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List Price: $20.98
Our Price: $16.99
You Save: $ 3.99 (19%)
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Manufacturer: Nonesuch
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597987720
Label: Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Nonesuch
Release Date: 2005-06-14
Studio: Nonesuch
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Editorial Reviews:
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Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine is-a post-World War II-era American narrative of "cool cats," radios, UFO sightings, J.Edgar Hoover, red scares, and baseball.Using real and imagined historical characters, Cooder and friends creates an album that recollects various aspects of the poor but vibrant hillside Chicano cummunity, which was bulldozed by developed in the interest of "progress."
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Greasy handoff...
Comment: That's CHA-vez. Just as he provided a venue for aging Cubans before they were gone and forgotten, Cooder, in 15 songs, shines a light on the unknown tale of how a dusty hillside Los Angeles Mexican neighborhood known as Chavez Ravine was razed in the 1950s in a "greasy handoff" to the newly arrived Dodgers baseball team. Think of the movie Chinatown. Crooked red-baiting right wing politicos, innocent citizens believing "it can't happen here," cool cats being beaten up by GIs, and a UFO-driving Space Vato (space guy) who recognizes the Ravine as the hip place to land; these are the players in Cooder's loving 21st century concept album.
The beautifully packaged Nonesuch CD includes a booklet worthy of a very small coffee table. The record has a handmade, non-digital feel with an airy sound that hints at L.A.'s El Hoyo Club in 1955. The record's opening track, "Poor Man's Paradise," is driven by Cooder's clean guitar and jazzy harmonies; "El UFO Cayo" is a slow, dreamy, late night swirl of guitars. "Muy Fifi" rocks with a thumping bass under L.A. legend Ersi Arvizu's gutsy vocals. "3rd Base Dodger Stadium," a lovely lament sung beautifully by Hawaiian singer Bla Pahinui, recounts how former residents of Chavez Ravine can pinpoint where their own home plate used to be. We should all be so lucky.
Customer Rating:
Summary: chavez ravine in the south of France
Comment: I first heard this CD last summer (06) while I was on vacation visiting British friends in France. Ironically, I was reading a book about Robert Moses and the wrecking and paving of neighborhoods in New York City while took place around the same time as the bulldozing of the Chavez Ravine community- why I was reading all this in France is beyond me, but there you have it. I thought, and still do think, that "Chavez Ravine" is quite beautiful, if a bit odd; it fits right in with the other Ry Cooder records I've heard which are beautifully played, peculiarly written, and often a bit edgy. He doesn't sound like anyone else, which is all to the good.
My favorites on this CD are "Poor Man's Shangri-La", "Chinito-Chinito", and "Third Base, Dodger Stadium"- they are as good as anything Ry Cooder has written that I've ever heard. I don't understand more than a few words of Spanish, so much of the lyrics are lost on me unless I follow along with the translation, but it doesn't hurt the experience. It's beautiful music, and the bittersweet story of what happened adds to it even if you don't get all the words.
Besides, it reminds me of France, and of New York where I grew up. How's that for loose associations?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Where have I been?
Comment: Out of it in Japan, actually. I only learned about this excellent album while reading a review of Mr. Cooder's My Name is Buddy and I'm not even sure why I was reading that, never having been much of a fan. Mistake. Every song on this album is a winner; the beautiful Soy Luz y Sombra even got me choked up in the middle of traffic out on the ugly-as-sin 'hatchi go sen' (that would be Hwy 8). Each song has a quite distinct emotional and musical life while the 'concept' is artistically embellished and embroidered. Mr. Cooder orquestrates a very 'simpatico' ensemble. In addition the music not only entertains but educates as well - a look at midcentury LA before the Dodgers - and improves your spanish (o tu ingles!) as it comes with a nicely done booklet of lyrics and translations, 52 pages worth! One can imagine the good times and love that went into this production; the music certainly reflects that. A keeper. Impressive. Thank you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ry Cooder is a musician's musician
Comment: This is an elegantly produced album the captures an LA sound that deserves the treatment given. Each cut grows on you with every play -- the mark of good music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ry Cooder
Comment: Although the first and second track were my favourite, it is a good album and Would recomend if you want a chill out music.
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