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Record shelf review: Ryan, Jackie - Recuerdos de mi Madre Ryan, Jackie: Recuerdos de mi Madre April 18, 2023,
By Hegedüs Zsuzsanna
I was moved listening to Jackie Ryan's album interpreted with wonderful passion.
The American singer of Mexican origin dedicated her latest album to her mother, whom she lost at an early age, and to the songs that her mother sang to her when she was a child.
Her mother's family was from Acapulco. Life in this city became dangerous during the Mexican Revolution.
"My grandfather took my mother and her sisters on a boat." They eventually moved to San Francisco, in a neighborhood called Butcher's Town, where immigrants from different cultures lived.
Jackie's father's Irish family also lived there, and it was here that her mother and father met, in a church choir where they both sang.
Jackie grew up listening to her mother's Spanish and Mexican records -- albums with bullfights on their beautiful album covers.
Ryan recalls, "I was sitting on the floor staring at the album cover photos and imagining I was there...Mom always sang to me in Spanish, cute little songs like Coocooroo Coo Coo..." Jackie's voice evokes that sweet - sad state, which means the absence of the loss of the person dearest to her.
She pours out her Latin heart to her listeners with amazing depth! The album is not a melancholy lament. On the contrary: warmth and joie de vivre radiate through Ryan's elegant vocals.
Sung in Spanish, the songs are straight "del corazon", meaning from the heart! Through it, we can notice in our own lives: there is no bad that we want to recall after the loss of a loved one, we really only remember the beautiful.
For all the happiness that our parents and mothers could give us in our childhood! There are no resentments, only the lovely moments, the cheerful, self-forgotten memories! Through the songs, we can simultaneously experience the devotion of the child towards her mother; at the same time, in her melancholic but definitely full voice, we can also discover the messages of an intelligent, mature woman.
Every song on the album is a hit.
The well-known professional and popular Cuban saxophonist-clarinetist, Paquito D'Rivera, appears as a guest, but at the same time in a kind of leading role in the songs.
The two of them play on a world-class level and bring the loving heritage of Mexican culture into our lives.
Tracklist
Contributors:
So far, on every album she's released, she's commemorated her maternal heritage, singing at least one Latin song as a marker of her lineage.
Dedicated to the Madre and nurtured in the heart is the special bond that exists inextricably between every mother and daughter.
"This music has been with me since I was very young," explains Jackie.
"This was the first music I heard in my home, and I believe that my mother's love of music and her own happy singing inspired me to become a singer.
I hope that listeners will feel the joy and warmth that I felt when I first heard it this music with my sweet mother.
To me, her spirit will always live on in the songs she sang and loved to play." Dear Jackie Ryan! Thank you for reminding us that our mothers and fathers live forever in our hearts!