Peru's Chillout Music

http://blogs.nypost.com/tempo/archives/2007/10/perus_chillout.html

Jaime Cuadra in his music studio in Lima, Peru.

In Peru there are many musicians that want to take Peruvian music to the next level by fusing it with jazz, pop, Latin, and create something new. Musician Jaime Cuadra who was inspired by Peruvian musical group Los Hijos del Sol (Children of the Sun) who fused Peruvian music with jazz wanted to do the same but in a modern way for a younger generation and what he came up with was a platinum record titled "Cholo Soy: Peruvian Waltz Chillout."

Like in many other countries the youth of Peru don't like to listen to the folkloric or the criollo (creole) music of their country. Many of these young people like to listen to rock en Español, reggaeton, hip-hop/rap, etc. Understanding this Cuadra who started out as a rocker decided to do something different with the old Peruvian valz (waltz) compositions to attract the young listener.
"When I was a soloist in the 90's, I always wanted to do something with the Peruvian valz, but I didn't like to fuse a lot with rock which was my specialty so I played with other musical styles. After a while I became frustrated because I couldn't find one that complemented the valz," says Cuadra 36. "Then I started listening to electronic down tempo lounge music and started to experiment, fuse, and convert the music from 3/4 time to 4/4 time for the Peruvian valz and found a formula that both younger and older generation can enjoy."

Originally Cuadra had no plans to release "Cholo Soy" as a CD. All the work that he did was a personal project and experiment to see if the fusion could be done, until he had some people listen to it and take interest into the project and later convince him to release it, which he did in September of 2006.
"I wasn't scared to release the CD and really I didn't have any high expectation for it either. I thought that if it sold 500 copies in a year that it would be great, I never expected it to go platinum like it did," says Cuadra.
With the success of "Cholo Soy" Cuadra realized his goal, to get the younger generation listening to old Peruvian valses. "To have younger people listen to my CD in their cars, homes, and mp3 players and then later hear the original version and say 'This is where the song came from,' now they can appreciate it and want to hear the original version."

With the success of "Cholo Soy" Cuadra released "Cholo Soy 2: La Valse Créole Chillout" in July of 2007, which he says is a more polished CD. "'Cholo Soy' was experimental and I released it without really thinking much, 'Cholo Soy 2' on the other hand took me a year to finish because of already knowing what happened with the first one." Cuadra continues, "In this one I fixed some mistakes, polished the style, invited more artists to take part in it, and added songs from famous composers that I couldn't in the first one like Chabuca Granda. For me Cholo Soy 2 is a more well put together and finer piece of work, even though the first one has a lot of personality."
If you want to hear more of Jaime Cuadra's music you can visit his myspace page at www.myspace.com/jaimecuarda or go to www.cholosoy.com. To Purchase his CD you can go to www.perucd.com and it will be available on the iTunes Music Store in the coming months.
Jaime Cuadra is giving our NYP Tempo Espresso readers a free download of "Cariño Malo" from his latest CD "Cholo Soy 2: La Valse Créole Chillout." Click here to download the song.
Below is a video of Jaime Cuadra's "Mi Propiedad Privada" video from Cholo Soy 2 with the voice of late Peruvian singer Lucha Reyes.