Escritorio Pequeñito

The Tiny Desk Concerts at National Public Radio emerged from the frustration NPR host Bob Boilen and editor Stephen Thompson experienced at the 2008 South by Southwest festival in Austin.

The noise of the crowds had drowned out the music, leading the pair to create a bare-bones venue in Boilen's office, leading to hundreds of performances there and thousands more in similarly small spaces everywhere, after the Tiny Desk team launched an online contest.

I recommend the Tiny Desk Wikipedia article for more background because this origin story is difficult to find on the NPR web site itself. Then dive into the Tiny Desk page for so much more music!

In its early years, the series was sometimes criticized as too narrow, but a very wide variety of musical genres are now included and encouraged. It being a contest, the series surfaces far more excellent performances than can be declared winners.

On the July 9 edition of All Things Considered, Mary Louise Kelly begins by mentioning the Philharmonix, with its cleverly staged winning entry "What's It All Mean?" Watch this carefully -- it is full of subtle visual humor, with musicians who never break character. 

Kelly then asked Alt Latino host Felix Contreras to discuss some of his Latin music favorites from among this year's entries. Although some might consider Latino music a genre, it is an umbrella term for the many musics of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. 

I recommend listening to their seven-minute conversation, which includes short audio clips from four of this year's contestants and his ideas about why he likes them and what genres they represent, and then watching each performance. Because the contest is based on video entries, I was able to find all four of these performances on YouTube; the musicians have additional music on that platform and elsewhere. Enjoy!

The first performance Contreras mentions is Taza de Café by Cáthia, a Salvadoran American from the Bronx. The song compares a lover to a cup of coffee -- or more specifically, uses the desire for a cup of coffee as a metaphor for her romantic attraction. I was interested in the coffee connection, of course, especially when Contreras mentioned that the performance was recorded in a café. That would have been perfect for the Coffee Maven, but the actual stage is a bodega in Miami -- equally wonderful, but not a café.

The lyrics are fairly simple but Cáthia sings with such gusto that I had some difficulty understanding some parts. I'm grateful for the lyrics and translation she provides on the YouTube page. 

He next mentions Lluvia Pesado (Heavy Rain) by Flaco el Jandro, a song that mentions coffee in a different context. For years I had assumed that cumbia was a style originating in the US-Mexico borderlands, but Contreras tells us that it originates in Colombia and is now very widespread in Latin America. 

The YouTube page includes some background on this artist and some mostly correct lyrics, this time only in Spanish.

After Contreras expresses relief that he was not a judge in this round, Kelly presses him to name a favorite "just between us" and he queues up a ranchera by Puerto Rican Mireya Ramos, who returns to the Tiny Desk with a band called The Poor Choices.

This is a soaring, operatic ballad that blends ranchera with many influences, even country. 

Finally, Contreras offers the song "Guero" ("Blond") by Los Quinceañeros when asked for a song to end the session. It is a fun, irreverent blend of cumbia, punk, and surf -- all dressed in cheesy outfits and staging.

The title apparently refers to the blond, nerdy guy sitting at a tiny desk in the middle of the band. This song is a little bit abstract.

This rounds out what promised to be -- and is -- a selection that illustrates the increasingly great diversity of Latin music.

Lagniappe

It is perhaps a cliché to point out that one advantage of being a teacher is that I never stop learning, and much of what I learn comes directly from students. I have been an avid NPR listener for over 40 years and have learned a lot about music from it. Even so, I was only vaguely aware of the Tiny Desk Concerts until Esha -- a student in my honors colloquium on New Orleans -- brought some music to my attention for that course. She then realized that I did not know much about the series in general and explained to me and another student that has become one of her favorite sources of music, giving us many of her favorite finds as a start. Thank you, Esha!

Musical Wisdom of Ibrahim Maalouf

 For students in my class and other students of cultural geography (which should be everyone), I recommend Jen White's interview with Ibrahim Maalouf on the radio program 1A. Produced by Haili Blassingame and originally broadcast earlier in 2024, the staff of 1A selected it as a highlight for rebroadcast during the holiday-week of Independence Day. 

The title of this episode is French Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf blends sound and defies genre. It is an hour well spent. 

GEOG 298 students, please take notes about what you notice in this discussion/performance. Meanwhile, I will mention a few of the highlights in what I heard.

Around 7m30s, he talks about the variety of understandings that can be found within a single country or tradition. His words here remind me of Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story (itself another indispensable font of insights about how to approach learning about people and places)

Throughout the interview, he emphasizes the role of music in building for him what is the most important thing: empathy. This is something both more important and more complicated than sympathy. He is embodying the motto my friends at the Polus Center use to describe their worldview. Despite the importance of the multitude of good and bad human experiences, the remind us that "People are more alike than different."

At about 34m he explains why finds teaching to be an important way to continue as a learner. 

Early in the interview, he describes the legacy of his father, a self-taught musician who invented a trumpet that makes Lebanese jazz possible, for technical reasons I do not fully understand. He holds his father's legacy both in his being and literally in his hands. At 39m20s he answers a question about what. legacy he hopes to leave for his daughter. The first few words of his answer could describe what every parent should want: 

"I would like her to feel comfortable in this planet...."

He then elaborates with a more detailed answer that sets out guideposts for any parent. He then explains how travel with his daughter helps them to attain this goal.

Jen White observes that he is an optimistic person and asks how this is possible. Optimism is in short supply everywhere these days, and his own lived experience would give him more cause than most of us to reject optimism as folly. Again, please listen to his entire reply, but consider this excerpt a good glimpse into his thinking:

"There is no day I'm not crying these days. There is no single day that passes without tears going on my cheeks. No one. But I am optimistic, of course. Again, because I have no choice."

These are important words from someone who speaks every day with friends in Gaza, and who has lived similar traumas himself. 

The program ends with his performance of what he calls a very small part of his music with a song called "Our Flag," which he wrote with musician Sharon Stone. 

Lagniappe

As someone who endeavors to communicate in other languages, I am always impressed with people who do it exceptionally well. This interview is in English and Maalouf discusses very complex ideas with great clarity, despite this being at least his third language.