Buenas Noches, Compatriotas…

If Mercedes Sosa is South America’s Pachamama (Earth Mother), Atahualpa Yupanqui is undoubtedly its patriarch. Born in 1908 in Pergamino, a small town in Buenos Aires province, he travelled widely from an early age and made it his mission to preserve and breathe new life into the zambas, milongas, chacareras and vidalas of the Argentina’s interior. He dropped his real name – Héctor – and took on the names of two Incan kings. This 1983 recording, here re-released by Frémeaux & Associés (with liner notes sadly only in Spanish and French), captures Yupanqui live in the Argentinian coastal resort of Mar del Plata. He performs his own songs and displays, all alone under a spotlight, a great range of emotion, theme and rhythm, chatting to the audience with a quiet sincerity (Spanish speakers will get the most out of the ad-libs). The lyrics, impeccably political and poetic in equal measure, are delivered in a tone almost guru-like, but tempered by familiarity and friendliness. As well as composing original songs, he would write lyrics for others’ music, and music for others’ lyrics. Yupanqui was also a gifted guitarist and the recording, which includes a couple of classics such as ‘El Aromo’ and ‘Milonga del Peon del Campo’ and captures what must have been a moving and intimate gig. Where tango beautifully evokes Buenos Aires at night in around 1920, the bestfolclore argentino sings of many landscapes and cultural milieus, at all hours of the day, past and present. Atahualpa Yupanqui’s work is the standard against which all his disciples must be measured.