In almost 30 years we had with the band Los Cañoneros (Wikipedia) in 2012, we had never had guests with that concept of featuring so common in the world discography, that is, we never had a song with a guest in order to highlight their presence. But since that year I had several projects to celebrate the 30 years of our group and add them to the celebration of 445 years of the city of Caracas, I decided it was time to make a song with many guests.
The whole project
Although we could not materialize most of the project, it is worth noting that the idea was to combine both dates and the product should be a video, a series of concerts and an album with emblematic tunes or themes dedicated to our capital. I wanted to make an album with 14 songs, among which only one or two original songs were going to be recorded, the rest would be "classics" of the "cañonera music" or taken to that genre.
Choosing the repertoire
The first step was to make a pre-selection of the repertoire to be included, because in order to determine in which we were going to have the special guests, I had to decide which were the "possible candidates".
The list consisted of about 20 classic songs. Among them was Rafael Salazar's calypso "Caracas, Caracas" and we thought that this one had the best structure to be sung with the guests. Besides I thought that we could play it in Caracas merengue rhythm. As soon as I began to make the arrangement, an institutional campaign with that song appeared on television and, to top it off, as a merengue (among other rythms)... which shattered our plan.
Listen to the original tune here
Listen to the institutional campaigns version here
There was already clarity
What became clear when I made the choice of "Caracas, Caracas" was the structure I wanted for the song, so I decided to write my own vision of Caracas, with the structure I had already decided. This is how the song "Esta es Caracas" was born.
| Esta es Caracas | This is Caracas |
|---|---|
| El Ávila majestuoso Va bordeando el horizonte Con su gama de colores Va enmarcándonos el norte El pulmón de mi Caracas Esparcimiento más sano El lienzo de cada día Es mi Waraira Repano * Esta es Caracas Monumental Cuna de héroes y proezas Una historia sin igual Esta es Caracas Controversial Parrandera, lisonjera Bullanguera, así Es la capital Contraste de modernismo En una ciudad colonial Conjugación de los tiempos Convive en la capital Guzmán Blanco afrancesado Nos dejó su corolario El Capitolio, el Panteón Y el bello parque El Calvario * Esta es Caracas... Injusticia de 100 años Fue forjando en su momento Barrios pobres que en las noches Parecieran nacimientos Caracas es tradición Mezclas que el tiempo tejiera Es comida, es sainete Es música cañonera * Esta es Caracas... Fue la gran Plaza Mayor Testigo fiel de la historia Huellas de todos los tiempos Se guardan en su memoria Espacio de mil eventos Que marcaron la nación Y hoy como Plaza Bolívar Rinde culto a Don Simón * Esta es Caracas Aunque mi lar ya no sea Más la sucursal del cielo Es hogar de mi esperanza Albergue de mis anhelos Esta es mi ciudad querida De mis ensueños la dueña Y siempre estaré orgullosa ¡Que dicha ser caraqueña! * Esta es Caracas... | The majestic Avila Goes bordering the horizon With its range of colors It is framing us the north The lung of my Caracas Healthier spreading The canvas of every day This is my Waraira Repano * This is Caracas Monumental Cradle of heroes and feats A story without equal This is Caracas Controversial Festive, flattering Joyful, this way Is the capital Contrast of modernism In a colonial city Conjugation of the times Live in the capital Guzmán Blanco frenchified Left us his corollary The Capitol, the Pantheon And the beautiful El Calvario park * This is Caracas... Injustice of 100 years Forged at the time Poor neighborhoods that at night Seems like Christmas mangers Caracas is tradition Mixtures that time weaves It's food, it's Sainete It's Cañonera music * This is Caracas... The great Plaza Mayor was Faithful witness of history Footprints of all time Are stored in its memory Space of a thousand events That marked the nation And today as Plaza Bolívar Worships Don Simón * This is Caracas... Although my hometown is no longer The branch of heaven It is home to my hope Shelter of my longings This is my beloved city From my dreams the owner And I will always be proud What a joy to be from Caracas! * This is Caracas... |
The featured guests
Of course, one of the complicated parts is who to invite, because you want to have all your friends in, you want all the stars of your country in it, you want all of which are representative of your music, but the number of participants could not be greater than 4 or 5.
