Sergio Arau puts a Rocker Touch on Classical Music in “Tocada y Fuga” Album

Sergio Arau puts his rocker touch on emblematic works of classical music for his album “Tocada y Fuga” in which he has Andrea Echeverri, Camilo Lara and Rubén Albarrán as guests.

The project began to take shape more than 20 years ago when he was traveling in Tijuana with his wife Yareli Arizmendi and the two went to a strip club.

“Suddenly we were chatting with the people, with the locals and there was a song that surprised me, it’s called ‘Ladies Bar’ and it’s with Los Barón de Apodaca and it’s Ravel’s ‘Bolero’,” he said in a recent interview from the Mexico City. This fusion of tropical music with classical music impressed him and stuck in his mind.

Another of the elements that prompted him to make these new versions is that he likes to change the name of everything.

“’O sole mío’ I’ve always thought it’s pozole mío,” said Arau about the classic by Giovanni Capurro and Eduardo di Capua, which he changed to “Pozole Mío” for the album and performs with Piro Pendas.

The march of the “Toreador” from the opera “Carmen” by George Bizet becomes “Carmen de Cañón” with Arizmendi, the opera “Guillermo Tell” by Gioachino Rossini is remembered in “Opening of Guille Motel” with Lara, “El lago of the swans” by Tchaikovsky is “La Hago de los Bisnes” with José Fors de la Cuca. Beethoven’s “For Elisa” is “Paralyze!” with Albarrán from Café Tacvba.

“It’s a song about an alien abduction, but ‘El Santo’ movie style,” said Arau about this second theme.

The album, released in the first half of May, begins with “Tocada y fuga”, a cumbia inspired by Bach’s “Tocata y fuga en D minor”, ​​which he performs with Colombian singer-songwriter Echeverri from Aterciopelados. The song has a video directed by Guillermo Llamas available on the internet.

“’Toccata y fuga’ always impressed me, once I heard it in one of those churches that have a gigantic organ and if it’s like that, the air goes away,” said Arau. “And when I was recording it, the truth is that the melodies are great.”

One of the songs that stands out is “Danube Blues” with Javier Gurruchaga from the Mondragón Orchestra, inspired by “El Danubio azul” by Johann Strauss.

To delve into the world of classical music, Arau created the character of Laslo de la Vega Morris Balam Claus Viteli y Pavón, who has no expiration date and was born in 1678, the same year as Vivaldi. Laslo had the opportunity to work with the classic authors included in the album and for practical purposes his name was changed to Sergio Arau 71 years ago, he said.

On the album, most of the classical instruments that are heard were added digitally, with the exception of the flute of Horacio Franco, a renowned Mexican classical flutist whom Arau, who is also a musician and a plastic artist and cartoonist, met thanks to an exhibition in southern Mexico.

“He recorded two takes and they were both great, very fast, he really is a genius,” he said of Franco.

Arau confessed that at some point he thought that classical musicians “were going to lie to my mother” for his manipulation of these pieces, but he has already had the opportunity to verify that they have been well received. In a performance at the Vive Latino festival, she invited a string and brass quartet.

“I heard the laughter behind me, they were overjoyed and they were happy, the truth is that classical music goes a long way,” he said. “Those who played with me are willing to do whatever it takes.”

Arau said that he would like to do a second volume and would love to present his project with a symphony orchestra and some of the singers invited to the project. Approaching classical music was a joy for him. “I don’t know how to read music, I didn’t have school,” he said. “So what we did was that I whistled or hummed to him.”