Putumayo Presents: Music From the Chocolate Lands

Amazon.com
Whether savored as a drink or devoured in solid form, chocolate is an abiding passion with many people, lifting their moods even as it expands their waistlines. The chances are that this album was born of a can't-miss marketing conceit but the musical choices make for a very tasty if surprisingly low-key listen. The tunes are uniformly acoustic and mellow, with just enough of a percussive swing to keep things from getting too static. Teresa Bright's harmonies sometimes recall a Hawaiian-style Andrews Sisters impression and Marcantonio's North-Eastern-flavored Brazilian track is fluid and lovely. But when Beethova Obas warns his embattled Haitian countrymen about the dangers of selfishness, it's obvious that he isn't talking about anything so trivial as sharing a candy bar. In fact, given the nationalities involved, the material is generally less topical than might be expected. However, the music often reflects the replete euphoria of cocoa-fuelled sugar shock. --Christina Roden

Product Description
Music from the Chocolate Lands offers a rich selection of songs from the world’s chocolate producing countries. Chocolate has been enjoyed for thousands of years. Used for medicinal and religious purposes, as well as for pleasure, traces of this "food of the gods" have been found in early Mayan pots dating back to 600 B.C.E. Europeans added sugar to the exotic concoction, and the chocolate craze gradually spread throughout the world. Now the cacao plant, which provides the raw cocoa beans for chocolate, is farmed in tropical locations around the globe, often far away from its Central and South American origins.

Music from the Chocolate Lands features a selection of songs as distinctive as chocolate’s history. This release includes music from the tropical countries that grow cocoa beans as well as collaborations with musicians from the European regions where chocolate-makers produce some of the world’s most appetizing chocolate products. Africa, the world’s leading producer of cocoa beans, is represented by Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast and Toto Bona Lokua, a trio featuring artists from Congo, Cameroon and the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Also from the Caribbean are Haiti’s Beethova Obas, with "Rasanblé," and the masterful Cuban trumpet player Chocolate Armenteros, whose song "Chocolate Sabroso" (Tasty Chocolate) is a perfect fit. Adrian Martínez and Andy Palacio, from the Central American country of Belize, provide a previously unreleased track. The collection also features songs by Ozomatli (USA/Mexico), Susana Baca (Peru), Marcantonio (Brazil), Susheela Raman (India) and Teresa Bright (Hawaii). The Belgian group Think of One teams up with Brazilian musicians to create a track that unites two important chocolate producing countries. Taffetas provides another truly unique collaboration, bringing together musicians from the West African country of Guinea Bissau and Switzerland, the land where milk chocolate was invented.

Putumayo Presents: Music From the Chocolate Lands,Various Artists,Putumayo World Music,Int'l & World Music,Pop,Regional Mexican,Worldbeat

Average customer rating:

Can't "just say no"

Like lukewarm water for chocolate

Great if you like and appreciate different world music

no cover

my 2c

Putumayo Presents: Music from the Chocolate Lands
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Putumayo World Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
Mexico | International | Styles | Music
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Similar Items:

Music from the Coffee Lands

Music From the Tea Lands

Putumayo Presents: Music from the Wine Lands

Putumayo Presents: South Pacific Islands

Putumayo Presents: Mali

ASIN: B00061NTNI
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Tracks:

Lisanga - Lokua, Toto Bona
Sarasa (India) - Susheela Raman
Sabia - Marcantonio
Rasanble (Haiti) - Beethova Obas
Aqui No Sera (Mexico/USA) - Ozomatli
Paleto (Belgium/Brazil) - Think Of One
Kakou - Dobet Gnahore
Yay Balma - Taffetas
Tihore Mai Te Rangi (Hawaii) - Teresa Bright
Baba - Andy Palacio, Adrian Martinez
Valentin (Peru) - Susana Baca
Chocolate Sabroso - Chocolate Armenteros

Amazon.com

Whether savored as a drink or devoured in solid form, chocolate is an abiding passion with many people, lifting their moods even as it expands their waistlines. The chances are that this album was born of a can't-miss marketing conceit but the musical choices make for a very tasty if surprisingly low-key listen. The tunes are uniformly acoustic and mellow, with just enough of a percussive swing to keep things from getting too static. Teresa Bright's harmonies sometimes recall a Hawaiian-style Andrews Sisters impression and Marcantonio's North-Eastern-flavored Brazilian track is fluid and lovely. But when Beethova Obas warns his embattled Haitian countrymen about the dangers of selfishness, it's obvious that he isn't talking about anything so trivial as sharing a candy bar. In fact, given the nationalities involved, the material is generally less topical than might be expected. However, the music often reflects the replete euphoria of cocoa-fuelled sugar shock. --Christina Roden

Album Description

Music from the Chocolate Lands offers a rich selection of songs from the world's chocolate producing countries. Chocolate has been enjoyed for thousands of years. Used for medicinal and religious purposes, as well as for pleasure, traces of this "food of the gods" have been found in early Mayan pots dating back to 600 B.C.E. Europeans added sugar to the exotic concoction, and the chocolate craze gradually spread throughout the world. Now the cacao plant, which provides the raw cocoa beans for chocolate, is farmed in tropical locations around the globe, often far away from its Central and South American origins.

