Regional Mexican artist Joss Favela recently put on a 17-minute performance that was quite impressive on NPRs Tiny Desk Concert (at Home) series. It was a history-making performance as he was the first Regional Mexican artist to appear on Tiny Desk. Kudos to NPR for that effort.
Favela, from Sinaloa, MX, is a 30 year old composer, musician, and vocalist whose Latin Grammy-nominated music (Llegando Al Rancho) usually lands in the “banda” category as he is backed up by a Mexican horn band at his performances and on his albums, though he does take his music to the pop genre, too. By age 27, he had already been chosen as ASCAPs Songwriter of the Year. In fact, I didn’t know about him until Grupo Intocable recorded some of his tunes on their album, Percepcion. Soon, I found out his songs and videos had thousands and thousands of views and that he was in fact “a thing.” I’ve become a fan even though banda is not my thing.
This performance on NPR, though, took more of a Norteño pop feel as he belted out some of his popular hits backed by acoustic musicians, like Pienso En Ti and Me Vas A Extrañar. The former was originally recorded with pop star Becky G. My favorite is El Alumno. Favela’s guitar playing is also pretty impressive. Here’s his performance:
doscentavos.net 