Decide Tú

Album review

When you travel from the East Coast to the southwestern part of the United States, the Latin grooves change dramatically -- out west, the congas and timbales of salsa and merengue that reign supreme in New York and Miami take a back seat to the accordions of norteño, the chugging tubas of banda, and the rich trumpets of mariachi. Regional Mexican music is the dominant Latin groove in the western U.S., where established Mexican groups like los Tigres del Norte and los Rieleros del Norte are as much of an institution as the late Celia Cruz was in the Afro-Cuban field. Conjunto Primavera is another example of a very durable Mexican outfit; they've been around since the late ‘70s and were still going strong in the early 2000s. This 2003 release doesn't break any new ground for Primavera, who provide yet another dose of the sort of romantic Mexican music that put them on the map. The things one ordinarily expects from Primavera -- norteño, Tex-Mex, sentimental ballads, and the Mexican interpretation of the Colombian cumbia rhythm -- are still on the menu, and the band continues to be smooth, sleek, and pop -- minded. Few surprises occur, but if Decide Tú is predictable, it is predictable in a comforting, pleasurable way. In a sense, the arrival of a new Primavera disc is a lot like the arrival of a new recording by Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez -- you know that Sanchez (a Mexican-American artist with a very Afro-Cuban sound) isn't going to reinvent the wheel, but you can usually expect quality from him. And this CD does offer quality. Decide Tú doesn't take a lot of risks and never pretends to be challenging, but Primavera's longtime fans will find it to be a pleasing, if less than essential, addition to their sizable catalog.

© Alex Henderson /TiVo