Retro en espanol--Old Songs in Designer Clothes

When Colombian record producer Johnny Gutierrez decided to make a star out of a stylish 23-year-old salsa singer named Charlie Zaa in 1997--by having him record the romantic bolero ballads made famous in the 1960s by Ecuadorean singers Julio Jaramillo and Olimpo Cardenas--industry leaders were unimpressed.

Radio and record heavies did not think Zaa could sell in that outdated genre, especially not dressed like some model from Milan. Everyone knew bolero singers wore big sombreros.

But Gutierrez, son of Colombian producer Hugo Gutierrez, was undeterred. He had watched a fellow Colombian, singer Carlos Vives, revive the nearly extinct folk music vallenato by presenting it, wrapped in blue jeans and long hair, to young audiences. Gutierrez and his father were convinced that Zaa--who closed his sets with salsa band Guayacan by belting out a bolero--could do the same for that genre. Dressed in Armani.

Gutierrez produced Zaa for the relatively small Colombian label Sonolux, and the debut album, “Sentimientos,” sold half a million copies with virtually no promotion or media support. Only Puerto Rican radio played the album, says Sonolux promotions director Alvin Saladin, because “no one else knew what category to put him in.”

Soon, fans began calling stations in New York and Los Angeles requesting Zaa, forcing execs to recognize that the singer had tapped a lucrative double market: nostalgic older listeners, and teens who dug Zaa’s looks and thought his music was new.

Retro en espanol was born.

This newest of Latin music trends has since become so hot that its latest group, Los Tri-O, recently ranked No. 6 in Billboard magazine’s roundup of the 10 fastest-selling new acts in the U.S., regardless of genre or language; the album has crossed over onto the mainstream Billboard 200 charts, and has hovered near the top of the Latin charts for the 16 weeks it has been out.

Though artists such as Luis Miguel and Jose Feliciano have long performed older songs in modern gear, the new focus on a hyper-trendy visual image sets the current acts apart.

Los Tri-O, also a Gutierrez creation, has sold more than a million copies of its debut album, “Nuestro Amor” (Our Love), worldwide, according to the BMG Latin label, which released it in the U.S.; SoundScan reports the album has sold close to 150,000 copies in the U.S. so far, putting it close behind such groups as Sixpence None the Richer.

As the name implies, Los Tri-O perform trio music, a genre defined by soft vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars, popularized in the Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Its most beloved group was New York’s Trio Los Panchos, made up of two Mexicans and a Puerto Rican. Trio music features the requinto, a tiny guitar invented by Panchos member Alfredo Gil.

Los Tri-O performs only Trio Los Panchos songs, usually as medleys. Known only by their first names, singers Andres and Esteban, both 23, and Manuel, 22, were hand-picked by Gutierrez out of more than 100 young men in Bogota auditions two years ago.

A Renewed Interest in the Band Los Panchos

The success of Los Tri-O has inspired a revived interest in the music of Los Panchos, leading to increased sales of the latest album by the band, which, like the Duke Ellington orchestra, has survived over the decades in various forms and with a revolving lineup; the album, “Jose Luis Rodriguez With Los Panchos,” was No. 17 in Billboard’s Latin 50 last week.

There are dozens of new retro en espanol acts out, though only one other, Colombian sibling act Alquimia, has broken onto the charts yet. Gutierrez is producing a female retro en espanol singer, Maciel.

Billboard’s Latin music writer, John Lannert, says that the appeal of acts such as Zaa and Los Tri-O is “rooted in a type of nostalgia particular to Latin culture.”

In some ways, retro en espanol also resembles its contemporary English-language 1990s revival: swing. But the Spanish version, spawned without peppy Gap advertisements for khaki pants, is somewhat more organic.

Gutierrez says he was aware of the swing revival, and he expected similar success with retro en espanol. He did not, however, anticipate the huge success Los Tri-O is enjoying, and recounted a recent scene at Madison Square Garden, where both teenage girls and “viejitas” (little old ladies) were pawing and kissing the young singers. “It’s incredible,” he said.

According to Los Tri-O road manager Juan Carlos Noguera, the retro en espanol movement represents more for young people than hormones: It also signifies a yearning for “romance and beauty in a world that is meaner than any other generation has known.”

For older fans, such as local composer Teddy Fregoso, the retro en espanol movement (which has dragged several of his titles from the vaults) is proof that not all young people have terrible taste. “Of course they’re going back to the old songs,” Fregoso says. “The problem is there are no modern composers who can match what we did.”

For Billboard’s Lannert, this reliance on past composers is a source of concern, leading him to wonder what music will be considered nostalgic 40 years from now. “We can’t keep recycling the same songs indefinitely,” he says.

Appreciating the Music of Romance

For local trio musician Marcos Loya, 41, the current fascination with the romantic music among American Latino youth reminds him of his own awakening to the beauty of the music.

“I grew up in East Los Angeles,” Loya says. “And my parents raised me to be a good American boy. . . . I listened to rock like everyone else, but in the house they always played mariachi and trio music. In high school I shied away from it. But as much as I tried to keep it out, it still found its way into my heart and subconscious. Thus, the 20-year-old Marcos went out and bought a requinto and within a very short time I was talking with it in the language of my subconscious.”

The appeal of older sounds and modern images is not limited to Zaa or Los Tri-O, and can in fact be found in varying degrees in most Latin music genres at the moment.

The incredible success of nasal-voiced merengue singer Elvis Crespo comes in part because of his old-fashioned, slow-tempo take on the genre, reminiscent of its slower, pre-disco days; even in his dance remixes, which are popular in mainstream nightclubs, Crespo’s tone and tempo speak to an early time in the Dominican genre. Crespo rejects the glittery suits and gold chains of groups like Oro Solido in favor of loose linen pants and shirts, and his long hair flows messily around his face, while most other merengue singers still have short fades. Even pop singer Enrique Iglesias draws on the syrupy sounds of his father Julio’s generation--but forgoes the Vegas glitter for ratty jeans and a T-shirt.

“No one thought this kind of music would do anything,” says Bill Garcia, who once worked promoting Zaa and is now director of national promotion and marketing for Sony Discos in Miami. Now, he says, the industry is paying attention. Proof: Esteemed producer Emilio Estefan has asked to be part of Zaa’s upcoming album.

“Until now, parents and kids used to complain about each other’s music,” Noguera says. “Now they fight over who gets to play Los Tri-O.”