Sol Peligro weaves the sounds of cumbia, reggae, reggaeton and ritmo en Español to bring you a brand of music that sets your feet dancing and makes your body want to groove.

11 MP3 Songs
LATIN: General, WORLD: Reggae



Details:
Sol Peligro weaves the sounds of cumbia, reggae, reggaeton and ritmo en Español to bring you a brand of music that sets your feet dancing and makes your body want to groove.

Conceived by group leader Sam Miranda, Sol Peligro literally means "The Sun that People feel threatened by." The music, decidedly Mexican in flavor, is formed around the Mexican cumbia rhythm--a rhythm that Miranda describes as "Mexican reggae" (and indeed it shares a strikingly similar beat pattern).

The music is fed by Miranda's real life experiences-from the joys and sorrows of family and friends to the everyday realities of working people. The songs will take you to a world largely unexpressed and broadly influenced. Just like any youngster growing up in the 80's, Sam was influenced by the early rise of hip-hop. Influence by the masters, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Ice-T, Easy E and Grand Master Flash. Simultaneously his mother played a huge role in developing Sam's ear, At home his mother played the great Mexican Masters of the 30's through present date such as Vicente Fernandez, Pedro Infante, Los Bukis, Carlos y José, Los Tigrés Del Norte and Cornelio Reyna, while his father was in the fields picking tomatoes to ensure survival of the family.

Miranda is joined by an all-star cast of Sacramento, California musicians including Ken Rego on percussion, Jason Tescher on trombone, Chuck Bond on trumpet, on drums, Kiah Robinson on bass, and Will Fourte on Guitar.


Review:

Miranda seems to imply that there is another California--an older, Spanish-speaking California--that occupies the same landscape and lives, loves and works under the same hot summer sun.

The idea of "CalifaSol" seems to thread through much of Miranda's music, as does a sense of responsibility and, in particular, a sense of family, particularly in regard to Miranda's parents: his father, Oligario (a retired farmworker), and his mother, Irene. When Miranda mentions his mother, his voice quiets, speaking in hushed and reverent tones. Irene succumbed to breast cancer when Miranda was 15 years old, but her message stuck with him in the form of two words he has tattooed on his right forearm: "Vida Digna." "It means 'worthy life,'" Miranda translates. "Something my mother always preached to me: 'Whatever you do, just make it worthy.'"
Irene would have been proud of Sol Peligro. Vida digna, indeed.

Christian Kiefer
Sacramento News and Review
June 9, 2005