Los Tres
("The Three") is a Chilean rock band composed of four, not three, members: a rock/folk singer and 3 jazzmen. It was one of the noted bands in the Chilean nineties, together with La Ley and Lucybell. [1]
Los Tres recorded 9 albums during their first period, from 1982 until 2000, starting with Los Tres
: a jazz/folk/rock blending, in 1991. The band dissolved in 2000 and its members continued their musical careers in personal projects, during the following five years.
In February 2006 Álvaro Henríquez, Ángel Parra, and Roberto Lindl announced the reunion of the band without former drummer Francisco Molina and the recording of their new studio album; Hágalo Usted Mismo
.
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LOS TRES TICKETS
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Introduction
During the nineties, massive commercial entertainment (and it must be noted, only bits of culture and art) rose immensely, after that most "left sided" or anti-military cultural expressions were repressed for almost 20 years (see
Chile under Pinochet). In this context came Los Tres whose work is based, in contrast to most rock/pop groups from this era, on the folk and popular music of Chile blended with rock and jazz. The members featured an attitude not fond of commercial pop/rock and easy trends. Furthermore, their music and mostly their lyrics, though not following the style, can be considered as "
grunge" in spirit. Given this, they were against all odds to succeed.
History
In
1982, three guys from
Concepción,
Álvaro Henríquez,
Roberto Titae
Lindl, and
"Pancho" Molina started a band called
Los Dick Stones
, whose set list was based on songs by
Chuck Berry,
Elvis Presley, and
Gene Vincent. They quickly became very popular in universities, bars, and
peñas
around the southern city of Concepción. Given their ambition, to achieve success in the Chilean mainstream, they decided to move to the capital city of
Santiago and changed their name to
Los Tres
. In
1988,
Ángel Parra joined the band, and even when
Los Tres
is
Spanish for "the three", they decided to keep the name.
In
1991, with the alternative
Alerce
music label,
Los Tres
recorded their first album,
Los Tres. Despite being only a moderately successful album with songs that mixed Rock, Jazz, and Blues,
Los Tres
nevertheless became an important album in the early nineties. The single
Un Amor Violento
, and its low-budget music video became very popular in Chile. The lyrics in some songs of this album (like in
La Primera Vez
and
Flores Secas
) talk strongly about their opposition to the
Pinochet coup and the human rights abuses during the military regime.
The second album of the band was called
Se Remata el Siglo. In
1993, now signed with the
Sony
music label, the band achieved a much better quality LP. This album showed more rock elements, in the singles
No sabes que desperdicio tengo en el alma
and
El Aval
, but without straying too far from their blues influences in songs like
Soñe que estabas justo sobre mi
and the
BB King's cover
The Thrill is Gone
.
La Espada & la Pared (
1995) was the third album of the band. This album was very popular and the most important of their career. Singles like
Dejate Caer
and
La Espada & La Pared
were popular in all of Latin America, thanks to the diffusion on MTV Latino and became a
Gold record in 46 days. One of the popular songs in
La Espada & La Pared
was the remake of
Buddy Richard's cover 1960 rock tune
Tu Cariño se me Va
, where Buddy himself did some back-up vocals.
The popularity achieved by
La Espada y La Pared
, was an important motivation for the
MTV network, who invited
Los Tres
to perform an
Unplugged session in
Miami. This was recorded on
September 14,
1995, with the participation of the Chilean musicians and friends of the band Toño Restucci and Cuti Aste. The performance was just a few months after the death of
Roberto Parra, an important Chilean folk musician and an inspiration for Álvaro and the band in general. Therefore, the guys decided to dedicate the Unplugged to
el tío Roberto
memories, and played two
cuecas choras
,
El Arrepentido
and
La Vida que yo He Pasado
, and the popular foxtrot
¿Quién es la que viene allí?
composed by him. This was that the first time a Chilean band recorded an
Unplugged
with
MTV.
Unplugged, released in
1996, was such a success in Chile and Latin America. The LP became 4-platinum album in Chile in just three months and the band promoted the LP with unplugged concerts in the
Teatro California
in Santiago, with guests musicians like Toño Restucci, Pepe Fuentes,
Rabanito
, Cuti Aste, and
Javiera Parra, Ángel's sister.
The following years,
Los Tres
began a short folk-based era. They performed in February
1996 as a guest band in the
Viña del Mar international music festival. The show began with Álvaro imitating the characteristic voice of
Antonio Vodanovic, the festival's
MC. They played a lot of
cuecas
by Roberto Parra and received the
Gaviota de Plata
, an award that is reserved only for the festival's music contest, but the crowd insisted strongly until the band received it.
