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Tucson’s alt-weekly — which is in no way affiliated with New Times, despite what people seem to think — has a really nice feature about Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta’s Salvador Duran in this week’s issue.
Duran is the intense man in black who helps Sergio with singing duties and speaks mostly in Spanish. (He’s also apparently a well-known painter — who knew?!)
The paper describes him as such:
Even though Duran has only called Tucson home for a
decade, it almost seems as if this Mexican gypsy troubadour on a stomp
box has been part of Tucson forever; he’s a perfect fit with our desert
mythology that embraces what is weird, sincere and/or triumphant.It’s
a mythology that counters what our brethren do in Maricopa County. A
mad superintendent of public instruction comes to put us in our place,
and we ignore him. A mad Legislature and governor pass racist, arcane
laws, and we dance and sing against them.Well, Duran is a salve
against all that madness. When he plays a cumbia, our hips move. When he
sings a vallenato or corrido, our hearts ache.
Normally I might mock such florid prose describing a largely-unknown
musician and published in a free weekly, but in Duran’s case it’s
totally deserved. The man has a special presence.
Check out the feature from Tucson Weekly, and some video clips, here.