We started by making a list of all the female and male singers, as well as groups that would be worth including in our record. Of course, however short it was, the list was too long for a single song. There was one of the candidates who was left at one time to include him as a featured guest in another song: Memo Morales.
Then we started to imagine who would adapt better to our musical genre and those who did not (this, as you can suppose, was our subjective appreciation). In this way we established an order to make the invitations, since it was clear that wanting to invite them was not enough, there had to be also the interest of "the other part" in participating in our project and the most complex part: the time availability. This is one of the most complex parts when making a recording of this type, since you have a studio hired for a certain time and everyone has to fit into it.
Those who stayed
The producer of the song was Chapis Lasca, who has been professionally dedicated to record production for a while, who was also a member of Los Cañoneros in his (more) early years, he is my nephew too and son of the lead singer of our band and my sister 
A woman who very well represents the music of Caracas, since she has recorded many "cañonera"songs and has always exalted that genre, while interpreting waltzes, meringues and pasodobles from Caracas is Cecilia Todd. With her we already had assured the feminine representation and, besides that, one of the greatest representatives of our Venezuelan music.
Chapis had insisted on including some representative of the so-called urban music or hip-hop and recommended one in whose production he was involved. Although I had my doubts about it, after seeing several videos of him I was convinced and invited Ramses Meneneses, also known as McKlopedia.
In February of that year the Venezuelan pop singer Max Pizzolante published on his twitter account a picture of him with a CD of our group and the legend "With my CD of
. Good family memories while I listen to them!". This seemed like a very nice detail and we established contact. When things are going to be, he who lives in Miami was going to be in the days of recording in Caracas, of course he participated!
One of the most original voices in our music is that of Francisco Pacheco, who from Un Solo Pueblo became an emblematic figure of Venezuelan music and who even outside this group has made a surprising career, both in Afro-Venezuelan music and in other genres.
A band that I've always liked a lot, because for familiar things at my home we danced ska since the 60's, is Desorden Público, one of the most important ska band worldwide of which I was manager between 2002 and 2003. Our relationship came from the beginning of the group, since I hired them for an event in Anzoategui in the year 1985. Therefore the relationship with Horacio Blanco (lead voice), another of the participants, was already old.
One of the most difficult participations to coordinate, since not all members live in Caracas, was the group declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation: the group Serenata Guayanesa. However, they were hired for a performance in Caracas and we were able to crystallize their participation.
Although the solo sax was played by someone who was part of the group for about 20 years, we took it almost like a featuring, because he was one of the greatest saxophonists ever: Benjamín Brea.
Esta es Caracas Lyrics, music and arrangement: Ylich Orsini "El Ruso"
Voices in order of appearance: Ylich Orsini "El Ruso", Hely Orsini, Horacio Blanco, Cecilia Todd, Ramsés Meneses, Arístides Barbella, Max Pizzolante, Francisco Pacheco, Serenata Guayanesa
Musicians:
Andrés "Tapón" Romero - Trumpet
Army Zerpa - Bass
Arnaldo Sánchez – Drum set, percussion and background vocals
Benjamín Brea – Alto sax
Hely Orsini – Cheese grater (This is true! lol)
Isaac Narváez - Piano
Salvador Sáez - Trombone
Vadim Lasca - Background vocals
Ylich Orsini - Cuatro
Production: Chapis Lasca
Video directed by: Vadim Lasca
CD available at https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/LosCanoneros
Los Cañoneros at Spotify
All the photos are of my property, like the video and with the director's permission.
This is an extended and improved English version of my post: Grabar una canción con estrellas invitadas
* Comments are welcome!
