RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We have some friends in this building who visit us once a month with the latest music from Latin America and the U.S. They are from NPR's podcast, Alt.Latino. The hosts are Jasmine Garsd and Felix Contreras. And they are like musical archaeologists of sorts, digging up cool tracks but then on their podcast, they get the stories behind those tracks. They've been going strong for five years now. So today, we wanted to mark that. We wanted to give you a better sense of what they do every week on their show, how deep they dive into the music that they love. To explain more, Felix is here with me. Jasmine is taking a few days off on a little vacation, but Felix is in the studio. Welcome to the program again, my friend.
FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: Thank you very much.
MARTIN: OK, we're listening to some music right off the bat. I'm guessing there's a story behind this song. What's going on here?
CONTRERAS: It's one of the things we like to try to do. It's cool music with a message, OK? But Jas recently built an entire show around the role of fruit in Latin music, OK?
MARTIN: (Laughter) OK.
CONTRERAS: It was very good 'cause fruit is mostly used as a metaphor for love, life and, let's say, physical pleasures. All right (laughter)?
MARTIN: Let's. Let's say that.
CONTRERAS: So we played all kinds of different traditions, Son Jarocho from Mexico and this salsa classic from Ruben Blades.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUSCANDO GUAYABA")
RUBEN BLADES: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTIN: I love it. Where's the fruit reference?
CONTRERAS: Guayaba.
MARTIN: Guayaba.
CONTRERAS: It's the name of the song. And he's looking for a lovely guayaba to have.
MARTIN: Aren't we all? Aren't we all, Felix?
(LAUGHTER)
CONTRERAS: But we also played this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHIQUITA BANANA")
MONICA LEWIS: (Singing) I'm Chiquita Banana and I've come to say bananas have to ripen in a certain way. And when they're...
MARTIN: (Laughter) Yeah, we all recognize that.
CONTRERAS: So one of the things she did was she talked about the role of fruit in the social and political history of Latin America, OK, 'cause the fruit reflects a deep history of colonialism in Latin America. She talked about how a company like the United Fruit Company, for example, influenced government and sometimes oppressed workers. So this show was a history lesson with cool music.
MARTIN: Yeah, you guys also do something that you called guest DJs. Explain.
CONTRERAS: We stole - I mean, borrowed, the idea from our pals at All Songs Considered and what we do is we invite influential Latino or Latina musicians, writers, filmmakers, et cetera, to bring in their own playlist and talk about music.
MARTIN: Any couple that stand out to you?
CONTRERAS: John Leguizamo, the actor.
MARTIN: Oh, yeah.
CONTRERAS: The film director, Pedro Almodovar, and then recently, we also featured a poet from California who was just appointed the current U.S. Poet Laureate of the United States, Juan Felipe Herrera.
MARTIN: I understand you also brought in Carlos Santana.
CONTRERAS: We did.
MARTIN: I love him.
CONTRERAS: Yes, it was...
MARTIN: ...That must've been so cool.
CONTRERAS: It was a lot of fun. It was a highlight for me. I'm a big fan. But what was interesting was talking to him about his life - his personal life. And I asked him a question about a very specific song that he brought in. It's an old mariachi song.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
CONTRERAS: First song we want to talk about is the song that reminds you of your days in Autlan, Mexico, when you were a little boy.
CARLOS SANTANA: It was a song that my father used to serenade my mom every time they'd get into a fight. And he'd sing this song and you can hear him just coming, you know? And my mom would get up and open the curtains and - yeah, of course it's just him 'cause that voice. And so that song, "Vereda Tropical," reminds me of many, many times that my mom and dad made up, thank God.
CONTRERAS: (Laughter).
C. SANTANA: And it's a beautiful song. He would always show up like 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, like, two blocks away you can hear him singing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VEREDA TROPICAL")
JOSE SANTANA: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTIN: That's you talking with Carlos Santana. That's so cool. What an awesome conversation to have had.
CONTRERAS: It was especially meaningful for him to be able to play a track that features his father. That's him on the album.
MARTIN: Oh, wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VEREDA TROPICAL")
J .SANTANA: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTIN: You've dedicated some shows to the history of a particular style or genre of music, right?
CONTRERAS: These are really fun to do 'cause I always learn a lot about music, OK, stuff I didn't even know, I think I know everything, but then you find out about a bunch of stuff. And something we play a lot here with you - we did a whole show on cumbia
MARTIN: Oh, yeah. cumbia. I wouldn't know cumbia from whatever, but now I feel cumbia-literate.
CONTRERAS: Now you can hear cumbia in this track right here. Check this out.
(SOUNDBITE OF CUMBIA MUSIC)
MARTIN: I love it. You, yourself, are musician, Felix. You've been a percussionist for a long time. When you hear cumbia, when you've spent so much time thinking about it for the show, has it taught you something about your own instrument?
CONTRERAS: You know, one of the things that I learned about cumbia that I didn't know is that the little two-step - there's a little step that I learned from my aunts and my mom when I was a kid and how to dance to this music - but that two-step is actually a reflection of the history of the slave trade in Colombia. It's replicating a small little dance that slaves did while they were chained at the ankles. So, you know, those kind of things helped me understand the music a lot more and stuff that I learned in doing the show.
MARTIN: And it wouldn't be an Alt.Latino visit without some new music. What did you bring me?
CONTRERAS: OK, check this out. This is really cool, this is from a new album called "Atlas." The name of the artist is Branko. He's from Portugal. Another really cool track that I dig, check it.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRANKO SONG, "LET ME GO")
MARTIN: Cool music, history, culture, fruit, even, Alt.Latino brings you everything. Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd are the hosts. Felix joined me here in our studios. You can download the show from their website at npr.org/altlatino, or subscribe to it via iTunes or whereever you download your podcasts. Felix, thanks so much.
CONTRERAS: As always it's a pleasure. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRANKO SONG, "LET ME GO")
CRISTINA BRANKO: (Singing in Portuguese). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.