Review Summary: A latin masterpiece, full of emotion and musical talent.
By 1975 Los Jaivas were already one of the biggest bands in Latin America thanks to their singles
Mira Niñita and
Todos Juntos from their 1973 album:
La Ventana, songs that even today are regarded among the band's best works. However by that time, there wasn't anything else on the band's discography that was truly impressive, their albums were original and showed off a lot of potential but their sound was also pretty immature and inconsistent, they hadn't found their sound yet.
That changed with their fifth album, their homonymous popularly known as
El Indio (The Indian). The band finally solved their biggest problem: how to mix latin folk with progressive rock in a cohesive way.
Some may think that this sounds like their most important album:
Alturas de Machu Picchu, however this is a totally different mix of folk and prog; Alturas creates a mystic atmosphere, its sound will take you to the highest andean peaks, to the deepest jungles, it is a beautiful trip indeed but a totally different experience from the one that we'll find here. El Indio's approach is totally the opposite, there's way more life in here, it is a colorful adventure, everything in here is full of life, the guitar chords are faster and the vocals have a happier rythm. If Alturas was dedicated to our minds, El Indio is dedicated to our hearts and souls.
Here, we can finally see the band's real talent, the guitar solos are extremly well executed, the flutes are catchy and the piano is beautiful and complex, on the same level than the one you could find in an
ELP album, but without all the pretentiousness. The vocals are the best in any album by the band, Alquinta's screams are impressive in the Santana-influenced song
Guajira Cosmica and so is his emotion in one of the band's best songs, the ballad,
La Conquistada which is probably the only melancholic moment in the album in which his voice blends in a heartbreaking way with an epic rythmic guitar and a wonderful piano.
The band mixed prog and latin folk in such a perfect way that even the folkier songs, that are usually what keeps people from getting into the band's sound, are a pleasant listen; the band veers towards the folkier side of their nature on songs such as
Pregon Para Iluminarse and
Un Dia de tus Dias. While this latin infusion can be an acquired taste the band's excellent musicianship and blending of tasteful progressive bridges within these more traditional offerings should keep the open-minded proghead satisfied.
The climax is on the album's epic:
Tarka y Ocarina is a song that deserves its own paragraph, a instrumental improvisation that's probably the best example of how talented the band was, from the distorded heavy riffs on the beginning to the
Harmonium-esque flutes at the end of the composition, going through the impressive piano and drum solos, this song is the archetype of a mix between latin-folk and prog. It is not only one of the band's best songs but also, arguably, one of the best instrumentals in progressive rock.
El Indio was the band's real debut, they finally produced the sound they were looking for for years, the sound that would turn them into the most important Latin band of the 70's and 80's and one of the biggest acts in non-english speaking prog, a joyful ride through everything that's loved about Latin America, managing to turn the continent's heart and soul into beautiful, complex prog with the warmest atmosphere. What's even more impressive is that this was just the tip of the iceberg, they experimented even more in the next years, creating other classic albums like
Canción del Sur or
Obras de Violeta Parra and of course, the already mentioned classic:
Alturas de Machu Picchu.
In 1975 Los Jaivas were:
Gato Alquinta - Vocals, guitars, flutes
Gabriel Parra - Drums and percussion
Claudio Parra - Piano, maracas, trutruca
Eduardo Parra - Piano, organ
Julio Anderson - Bass, backing vocals
Alberto Ledo - Charango, tarka, trutruca, zampoña, backing vocals
