Vientos Del Pueblo

I’m back, and you’re not even close to ready for what I have in store for you. Before I get into things, I just want to make a few quick announcements:

1. I will be deleting a few of the older entries whose albums are still available in stores (Mulatu, Sun Ra, Miles, Roots of Chicha) and change my focus to only albums that are out of print and hard to find.

2. All uploads from now on will be vinyl-rips from my own personal record collection. I’m still perfecting the art, so they’ll be better as time goes on… But please enjoy the 320kbps mp3s.

3. As part of my love for music is: what else is going besides music, I will be doing more infrequent postings but they will be great records and include extensive information.

Thanks, enjoy the blog!

Victor Jara – Vientos Del Pueblo (Monitor, 1976)

Read my analysis of Jara’s poetics and politics on Jaguar Press.

I’ve been wanting to upload this since day one! Victor Jara is the golden voiced folk singer from Chile, killed by the merciless military coup that ousted the worlds first democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. Jara was campaigning for Allende, for the Popular Unity party, for Chileans and for the rights of all those suffering at the hands of Imperialism until his last breath. He was shot in the head while a group of 15 prisoners watched as he sang songs of revolution until his tongue no longer moved. His wife and two children spent four days not knowing of his whereabouts as the military regime placed curfews and patrols shot indiscriminately at anyone who looked suspicious.

The collection on this album is an American release, a product of a tribute concert to Jara which included sets by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger. Although it is a compilation of Jara’s material it is mostly of his late stuff written in either ’72 or ’73 and featuring his most political work. It is a great collection and I’m happy to have it because when the Pinochet regime came into power in Chile all of Jara’s records, and tape masters were collected and destroyed. Fortunately, Joan Jara, his wife, was able to smuggle out a few of the original masters from their home studio and that is how we have a compilation such as this. I have a Jara compilation from Spain that is actually dubs of the original vinyl which is a wild, if you think the quality on this record is lo-fi, wait until you hear that record…

Jara remains an important figure in the realm of music for many reasons: his incredible willingness to sacrifice himself for his beliefs, his incredible talent as a musician, his incendiary and beautiful lyrics, his desire to help his common man. Victor Jara is a true revolutionary hero, a man who should be as highly regarded as your beloved Che Guevara or Zapata poster.

As always, link is in the comments.