Charanga Cakewalk

Charanga Cakewalk is pretty much Michael Ramos, a self-described Latino Chicano Mexican who’s also — as his music makes abundantly obvious — a resident of the globe. Followers of well-known music will identify Ramos for his are a sideman and sometime rock and roll & roller: before impressive from his own because the ruler of cumbia lounge — a never-dull, feel-good musical mélange which includes artfully tweaked components of tejano, flamenco folklorica, merengue, salsa, garage area rock and roll, ska, and reggaeton — Ramos performed multiple instruments within the studio room and on-stage for John Mellencamp, Paul Simon, Patty Griffin, among others. He was also a sometime person in the frothy ’90s rings the BoDeans as well as the Rembrandts. Throughout his tour of responsibility as an Austin-based rocker renowned for his skill at striking the right notice on from accordion to Hammond B-3, though, Ramos by no means managed to tremble a desire for the Latino music he paid attention to on your kitchen radio as a youngster. Pérez Prado, Tito Puente, and Santana had been among his heroes, and tones of them possess surfaced on both Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge, released in 2005, as well as the still even more inventive Chicano Zen, released in 2006. Not absolutely all of Charanga Cakewalk’s quirky, immediately recognizable output could be acknowledged solely to article writer/maker/multi-instrumentalist Ramos, though. On both discs, he offers recruited well-known close friends as collaborators. Chicano Zen, specifically, can be an all-star affair: Lila Downs, Ruben Ramos, Griffin, Martha González, and Davíd Garza visitor.