Los Montaneses Del Alamo First Recordings (1938-1950) CD

Classic Pre-Accordion Norteno Music

Personnel: Pedro Mier (flute).
Liner Note Author: Zack Salem.
Recording information: CA (1940-1950).
Editor: Chris Strachwitz.
Introduction by: Zack Salem.
Founded in the 1930s, los Montaneses Del Alamo would actually keep on going for more than 50 years. This is a 27-song overview of their first decade as a recording act. Los Montaneses Del Alamo differed from many small Mexican groups in that they prominently featured flute, violin, and on the latter half of these tracks, a saxophone. The accordion, the instrument that dominated such ensembles in 20th century Mexican music, is absent. And that setup makes this stand out from numerous other similar archival releases; if nothing else, it's refreshing to hear the melody lines taken by different instruments than the usual ones. As the liner notes explain, this is a throwback to an older style of music that predominated in Mexico in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before the accordion came to the fore. The repertoire, though, isn't as out of the ordinary, offering a mix of polkas, corridos, and other styles common to the form on both instrumental and harmonized vocal numbers. The sound quality is good considering the age and rarity of the original discs; six of the songs are from test pressings of tracks that might have never even been issued. ~ Richie Unterberger

The Wire (7/02, p.70) - "...FIRST RECORDINGS contains some two dozen jaunty and dignified settings for flute, violin, string bass and bajo sexto..."