Rumbos y Destinos is an album I prodecud and published in 2013 in Chicago. It is a small, maybe inadequate way to celebrate the endless peña nights of Chicago’s Latin-American restaurants. (A peña is the Latin American version of an “open stage” or “open mic”: anyone can show up to play.) No recording can do justice to the vibrant performances of all who played, sang, or improvised a comedic skit, and let their emotions run free like wild horses, inspiring our imagination, on those long, often cold, Chicago nights!
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chicago became the destination of many South Americans looking for work or a new beginning. At the same time, young Americans were coming back to Chicago from trips south of the border, attracted by the prospect of exotic adventures. Both groups yearned for places where they could enjoy the same music they listened to from Mexico to Argentina. They found what they were looking for in Chicago’s peñas: opportunities for entertainment as well as places where you could hear people debate about politics and the arts.
Once you walked into a restaurant or community organization where the peña took place, you were sure to make friends: everyone was welcome.
This project – which included an initial fundraising concert, recordings of a few of the musicians I was still in touch with in the early 2000s and a final concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music to launch the CD – was born from an idea to invite some of the “originals” from the 90s as well as newer talents from this underground world and have them record with studio musicians. They represent very different musical traditions from South America: Alba Guerra from Argentina, Alberto Sanabria from Paraguay; Alfonso Chacón and Nelson Sosa from Chile; Diana Mosquera and Marieth Quintero from Colombia; Hugo Treviño and Pedro Rodriguez both born in Mexico. I was born in Italy but in the CD I play four pieces inspired by my experiences in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia with musicians both from North and South America.
The first peña I was invited was at Rio’s Casa Iberia. It was a scary place for a musician: people talked right over your playing! Then came El Ñandú. El Ñandú was the best place to be every Thursday night. Rita Bustos and her husband Miguel had put together the right combination of down-to-earth charm and cultural events that made that place sizzle with energy! Later, I discovered other places like La Peña and Sabor A Café, following the caravan of musicians who would hop from place to place to make music and have fun.
Over the years the energy of the Chicago peñas has dwindled, but there is still that occasional night… when the music catches on fire and people have to get up and dance!
(From the liner notes of the CD, published in Chicago, in July 2013.)