MusicAmador

Sol y Canto Programs Offered What the Critics Say Technical Requirements Hear the Music Artist's Site

Sol y Canto

What the Critics Say

The Boston Globe
Scott Alarik

"Sol y Canto literally had them dancing in the aisles, and on top of seats..."

Reviews – Adult concerts/music

"Rousing..." - Washington Post

"...boasts a sweet, sophisticated Pan-Latin folk sound built around the gorgeous mezzo soprano and the vocal harmony and pristine guitar of her husband, Brian." - Rhythm Magazine

“...Sol y Canto [brings] the warm equatorial flavor of its brand of Cuban-Afro-Latin folk music...rousing!” - Chicago Sun Times

“Sol y Canto preserve much of the instrumentation and sassiness of the music of Cuba, the Caribbean, Brazil and Argentina, but they also breathe new life into the music with exciting arrangements, standout vocals and top-notch playing.  Sol y Canto's music is so lively and infectious...” - The Album Network, World Roots

"With simplicity, tenderness and extraordinary professionalism, Sol y Canto renders with “En todo momento” [their 1999 CD]a beautiful homage to Latin American music." - People en Español

“Led by the husband and wife team of vocalist Rosi and guitarist/composer/vocalist Brian Amador, Sol y Canto have become one of the strongest Afro-Latin bands around. They cover a range of song styles from tango to flamenco and beyond, their vocal harmonies are peerless, and they value top-shelf jazz improvisation. ” - Boston Phoenix

The Boston Globe

Boston's sublime ambassadors of pan-Latin tradition ... -Scott Alarik

Sol y Canto is...destined for international renown...Rosi has a voice like clean spring water: it's smooth, it's clear and, somehow, you come to believe that it's necessary for life. -Alisa Valdes

Springfield Republican
George Lenker

SPRINGFIELD, MA - Blending peppery beats with delicious Latin melodies, Sol y Canto and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra concocted a tasty sonic salsa Saturday night.

Sol y Canto is a  Cambridge-based Latin music group led by the husband and wife team of Brian and Rosi Amador. The eight-piece band joined the orchestra Saturday in a rousing display of evocative music.

Symphony conductor Kevin Rhodes and the string section of the orchestra warmed up the audience slowly with a few sambas and bossa novas before Sol y Canto took the stage.

Sol y Canto then appeared and performed four songs without the orchestra. The first of these was a light, jazzy piece titled "Capullito de Aleli" which showcased compelling solos by bassist Carlos Del Pino and flutist Jon Weeks, who also later played saxophone. It understandably took a few minutes for the instruments' volume levels to be adjusted for the percussion-heavy band, but the eight pieces were sorted out by the second tune, "Papel de Plata."

This song featured vocalist Alan Del Castillo doubling on a series of ocarinas, which are oval-shaped clay flutes. The first ocarina played was a low-toned instrument, evocative of a whale's song. But as guitarist Brian Amador modulated keys, Del Castillo quickly and nimbly switched to increasingly higher pitched ocarinas, much to the audience's delight.

The third selection was the bluesy "Tonada de Luna," which rode on a pulsing guitar rhythm while Rosi Amador's vocals floated ethereally above. The third verse was sung a capella and resembled a motet, with Brian Amador anchoring the three-part harmony with a haunting, chant-like bass note.

This minor key piece was one of many during the night, and showed the oxymoron of the band's name: Sol y Canto means "sun and song" but their music often leads listeners into more shadowy corners of lost love and moonlit longing.

But Sol y Canto then switched gears with two fun songs, "Fiesta del Tren," and the festive "Brown Rice" - the lyrics to which Brian Amador admitted were actually a rice recipe. The orchestra then joined Sol y Canto for several pieces before intermission. The first was a bolero, the trumpet-fueled "Sabor a Mi," which was then followed by the urgent "Asi es Mi Tierra," which featured Sol y Canto keeping the throbbing pulse while the strings added dramatic counterpoint accents.

After intermission Sol y Canto did two songs alone. "Obsession" was a bolero, highlighted nicely by a Weeks' sax solo, and "Beso Discreto" ("A Discrete Kiss") featured both a lively pace and the percussive kissing sounds mouthed by the Amadors.

The orchestra then rejoined the fray for three final pieces, the last being a five-part sojourn through numerous Latin styles: bolero, guaracha, tango, bomba and a ballad. These final pieces, although mostly slow or mid-tempo, allowed Rosi Amador to showcase her clear, emotive voice. Although the faster, familiar Latin beats may have caught the audience members' ears, it was the slower more complex tunes that captured their hearts.

