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Latin Roots: Café Tacvba

Café Tacvba.
Courtesy of the artist
Café Tacvba.

Café Tacvba's four core members have been making music together since the early 1990s. Their debut record from 1992 just celebrated its 25th anniversary, and their 1994 album, Re, is consistently ranked among the greatest Latin rock albums ever. It's considered a groundbreaking contribution to a genre coined "Rock en Espanol."

Up until then, Latin rock music often sounded like rock music sung in Spanish, sometimes even in English by Latin bands. But Re was different: It was a kitchen sink of musical influences, from electronic sounds to ballads to funk and of course, Mexican and Latin sounds. The musical diversity on Re is a hallmark of Café Tacvba's approach, and you can still hear it decades later on their latest release, Jei BeiBi.

Hear our conversation and live performance in the player above.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.