Following his massively successful Cuban odyssey, which yielded albums such as the Buena Vista Social Club and its various solo offshoots, Cooder turns his attentions to his own Los Angeles backyard for inspiration.
Chávez Ravine is a tribute of sorts to the long forgotten Los Angeles Latino quarter of the same name, which was cleared in the 1950’s to make way for more gentrified suburban housing and the famous Dodgers Stadium. Over a backdrop of numerous Latino musical styles as well as American jazz and pop, Cooder uses both real life and fictional characters, as well as radio samples and sounds from the 1940s to conjure up the atmosphere of the vibrant hillside Chicano community, which was mainly populated by Mexican immigrants.
The Tex-Mex-like ‘Poor Man’s Shangri- La’ sets the scene, with Cooder taking the lead vocal – something he hasn’t done in years while ‘Ejercito Militar’ recalls an earlier Cooder song ‘That’s The Way The Girls Are In Texas’. Lieber and Stoller’s jazzy ‘Three Cool Cats’, features vocals from the veteran Willie Garcia aka Little Willie G, who fronted the 1960s East LA B band the Three Midniters.
Also featured is Lalo Guerrero, “the original Chicano hepcat”, who revives his lively 1949 dance number, ‘Los Chucos Suaves’, as well as the sultry ballads ‘Corrido de Boxeo’ and ‘Barrio Viejo’, where he’s joined by the legendary Tex-Mex accordion player Flaco Jimenez, another Cooder acolyte.
The lead vocal on the gorgeous ‘3rd Bass Dogers Stadium’ sounds uncannily like John Hiatt (and may well be - this promo copy is low on info).
But the highlight and most radio-friendly track here is the infectious ‘Chinito Chinito’ - a late 1940s novelty hit about a Chinese laundryman and sung by sisters Juliette and Carla Commagere who sound a lot like Althea & Donna on their '70s reggae classic ‘Uptown Top Ranking’.
All in all a glorious celebration of bygone days and Cooder’s very own East Side Story.