Music from the Chocolate Lands features a selection of songs as distinctive as chocolate's history. This release includes music from the tropical countries that grow cocoa beans as well as collaborations with musicians from the European regions where chocolate-makers produce some of the world's most appetizing chocolate products. Africa, the world's leading producer of cocoa beans, is represented by Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast and Toto Bona Lokua, a trio featuring artists from Congo, Cameroon and the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Also from the Caribbean are Haiti's Beethova Obas, with "Rasanblé," and the masterful Cuban trumpet player Chocolate Armenteros, whose song "Chocolate Sabroso" (Tasty Chocolate) is a perfect fit. Adrian Martínez and Andy Palacio, from the Central American country of Belize, provide a previously unreleased track. The collection also features songs by Ozomatli (USA/Mexico), Susana Baca (Peru), Marcantonio (Brazil), Susheela Raman (India) and Teresa Bright (Hawaii). The Belgian group Think of One teams up with Brazilian musicians to create a track that unites two important chocolate producing countries. Taffetas provides another truly unique collaboration, bringing together musicians from the West African country of Guinea Bissau and Switzerland, the land where milk chocolate was invented.

Customer Reviews:

Can't "just say no".......2007-01-27

Putumayo is almost a menace, creating compilations that are easy for Americans to indulge in because the selections are always as light an airy as a cream puff. But my interest is in sounds that are different from what I know, and with Putumayo's cds, I never feel like I'm truly learning what music from a particular region has to offer. Still, I find it hard to pass up their compilations, because, all in all, they are pretty nice. There's usually at least one song that makes the watered-downness of the whole venture worthwhile, and this one is no exception. PopMatters put it this way: "For the last 10 years, Putumayo has been marketing world music as easy listening. Bright, flat, cartoony album covers and cutesy compilation concepts ... provide a hint at the sheer softness of a typical Putumayo world music CD. There's percussion in Putumayo's world, of course, but true rhythmic intensity is rare and dissonance completely extinct. Imagine an Africa that never heard of the electric guitar and you're probably not far off the mark. Music From the Chocolate Lands, then, is a typical Putumayo world music CD. World music as easy listening: it's just a terrible idea in the first place, right? Well, right -- but beauty counts for a lot in easy listening, and Chocolate Lands is gorgeous." And to the reviewer's point below--yes, what happened to Ecuador?

Like lukewarm water for chocolate.......2007-01-24

Chocolate is flavorful.Take the Mexican sauce,mole,that blends unsweetend sugar with various spices,making savory sauces.Unfortunately,"Music from the Chocolate Lands" is the opposite of a spicy mole or even a nice cheap Hershey's bar.If it were chocolate,it would be bland and tasteless.

Putumayo's "Music from the Chocolate Lands" sounds promising with musicians from Brazil,India,Mexico,Haiti and even Belize.There are a few highlights,such as Susheela Raman's superb blend of Indian singing with soul music,and Susana Baca,who introduced Afro-Peruvian music to the world.Teresa Bright's lively Hawaiian chant,complete with native percussion,is a gem.Marcantonio,from Northeastern Brazil,provides a lovely acoustic piece.The closing song by Chocolate Armenteros is a fitting epilogue about flavorful chocolate.

It's too bad that the songs from Think of One,Beethova Obas,Ozomatli,and Andy Palacio/Adrian Martinez basically sound the same.Dobet Gnahore from Ivory Coast has a dull African acoustic song.You're better off with "Music from the Wine Lands"& "Music from the Tea Lands." If this were chocolate,it would be bland.

Great if you like and appreciate different world music.......2005-09-27

This album, along with music CDs from the same company such as the coffee lands (Vols. I and II), and tea lands, are great to play outdoors on those lazy summer evenings when you are have a barbecue (particularly some BBQ dish from an exotic country) having cold drinks with a group of friends, and being under the soft backyard party lights.. . It is excellent background music.
I played it last summer while doing a BBQ from a South Pacific cookbook, and everyone was asking about both the dish and the music. Everyone loved them.

no cover.......2005-09-18

there was no cover with the cd...perhaps that was in the description....good condition otherwise.

my 2c.......2005-07-26

one of those CDs your friends will keep asking about.

Worm and cozy, totally groovy. You'll love it.

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