You may be familiar with Duke Ellington's take on The Nutcracker Suite. Or that time, Keith Emerson banged out Tchaikovsky on the Moog synthesizer. But have you heard The Nutcracker Suite played by a Mariachi band?
Latin Grammy-nominated Mariachi Sol de Mexico and its leader Maestro José Hernández stopped by our Seattle studios this week ahead of their performance Wednesday at the Moore Theater, called "Merry-achi Christmas."
The Los Angeles-based ensemble played a mix of Christmas standards and originals. From the town of Miraflores, Jalisco, Hernández comes from a long line of mariachis dating back seven generations.
Click "Listen" above to hear the full interview.
Interview Highlights
Did you grow up listening to Christmas songs in the mariachi style?
Well, you know, very few, very few. I grew up with just the regular traditional Mexican songs, you know Sones, Huapangos, Jarabes. Those are the different types of songs that mariachis play, but very few Christmas songs that were written for these beautiful days coming up in December. But I decided to arrange several classics. I think the first time I started arranging them was around 1992 for an artist, his name's Juan Valentin, a very popular singer in Mexico.
Is there traditional Christmas music that was rather conducive to the mariachi style?
Most of the songs that mariachis do play are pretty much… we'll call them 'covers', right? of the great American classics you know: O Holy Night, Silver Bells, The Little Drummer Boy. Some in the mariachi style that were written by singer songwriters like Jose Alfredo Jimenez and I try to write a little bit. Right now we're in the process of promoting a new piece that I wrote a few years ago and we just recorded it called "La Noche Buena."
One Christmas, I was really missing my mother a lot... I lost her about 24 years ago, and I noticed that every time Christmas came along that my family would say, 'How come you're so quiet?' Well, it's just strange to remember what it felt like when I had my mom around.
On his efforts to bring a new generation to mariachi music
Wow, it's grown a great deal. The first time I remember that I started teaching, a night class, a mariachi night class at Cal Poly Pomona, in Southern California in 1980... it was 1991, I started my own foundation. So this gave me the opportunity to work with a lot of kids, from the inner cities and provide music classes... Now, we're involved in about 22 schools in Southern California.
It's amazing to be able to provide curriculum for different districts throughout the country. It's pretty awesome.
