ALEVACOLARIEA
In August 1974 Buenos Aires was full of music. It was still enjoying a "Belle Epoque" in which the city was a nest of interesting people. I was among other things, a busy musician. A local record label, Discos Redondel, offered me to finance and release an album. I would decide the entire production. The album was recorded and released as a vinyl LP, "Didi, and has circulated ever since. One of the tunes was completely different to all my previous music. "Alevacolariea" and was an inspiration created at the studio. We were set up for 8 tracks, a luxury in these days. I had been experimenting with recordings in layers, starting with one or two instruments and then adding others. I thought of a melodic line. I had with me some of the best: Chivo Borraro on tenor sax, Ruben Rada and Chino Rossi also in percussion. I started with a bass line with the Fender Rhodes together with Rada in "Quinto" (An Afro-Uruguayan drum) and Chino Rossi in Brazilian cuica. I got the basic rhythm base. No click track was used and no sampling either, it wasn't invented yet! . Then I recorded the Fender Rhodes chords and solo, together with Rada and Chino Rossi in other drums and percussion accessories. Finally, I recorded Rada's voice with my melody and his Afro word "Alevacolariea" and Chivo Borraro's solo. The whole album was released on December 14 1974. It sold well and had good airplay. In 1976 I left Argentina for the USA and forgot about the album. In the 90's the song took a life of its own. It was pirated, sampled, and somehow distributed illegally in the new miraculous dimension: the Internet. I always thought that perhaps piracy was a form of flattery since marauders only take good music, not necessarily from my taste's point of view, but good for the majority. I licensed the entire album to my friends at Whatmusic and that was up to this date, the only legal release of the album besides the Argentinean vinyl. Last December a read a mysterious message in YouTube. Someone wanted Alevacolariea badly. I wrote back and found that Karine B. has been looking for this tune for years. Although the tune was all over the place, this lady somehow hasn't found it. I sent her a complimentary mp3. This encounter with a fan, inspired me to re-develop Alevacolariea...I had already recorded a version with more solos. I added two dance versions and one flute solo version. They will all come out when I release Alevacolariea "The Album" or whichever name I can think of. The call from one fan, triggered my creative endorphins and this single with the original analog version of Alevacolariea is being released. The sound is much better than any other of the circulating versions. Wahtmusic used a denoised a new Argentinean LP. The marauders used old noisy worn out Argentinean released LP's. I used the original analog track ! I designed a funky cover for the single. A photo of mangosteens from Bangkok plus an iguana, bring more questions than answers to the saga of this River Plate-Afro music played by an interracial group that travelled through cyberspace via sinful copies.
May chaos turn into clarity the same way as a storm clears and the Sun shines.
Fernando Gelbard, April 2010