Music and Lyrics by Nicola Marcello D'Amico
Diane and I were having dinner at La Casita one night and I had brought a bottle of very hot habanero salsa that I had just made at home as a gift for Manuel, the owner of the restaurant. We gave Manuel the bottle and he immediately took it into the kitchen to sample it. He returned, red as a beet, and uttered "Nick, that's spruteee hot!" as he wiped his glowing forehead with a towel. The concept for the song then came to me as I remembered a really difficult tongue-twister I heard 20 years earlier from Nacho, a Mexican bartender at the Burbank Hilton where I was performing, a challenge to even the most articulate Spaniard or Latino. I asked Manuel if he knew anything about this tongue-twister and said he knew it well. Manuel wrote the word "PARANGARAMICUTIRIMICUARO" on my green placemat. It triggered my memory. When we returned to the studio, I brought the green placemat with me and started mapping out the rhythym and melody at the piano, then the song just wrote itself.
I spent several months trying many different instrument combinations before I actually wrote the arrangement. It was very obvious to
me it needed brass and woodwinds. I recorded myself playing all the initial instruments and then Diane and I recorded all the vocals
before we went on to the brass and wind sessions. The flute solo you hear was a just a scratch solo at first, but after I heard the track a
few times, I decided to leave it alone because, although it was a bit raw, it had the real feel of the song.
LYRICS:
El Volcan de Parangaramicutirimicuaro,
El Volcan de Parangaramicutirimicuaro,
El Volcan de Parangaramicutirimicuaro,
Ello che se lleva alla se parangaramicutirimicuara,
Ello che se lleva alla se parangaramicutirimicuara, ole!
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS ON THIS TRACK:
Nick D'Amico, piano & all keyboards, marimba, flute, percussion, vocals
Diane Burt, vocals
Alan Corretti, clarinet & alto sax
Andrea Della Santina, percussion
Tusi Fetuso, percussion
George Foster, tenor trombone
Stuart Gatz, electric guitar
David Hitchings, drums
Phil Marcellino, bass trombone, baritone
Alejandro Mendosa, trumpet
Umberto Ortiz, acoustic bass, electric bass
Floyd Wright, baritone sax
Arranged and Produced by Nicola Marcello D'Amico
Chief Engineer: Howard Weiss
Arranged and Produced by Nicola Marcello D'Amico
Chief Engineer: Howard Weiss
2009 DAMICO MUSIC (ASCAP)ALL RIGHTS RESERVED