ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Mexico is a nation of astounding musical diversity, with influences from Europe, Africa, the rest of the Americas and from its native people. In a quaint, sleepy city four hours south of the Texas border, a unique musical tradition is thriving. Reporter John Burnett brings us the drums and clarinets of Linares, Mexico.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: You will be forgiven if the music you're about to hear leaves you wondering, where's the rest of the band? The city of Linares is the birthplace of duos and trios composed solely of drums and clarinets.
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BURNETT: This highly stylized, somewhat frenetic music is among the city's exports to the world, along with car parts, oranges and famous dulce de leche candy. These two musicians are giving an impromptu concert in the central park, surrounded by historic buildings and Christmas decorations. The drummer is Elizabeth Silva Delgado, known locally as the Drum Queen of Linares. She's in a black cowboy hat and pink blouse decorated with rhinestones.
ELIZABETH SILVA DELGADO: (Through interpreter) For us, it's very important to show off our musical genre of drums and clarinets because we're very proud of it in our region. It's traditional. It's cultural. It's part of our lives.
BURNETT: Silva plays a tenor drum made of wood with a sheepskin drum head supported by a strap around her shoulder. Today, her musical partner is her 20-year-old son, Juan. He plays a blonde plastic clarinet, and he's also dressed in pink and black.
JUAN SILVA DELGADO: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: Juan says he's sorry the state of Nuevo Leon doesn't have much culture. "If you compare it to Oaxaca or Chiapas or Veracruz, we just don't have as much identity as those other states," he says, "and that's why this music is a blessing, something that's important to preserve."
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BURNETT: People in Linares grow up with this music - at birthdays, weddings, baptisms, funerals, quinceaneras and horse races. And it's been that way for as long as anyone can remember. The drum and clarinet tradition stretches back almost 200 years to the first half of the 19th century when military bands were all the rage in newly independent Mexico.
MIGUEL CONTRERAS: (Speaks Spanish).
BURNETT: Local historian Miguel Contreras says the tradition began with larger ensembles of instruments, and they shrank over time. At night, he says, you would be in a cantina having a drink or a beer and be entertained by a drum and clarinet, not necessarily the whole band.
Mexican music is a powerful cultural force in the Spanish-speaking world, with genres like banda, reggaeton, corridos tumbados and Mexican hip-hop. But in Linares, young people have not abandoned the curious tradition of woodwinds and percussion. Dante Duenas is a 27-year-old forestry engineer who is sitting in a park bench, enjoying the performance.
DANTE DUENAS: (Through interpreter) We hear this music a lot here in the north - having a beer with your family at a softball game. A drum and clarinet in Linares is a special gift, an emotional gift. It excites us even more than mariachi, the national music of Mexico.
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BURNETT: And with that, as if on cue, a woman with her three small grandchildren, out in the park on a balmy afternoon, joined the duet and began dancing with abandon to the sounds of the drum and the clarinet.
For NPR News, I'm John Burnett in Linares, Mexico. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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