York, New York 1992
"TROPICAL FANTASY"
Between 2004 and 2008, I wrote these three guitar quartets on commission. They are my complete works for guitar quartet so far. In 2012, after several attempts to have these works recorded, I asked the classical guitar group 3NSAMBL3 and they enthusiastically accepted. Since then, 3NS4MBL3 was born and has been key to many future musical projects.
Rumbas Op.61 was commissioned by the excellent "Cuarteto de Guitarras de la Ciudad de México" to whom it is dedicated. They premiered it, recorded it, and have often performed it. I wrote it in Cali, Colombia, in the spring of 2004 during a ten-day-long rumba festival, an endless party that reminded me of my Veracruz hometown in days bygone.
The rumba is not only music and dance, it also represents a distinctive style, a way of behaving, a whole approach to life. A rumbero manifest a certain attitude for the street, for the neighborhood, for friends, for people, for everything... it's a way of being.
"Rumbas" is a tribute to this culture and its idiosyncrasies, and an homage to the upbringing I received at home and in the streets of my hometown Jáltipan, Veracruz.
The varied rumba motifs and themes in this piece are both my own and of the street. They invite improvisation and emotional release, and they are about expressing the joy, excitement, and bustle I felt in my childhood, and also the nostalgia I feel now being so far in space and time from those days.
Rumbas, Op. 64 is the sister of Op.61 and is another part of my tribute to rumbero culture and all it represents. Op. 64 dives directly into the hustle and apparent chaos of a street rumba but in the end it resolves tranquilly.
I composed Op.64 in December 2006 in Jáltipan, Veracruz, after fifteen continuous days of year - end street rumba celebrations in the "El Viejo" tradition which reminded me of how much I enjoyed the rumba nights in Cali, Colombia in the spring of 2004.
The "Cuarteto de Guitarras Dionisiaco" commissioned Op.64 and this CD is the piece's first commercial recording.
Tropical Fantasy, Op.66 was commissioned by the School of the Arts, Texas Woman's University, in Denton, Texas, USA. It was premiered by the "TWU Guitar Quartet on July 19, 2008 during the "TWU Latin Dance & Music Festival".
During the 2008 academic year spring break, I composed Op.66 in Jáltipan, at my mother's house. It is a ballet suite in seven movements played without break for guitar quartet and optional flute and clarinet. It is based on three characteristic Veracruz dances: danzón, son jarocho, and rumba. It pays tribute to my teacher Juan Antonio Rosado and gets its title from one of his pieces.
Immersed in sweltering heat, surrounded by whispers and tropical aromas, I dream. I dream and imagine the constant movement of the great river. Sensing distant litanies and mesmerizing prayers, I wander among palm trees and jungles. A danzón, a son, and a rumba resound, tangling and mingling themselves into the atmosphere... A supernatural being does a frenzied dance... A tumult of memories and ghosts crowd my imagination insistently while fantastic and unreal sounds envelop the environment and let loose the creative flow... The morning my mother died at age 86, in her delirium and agony she told me, "...last night, I was doing the danzón with your papa..." The words "The last Night in this World" suddenly came into my view, while a frantic dance echoed, and a melancholy son jarocho calmed the moment... A medley of a cheerful rumba, litanies, and prayers saved me. A faint image appeared of my father smoking a cigar and wearing two - tone shoes, and, moving to the beat of the music, inviting me to follow along... This is the state of mind in which I composed the Tropical Fantasy.
Recording sessions for this album took place in July 2014. I can say that working with these stupendous musicians was truly a delight. They understood all my interpretative and improvisational indications and fluently executed them with marvelous spontaneity and creativity thanks to their remarkable technical and interpretative abilities. I am eternally grateful to these three friends and colleagues for their enthusiasm and hard work in making a success of this wonderful project. Ernesto García de León Mexico City, October 10th, 2014 (English translations by Michael Lorimer)