The band began a new traditional event during the
1996 Chilean national independence holiday, on September 18, by founding a
Fonda
called
Yein Fonda
(a pun on
Jane Fonda) in the park
Plaza Ñunoa
in Santiago, where they performed during several days folk music with friends. The records of this event were released in an LP called
La Yein Fonda later that year. During the following years they organized more
Fondas
, but with time these became more commercial and not as popular as
Yein Fonda
.
In
1998 the band recorded
Peineta, an album with
cuecas choras
and
jazz huachaca
, featuring
Lalo Parra, brother of Roberto.
After the great success of
Los Tres
with
La Espada & La Pared
and
Unplugged
, the following studio album with new material came only in 1998.
Fome (named after a Chilean word that means
boring
) didn't achieve the popularity of their preceding albums. The lyrics this time were more poetic and with the exception of
La Torre de Babel
and
Restaurant
, not so easy to understand.
During these years Parra and Lindl started a parallel jazz project called
Ángel Parra Trío, with the jazz drummer
Moncho Pérez and Molina started the Jazz band
Los Titulares. Both bands started having great popularity into the Chilean Jazz movement, and this summed up to create internal problems in
Los Tres
because of the directions that Álvaro wanted for the band.
Their last studio album was released in
1999.
La Sangre en el Cuerpo, and didn't enjoy great success in Chile. Even though the album is very different from when the band began, great songs like
Feria Verdadera
,
La Sangre en el Cuerpo
and the instrumental
El Rey del Mariscal
showed Álvaro and the band in a great musical moment that, unfortunately, the Chilean mainstream didn't appreciate.
Personal differences, the poor sales of the latest LPs, and the increasing interest in the personal projects of individual members culminated with the band announcing their separation in
2000. They performed several goodbye concerts in Santiago, Concepción, and other Chilean cities. One of these concerts, in
Teatro Providencia
, the
May 27,
2000, was recorded and later that year released as the live album
Freno de Mano.
Aftermath (up to February 2007)
Two years after the break up of the band (
2002), a DVD ,
Vermouth & Noche, was released. It included part of the history of the band, some original videoclips and live performances.
Álvaro started in 2001 a band called
Los Petinellis which released an album in 2002 and dissolved in 2004. Later, he started a solo career.
Ángel Parra Trío has recorded in total 8 albums. After Los tres, he issued one live album in
2001 and 2 studio albums (in
2003 and
2005):
• Ángel Parra Trío 1992
• Patana 1995
• Piscola Standard 1996
• Tequila 1998
• No junta ni Pega 2000
• La Hora Feliz 2002
• Vamos que se puede 2003
• La playa Solitaria 2005
Los Titulares have released three LPs:
Los Titulares (album) in
1999 - El perseguidor in
2001 and Bipolar in
2005.
In 2006 three of the band's four members announced a reunion and a new album. Álvaro Henríquez, Ángel Parra, and Roberto Lindl are working on the recording of the twelve new songs for the album, due out around August 2006.
[2]
In February 2007 the band played at the
Viña del Mar International Song Festival, Chile. Playing to a crowd of 15,000 attendees at the most important Latin American music festival, the band received multiple standing ovations and were awarded the
Antorcha de Plata
(Silver Torch), the
Antorcha de Oro
(Golden Torch), and ultimately the
Gaviota de Plata
(the Silver Seagull), the festival's highest honor.
Lineup
- Álvaro Henríquez, voice and rhythm guitar.
- Roberto "Titae" Lindl, bass guitar, double bass, accordion, backing vocals.
- Ángel Parra (starting in 1988), lead guitar, lap steel, backing vocals.
- Francisco Molina (until May 2000), drums and percussions.
Discography
- 1991 Los Tres
- 1993 Se Remata el Siglo
- 1995 La Espada & la Pared
- 1995 Unplugged
- 1996 La Yein Fonda
(live with various artists)
- 1997 Fome
- 1998 Peineta
(with Eduardo "Lalo" Parra)
- 1999 La Sangre en el Cuerpo
- 2000 Freno de Mano
(live)
- 2006 Camino
(Single)
- 2006 Grandes Exitos
(Compilation)
- 2006 Hágalo Usted Mismo
(July 2006)
References
- http://www.musica.cl/noticia.php?fId=4260
- La Tercera (in Spanish), retrieved 16 April 2006