RAYOS DE SANGRE 

(c) Aug 12, 2019 DLT Creative Productions LLC 

  

Rayos de Sangre - (“Blood Lightning”) by La Cocodrila is a Latin Rock instrumental track with an original throwback sound.  

La Cocodrila goes into a new direction and switches to a throwback synth sound with her own complex blend of thrashing Latin rock, jazz improv & crazy swing rhythms, this time in 70s-style. Hear that Latin Rock beat kicking off in the beginning? Dig that chill bass line. Electric guitar and trumpet solos confab with La Cocodrila’s acid theme, and opinions by the trombone and flute keep it gravy. As you might expect, she gets in the last word - musically speaking - when the song ends at 4:20.  

Rayos de Sangre - composed, arranged, performed and produced by Deborah “La Cocodrila” De La Torre, Latinx jazz pianist. With Ron Bland (electric bass) Thomas A. Blomster (percussion) and Dave DeMichelis (electric guitar), with Dan Leavitt (trumpet) Jeff Craig (trombone) and Joe Anderies (flute). Recorded and mixed by Tyler Hayden and mastered by Justin Davis at Rocky Mountain Recorders in Denver, Colorado; Album cover artwork by Vincent De La Torre. Rayos de Sangre (c)DLT 2019 Creative Productions LLC.

AGUA BOSQUE

(c) Aug 22, 2019 DLT Creative Productions LLC

The legend of thunder following after the swirling winds, announcing the fierce rainstorm bringing life, death and rebirth 

Agua Bosque - ("water forest") - Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Deborah "La Cocodrila" De La Torre.  The track includes instrumental images such as the sound of water drops played by the percussion and bass guitar, various bird calls and hurricane winds by the piano, the undertone of rumbling thunder by the percussion, and the tropical insects and frogs, which are played in staggered rhythms by the horns and percussion, along with live audio captured from La Cocodrila's recent travels. 

With Ron Bland (bass) and Thomas A. Blomster (percussion), and Danny Leavitt (trumpets) Jeff Craig (trombone) Joe Anderies (flute). Recorded & Mixed by Tyler Hayden; Mastered by Justin Davies at Rocky Mountain Recorders in Denver, Colorado. Album Cover Artwork by Vincent De La Torre 

 Coño! (But With A Swing)

(c) 2018 DLT Creative Productions LLC

Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Deborah "La Cocodrila" De La Torre

With Ron Bland (bass) and Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

Patricia Surman (flute), David DeMichelis (electric guitar)

Randy Runyan (trumpet), Rodney Farrar (cello)

01 Bop Bop Bop Bop

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

This tune is a post-modern take on old-school Bop style happening on top of a distorted Cuban old-school Montuno bass line, with plenty of idiomatic flare happening all over the place, but which soon dissolves into a Cool Jazz quietude.   Ironic twang and cackle at the end. 

02 Dulce y Caliente

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

The first tune I wrote for this album, it starts off danceable but, no, I'm not going to leave it alone.  You're going to have to count in 11's and 15's to get through it.   But I will bring you back to the dance later, only to leave you hanging at the end, but in a pleasant way, ok?

03 Luna 

La Cocodrila (piano)

A rainy-day piano piece, kind of moody. Written in honor of all the people in love out there in the world, and two young couples in particular:  the one beautiful couple that got married this summer, and the other beautiful couple who attended their wedding. But there's also a lot of broken chords for all the broken hearts out there too. 

04 Tres Mañanas 

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

This takes me back to the kind of songs I used to listen to on my favorite radio station while sun tanning on the beaches of Miami.  That mellow-rock, sexy-groovy kind of mood music, where you have an ice-cold drink with a little umbrella in it, just sitting there chillin out.  Hot sand burning your feet, sun beating down on your coconut-oiled skin.  By the time the fancy piano part comes along in the song, your glass is probably empty and you're pulling the fruit off the little sugar-cane toothpick.

05 El Sudor

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

Speaking of hot, this song is about heat.  Oppressive heat.  Hot, sweaty sticky heat when you're stuck in your apartment with no air-conditioning and there's nowhere to go.  The air doesn't move, and that old propeller fan is just cranking away like a stupid useless thing.  Even the shadows are long hot fingers and they're slowly creeping up the window, coming to burn your skin.  It's so hot that your eyeballs are stuck open, and your mind just drifts off as the end part of the song repeats itself, until you notice that it's suddenly over and you're just sitting there, and you haven't moved in a long time.

06 Oya's Funk

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion); Patricia Surman (flute); David DeMichelis (electric guitar)

After a few bars of intro, the wind chimes that start the main theme section are an homage to John Coltrane and his sleigh bells from his album Interstellar Space, a work which threw me into a stupified shock as I listened to it from start to finish, sitting by the pool on a boiling hot summer day in Las Vegas.  Listening to that album felt as if my soul was drinking from the fountain of knowledge with every single note, and at blinding speed.  This song is fun and funky, but also pretty deep and calls out from-and-to my Cuban heritage.

07 Turrón

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

This Zapateo is titled as a delicious desert that is Arabic in origin (almond nougat).  Turrón comes in many shapes, styles and forms, and  is often eaten at holidays and for special occasions, many times served with strong black café.  Turrón has traveled culturally from Spain throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, so eating it is an experience of journey in and of itself, back through our immediate family to our genetic ancestral memories.  

08 Coño! (But With A Swing)

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion); Patricia Surman (flute); Randy Runyan (trumpet)

The album's title song is an act of jodiendo with the rules of music genre-writing, starting off with a not-so-polite word.  It begins as an Afro-Caribbean call-and-response song that slows to a snarky swing with some smart-alecky flute and trumpet chisme cutting through, like it's their opinions or something.  Some crazy-ass scales and melodic son clave rhythm patterns talk smack to the bass solo.  How do you get back home to the main melody?  Well, you gotta run faster and hurry up, just to try to catch up.

09 Resuelve

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion)

So in Cuba when you say, "eso se resuelve" or "todo se resuelve," it means somehow it's going to get figured out, no matter what it takes, even if the way to get you there is not too correct.  It's a pretty little song is very Española with some modern rhythms,  some altered Montunos, and shortened sections, almost like they were cut off too short, or not quite melodic, or just scraping by, on purpose. But it gets figured out. 

10 Monedas

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion); Patricia Surman (flute); Rodney Farrar (cello)

This is a vintage-style tribute to my Cuban grandparents, their late-night dancing parties on the patio, with the parrot screaming in its cage, the teenagers disappearing into the shadows, and how when I was very little, I would fall asleep on the plastic-covered sofa as they joked or talked Cuban politics late into the night. 

11 Baile Cubano

La Cocodrila (piano); Ron Bland (bass); Thomas A. Blomster (percussion); Patricia Surman (flute); Randy Runyan (trumpet)

This song was originally written as the 4th movement of my Duo Piano Concerto titled "Almendra," in a sort of retro-70's style.  The two-piano version was premiered by some very accomplished students of a musical colleague of mine at the U.S. International Piano Duo Competition, and I later also performed it with one of them at a local concert in Denver.  In the two-piano version, the jazzy solo interlude is where the two pianists take turns doing a stylistic "improv." Yeah, but is it a baile or a rock or a groove?  

 

(c) 2018 Deborah De La Torre, DLT Creative Productions LLC