Another act I haven't encountered before is this seven-piece Southern California band that has been around since 1992, jamming together Latin alternative, ska, rock and reggae. In 2020 they dropped the EP in the title, and in 2023 they dropped another titled East Bakersfield Christmas II, and between them we get a boisterous Christmas party experience. The first EP gives us knock-down versions of "Donde Esta Santa Claus" in English and Spanish, "Jingle Bell Rock," "What Child Is This," "Feliz Navidad," and a slow reggae take on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." Version two gives us a cool original, "Christmas Time In Bakersfield," a ska take on "Run Rudolph Run," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Mi Burrito Sabanero," and "Winter Wonderland" backstopped with "Llego La Navidad," the same song in Spanish. Grab both and playlist them as an album.
Recently in Latin Category
If you're familiar at all with Los Lobos, you know these guys run the gamut of all the various rock-era musical styles at one time or another, from power pop to funk and soul, and then they mix in their own Central American Hispanic heritage to boot. Indeed, they've done a couple of albums of traditional Mexican-Spanish folk music during their career. So no surprise, this 2019 album gives us a heaping helping of traditional holiday music from North, Central, and South America, heavy on the folk styles of those regions. You'd probably gather as much from the song titles: "La Rama," "Reluciente Sol," "Amarga Navidad," "Arbolito de Navidad," "Las Mananitas," "La Murga," "Regalo de Reyes" and the title song. I can't contribute a whole lot about these songs because my Spanish is good only for getting me to la biblioteca. I can say that when I listen to authentic folk music normally, it feels like homework, but Los Lobos makes these songs go down smooth. "Arbolito" is fun because it throws in a cheesy combo organ that evokes your favorite 60s garage band records, "Reluciente Sol" has a nice horn figure that is less mariachi and more Stax in sound, and "La Murga" takes me back to their previous tune "Kiko and the Lavender Moon." Lest you think this is one of those Putumayo world music collections, they give us the Freddy Fender cover "It's Christmas Time in Texas," heavy on the accordion, a cool reimagining of the popular novelty "Donde Esta Santa Claus," and to top everything off, they close with "Feliz Navidad." If you've somehow gotten this far in your life without experiencing Los Lobos, this holiday collection makes a pretty good entry point.
From 2007, this is a two-disc bargain compilation of Christmas songs recorded by Latin and Spanish artists going back several decades. Salsa, Afro-Cuban, Latin jazz and soul, you name it, it's here. Yes, it's not quite rock, but it's great stuff to listen to. Whether this fits your conception of Christmas probably depends on whether you understand Spanish -- otherwise you might flip out your holiday guests with a full evening of south of the border dance music. Those of you who follow this music might recognize such performers as Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe -- in fact, those two combine for several tunes here -- plus Johnny Ventura, Cheo Feliciano, Ramito, Sonora Poncena, Ismael Rivera, Santitos Colon, and more.
This merry band of musicologists masquerading as the world's screwiest polka combo take on Latin forms like samba, cha cha, ranchera as well as the waltz and ska on this lighthearted 1991 Christmas album. There are a few originals mixed in among the standards, like "It's Christmas," "Christmas in July," "Corrido Navideno" and "Santa's Polka," along with the classics that get patented Brave Combo arrangements, like a ska "The Christmas Song," "The Little Drummer Boy" as guaguanco, a samba "O Christmas Tree," and surprisingly, a straight blues reading of "Please Come Home For Christmas." They also did a version of "Oh Holy Night Cha Cha Cha" on their Musical Varieties album. Hanukkah alert: a hora version of "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah."
So how do people who've only ever seen snow on television, if then, celebrate Christmas? This 1992 compilation goes a long way toward answering that question. The songs here run from the early 1960s to the 90s and include some catchy numbers, like Lord Nelson's "A Party for Santa Claus" and Machel's "Soca Santa," probably the only song in which Santa trades his sleigh not for a Cadillac, but "a big time Toyota." Jacob Miller and Ray I do a reggae turn on "Deck the Halls" and Carlene Davis and Trinity change James Brown's demand into a question in "Santa Claus (Do You Ever Come to the Ghetto)." And James Spence's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" sounds like an Alan Lomax field holler, but at least it isn't played in Phil Spector's arrangement yet again. A big chunk of the album is an 18-minute medley of Christmas songs in French by Eddy Gustave, which isn't bad but goes on way too long to suit me. Still worthwhile holiday listening, especially if your Christmases include lots of sand, sun and rum. Out of print, but the Amazon page (click album cover) still offers 30-second samples.
This now-out-of-print 2000 disc is subtitled "Christmas From the Latin Lounge," and that last word is key; better than half the stuff on here is basically lounge music, although the "mambo" part of the title does come into play as well. Some of the giants of that genre, such as Hugo Winterhalter and Esquivel, are here, and some 50s R&B pays a visit too, such as The Enchanters' "Mambo Santa Mambo" and "Rockin' 'J' Bells" by Little Bobby Rey, who returns later in the album with a Latin-flavored "Corrido de Auld Lang Syne." Bill Darnel and The Smith Brothers do a white-bread version of "We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo," at least compared to Big John Greer's version, preserved on Rhino's Hipsters' Holiday CD. Steve Allen, the late great Steverino himself, contributes an original, "How Can Santa Come to Puerto Rico," performed by Ricky Vera. Jimmy Boyd, the 1950s pre-pubescent king of Christmas, is here with "I Saw Mommy Do the Mambo (With You Know Who)." An often-used Latin number, Augie Rios' "Donde Esta Santa Claus," makes another apperance here, and Pittsburgh's favorite sons The Flashcats treat us to the only modern-day track, "December Twenty 5," a parody of Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5." Copious liner notes in the Rhino tradition are contributed by Eddie Gorodetsky, better known to Christmas collectors as Eddie G.
