Azul, Agustín Lara

I was referenced to La Fonoteca Nacional (National Sound Library) by a good natured artist to whom I spoke to about my project. I´m trying to set an appointment with someone but in the meantime I went there for a special event. Writer Guadalupe Loaeza, journalist and radio broadcaster Pavel Granados and musician Natalia Lafourcade were gathered to have a conversation about Agustín Lara, one of Mexico´s most important composers.

Guadalupe wrote a book about his life and women while Pavel helped her out with the music part but this man knows his biography by heart. Natalia just released an album with several of his songs in collaboration with other musicians so there were songs, stories and laughter throughout the panel.

Agustín Lara had many women in his life. It is said he was a great lover (all of his wives said he was "bien calzado" or well-endowed) and he loved them all. From all of his compositions (which were about 80) 18 were about prostitutes (something unheard of in the 1940´s) . One of the stories narrated through the evening, was that he wrote small little paper love notes and rolled them into watermelon pearls for Angelina Mosqueta (his first wife). As fame and money came by he also became a splendid man, he gave a cadillac as a present to actress Maria Félix with her name "María" engraved on the glove compartment.

Now Agustín Lara might have been a bohemian and a womanizer but he was also a sensitive and intelligent man, he was well-read and well-rounded, he spoke and wrote perfect french, he was friend of Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker. He created his own orchestra and wrote music for a great variety of styles: fox trot, early jazz, tango, blues, bolero, waltz and ranchera.

Azul was a song I grew up with and I must admit why Larists could be outraged at Natalia Lafourcade´s interpretations but Azul is still Azul and to bring that kind of poetry into the present requires a great deal of courage.