Customer Rating:  
Summary: Beautiful songs, bad voice
Comment: Agustin Lara was a great composer and pianist. His voice is just not at the same level. If you like his songs, you might be better off by buying Los Panchos, Pedro Vargas or any of the many talented voices that interpreted his beautiful songs. Also, the recordings are old, and digital cleaning can only do so much.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Originals you may have heard elsewhere
Comment: What do such diverse entertainers as Placido Domingo, Chavela Vargas, Pedro Infante, Luis Miguel, Julio Iglesias, Helmutt Lotti, Rocio Banquells, Javier Solis, Nat King Cole, Rocio Durcal ,Lucho Gatica, Jorge Negrete, Lola Beltran, Caetano Veloso and countless trios and mariachi groups have in common? They have all recorded Augustin Lara compositions. Known as el "El Flaco de Oro," Agustin Lara is one of the Mexico's most prolific composers with some 600 compostions to his credit!! If you listen to Latin music, especially boleros, you have probably heard a Lara composition. Some of his more famous and interpreted songs are "Amor de Mis Amores," "Solamente Una Vez," "Veracruz," "Granada," Noche de Ronda," " Farolito," "Aventura," "Mujer," "La Cumbancha," "Pobre De Mi," and his ode to one of his four wives, old time film actress and goddess, Maria (La Dona) Felix , entitled "Maria Bonita." All of the mentioned songs are featured here and taken from the original LP recordings by Lara made between 1954 and 1961. Besides being a composer he was an acomplished pianist(worked in a bordelo at age 13, listen to the biographic "Imposible")) and a singer. This double disc features the voice and piano of Lara as he originally intended the songs to sound l . A wise person once told me the original composers know best how a song should sound:). There are a variety of styles by Lara but mostly tango, pasodoble and bolero music is featured. Although the music is old it still maintains a cosmopolitan flair that is classic. The piano work of Lara is prominent throughout although the disc and also features a conjunto he recorded with. Most of the songs have a melancholy feel and if you look at the picture of Lara, with his ever present cigarette dangling from his lip, it pretty much sums up the feeling. It is odd but the melancholy feeling is not really sad but more nostalgic, a different time, a different place; it's a colorful black and white world with shades of grey as seen through the smoke filled room of Lara's vision. Lara's voice is not great but somehow it sounds perfect for these songs of love and love lost. He literally sounds like the everyman pianist who spends his life laboring unknown in small, smoky, skanky clubs with the oversized brandy snifter stuffed with tips resting on the piano. In spite of less than quality voice these recordings are marvelous because they feature the original recordings of songs you may heard somewhere with arrangements as they were intended to sound. In the traditional sense of a good voice Lara falls short but the emotion permeates making the music sound good. "El Flaco de Oro," Agustin Lara was an international star, has been honored in Granada,Spain and Veracruz, Mexico with a bronze statues and is deserving of a "complete" box set but for now this is about as good as it gets. Featuring 40 recordings, this collection of Lara music is a real bargain. RCA has a series of "Mejor de lo Mejor" discs where they showcase old artists from their archives and this is definitely one of their best of the best. The disc is no frills, no information other than the obligatory musical credit; to RCA's credit they at least say which year and LP the music came from. The sound quality is very good and each disc has a cool look like a phonograph record. If you like old time Mexican music featuring a fantastic composer than add this bargain double disc to your collection; it's a classic collection of songs by a musical poet.
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