We All Together was part of a Peruvian pop music trilogy circa 1968-1974, along with Los Shains and Traffic Sound.
Romeo Grompone, an Uruguayan singer, led the band since the beginning. His voice echoes Lennon's, but doesn't quite have the power or the angst; call it 75% Lennon and 25% Samir.
Like most of the Peruvian bands of the time, We All Together never made much noise outside of their native land, and so their albums languished in obscurity for many years.
Grompone is from Montevideo, but the band was formed in Lima with the three other Peruvian musicians: Humberto Campodonico, Gonzalo Portocarrero, and Carlos Tapia (drums)
Although Grompone is from Uruguay, his accent is reasonably unobtrusive, and the band shows an adequate grasp of English on their original tunes.
Grompone's love for Lennon is well manifested on the opening cut on the album "Desco Club", which is We All Together's take on "Imagine"
"Hey Revolution" is a very politically oriented track that is probably trying to ape "Revolution" in both sound and sentiment; although musically it's much closer to Marambio's "Llaman a la Puerta"
"Turn Left" a 45 track written by band members Humberto Campodonico and Carlos Tapia has a slightly Old English bent and is marked by some interesting transitions.
The guys had worked together for a few years and were clearly coalescing as a unit, giving the album more of band feel.
The songwriting became a bit more adventurous, as there is more experimentation with some unusual chord structures and time signatures, as we can appreciate in "Coca Leaves Party System" and "Ayahuasca All Stars"
Their farewell concert, in Chicago, in 1986 was their last public presentation. Grompone is retired in Cuba, Campodonico has a TV program in Nicaragua, Carlos Tapia is a political advisor in Peru. Portocarrero still plays the guitar every Thursday at La Posada del Angel.
The announcement of an Argentinian support-band --We All Together was very popular in former authoritarian regimes.
Texto: Algunos parrafos fueron adaptados de textos de George Bonilla
Fotos: El Jorobado
Nota: Si existe homonimia entre los musicos y algunos cientificos sociales peruanos, es pura coincidencia.
The songwriting became a bit more adventurous, as there is more experimentation with some unusual chord structures and time signatures, as we can appreciate in "Coca Leaves Party System" and "Ayahuasca All Stars"
ReplyDeleteDemasiado. Uruguayan singer. Mushrooms.