Modern Mariachi

I have heard many different marachi groups through live performances and movies, but I have never heard a mariachi ensemble sing the way this group does.  I really enjoyed the complex harmonies the voices create.  At times it reminds me of the complex harmonies and showmanship of the American style barbershop, but barbershop is without instruments.  

The group Mariachi Sol De Mexico perform Guadalajara.  This group is led by Grammy-nominated band leader, singer, and trumpet player Jose Hernandez. 

This ensemble performs Mariachi style music all the world.  The band is extremely talented vocally and instrumentally.  The Mariachi ensemble instruments are all present.  The singers, trumpets, violins, harp, vihuela, and  guitarron.  

The vihuela is unique to mariachi.  It is a five nylon string guitar that is tuned up, down, then again (a-d-g-b-e).  It is tuned this way so the timbre does not conflict with the lower tuned guitarron. The bright sound the vihuela makes is perfect for its function as rhythmic pulse in the band.   

The guitarron is the bass of the marachi band, and is almost inaudible in this recording.  It has six strings and the body is very large.  It plays a simple melodic line that emphasizes the musical structure of the piece.  

Guadalajara Lyrics:

Guadalajara, Guadalajara! 

Guadalajara, Guadalajara! 

You have the soul of the province. 

You smell of the river, of early rose, of 

fresh green 

rock of the river. You are a thousand pigeons, your house 

, Guadalajara, Guadalajara. 

You smell of pure wet earth. 

Oh! distant colomitos 

Ay! ojitos de agua Brothers 

and unforgettable colomitos 

Unforgettable as the afternoons 

In which the line from the hill 

Ir made us to Zapopan. 

Oh! Zapopitan of the soul 

I never heard? other bells 

Like the graves of your convent 

Where the sufferings are eased 

Sad Zapopan, open missal

In which my thoughts are friars. 

Oh! Tlaquepaque pueblito 

Your olorosos jarritos 

They make more fresh the sweet tepache 

For the birria, next to the mariachi 

That in the pariahs and potteries They 

sound with sad melacol? A. 

Oh! Laguna de Chapala 

You have a story the 

strong 

Mage of dawns and dawns Of enamored moonlit nights 

Quieta Chapala is your lago 

N? Via romantic like no other. 

Oh! Beautiful Guadalajara 

I want to tell you one thing. 

You who preserve the water of the well 

Of your women the most beautiful. 

Guadalajara, Guadalajara! 

You have the most Mexican soul. 

Ay ay ay! 

Ay ay ay!

Guadalajara, Guadalajara!