The evening wound up with a rousing encore, "Que Bonita Luna," which featured a hearty audience clap-along led by Rhodes.

The Boston Phoenix
Norman Weinstein
Given the current groundswell of Latin music across the US, it takes much individuality for one band to pull away from the pack.  Sol y Canto’s leaders, the husband-and-wife team of Brian and Rosi Amador, create a musical marriage made in heaven.  Brian is an inventive nylon string guitarist, vocalist and composer; Rosi is a highly instinctive mezzo-soprano.

Daily Hampshire Gazette
John Stifler
I say any weekend that includes both Greg Brown and Rosi Amador of Sol y Canto is a weekend from booking heaven.  Rosi Amador has a smile that melts glaciers and a voice to match …I would hitchhike to Buenos Aires to hear them!

The Boston Globe
Scott Alarik
MUSIC REVIEW/Family concert presented by World Music
Sol y Canto gets playful for kids' show

By Scott Alarik, Globe Correspondent, 11/4/2003

There is a joke told around the world that if you know many languages, you are multilingual; if you know two, you are bilingual; and if you only know one, you are American. Sol y Canto has made a globe-trotting career out of introducing non-Hispanic audiences to pan-Latin music, making it the perfect ambassador to introduce children to the joys of knowing more than one language. It is a mission the Cambridge-based group cheerfully accepts on its new Rounder Kids CD, "El Doblo de Amigos/Twice As Many Friends."

The band performed two CD-release concerts Sunday for a total of more than 1,000 kids and parents, displaying a buoyant but grown-up stage savvy that paid off handsomely in the faces of unusually attentive children and grateful parents.

Sol y Canto appears in configurations ranging from the duo of husband-and-wife founders Brian and Rosi Amador to much larger ensembles. While some children's shows are stripped-down affairs, with tape loops and funny sound effects substituting for real live music, the Amadors brought the whole shebang on Sunday: nine first-rate supporting musicians, the eight-voice Amigos School of Cambridge chorus, and their 7-year-old twin daughters, Sonia and Alisa, for whom their father wrote most of the CD's songs.

"You're the only one exactly like you," Rosi Amador sang in her crystalline mezzo, announcing the show's theme of tying self-esteem to a multicultural, openhearted view of the world. So many of Brian Amador's songs combine the playful and the useful, offering Spanish and English lists of the days of the week, numbers from one to 10, and phrases such as "do you want to play?" and "what's your name?"

The songs came in a dynamic array of styles, from reggae to calypso to merengue to the bewitching Afro-Brazilian ijexa. Band members shuffled percussion instruments, horns, and flutes. The Amigos chorus was robust and sweetly harmonic, and the Amador twins sang lustily, often acting out their parts. In a very funny quick-change chorus of animal imitations, they scurried behind Mom to supply the additional appendages necessary for a proper octopus impression.

Belying the tired notion that kids need silly costumes, funny noises, and ditty-dreadful melodies to hold their interest, Sol y Canto had the crowd at its quietest during soft, complex songs such as Brian Amador's gentle "Arco Iris/

Rainbow" and Tom Paxton's adult lullaby "Peace Will Come," a lovely but difficult meditation on the disquieting distance between inner and outer peace. After a full hour, when kids would usually show how ready they are for other activities, Sol y Canto literally had them dancing in the aisles, and on top of seats, to the joyful Nicaraguan anthem "Banana." But all the wiggling stopped at a cascading horn-section solo, the crowd listening hard and "ooh"-ing audibly before resuming the dance.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.


Parents Magazine -May 2004
THE HIT LIST
Highlights "El doble de amigos/Twice as Many Friends" in their "Fiesta Fun" section. Parents Magazine is America's #1 family magazine since 1926.

Star-Telegram, Forth Worth, TX
"What to Listen to"
Sol y Canto makes its latest album [El doble de amigos/Twice as Many Friends]a family affair for your family to enjoy...a fun, danceable blend of Latin music.

Los Angeles Times
Lynne Heffley
Review of "El doble de amigos/Twice as Many Friends," Rounder Kids)
This aptly named band, led by Rosi and Brian Amador, does indeed warm its bilingual get-up-and-dance songs from Latin American countries with an irresistibly sunny spirit. Expert musicians and bubbly adult and child vocalists invite listeners to count in Spanish and English, learn the "7 dias," Afro-Brazilian-style; and put on their dancing zapatos (shoes) for a bouncy Puerto Rican children's circle game.

*Photo credit must accompany all uses of these copyrighted images by Susan Wilson
Photo credit: Susan Wilson
www.susanwilsonphoto.com