La Pingos Orquesta - Midwest/Bajio (2020)

“Midwest/Bajio” is a collection of music inspired by middle country landscapes and working class culture from the United States of America and Mexico. Todd Clouser, born in Kansas City, and raised in Minneapolis, MN relocated to Mexico City in 2010, where he met La Pingo’s Orquesta, an eclectic “world music” sextet from Aguascalientes in Mexico’s Bajio region. After years of collaborative work between the two, Clouser producing La Pingo’s Orquesta’s “Peregrino” record named to the top 10 jazz records of 2017 by Bandcamp, Clouser composed a series of pieces intended for La Pingo’s Orquesta with a nod to their shared middle-Americas heritage. Recording in Leon, Guanajuato at Testa Studio in the Bajio region, two compositions for La Pingo’s repertoire were added to complete the nine song record that Pingo’s drummer Caludio Gardea calls “a reflection on the similarities between the Mexican and gringo midwests”.

The result is a melodic and spirited recording that runs between Americana to festive and “world” colored passages, all coalescing in an inviting and folk-tinged album that runs through the fields, factories, cities and histories of the landlocked centers of two inseparable neighbors in a complicated love. Traditional musics from the Americas dialog here without reserve. Clouser’s guitar work on “Midwest/Bajio” highlights his more Americana and folk-jazz side from earlier instrumental records while the energy and true band qualities of La Pingo’s shine throughout the recording. Whether it be the country-near-pop melodicism of “Girls” or the straight fun of the Pingos penned “Surf”, “Bajio/Midwest" comes across as inquisitive, sincere, and committed.

“Midwest values” and humor extend beyond the borders says Clouser. “There is this difficult to pin down landlocked, working person’s spirit that you can find all over the world typified by a certain humor, self-deprication, and sincere heart, “good people” spirit that seems rooted in something very human in the positive sense. Like the hustle is for the others, they can have it and its rewards. We’ll be here working because that is what we do.” “With La Pingo’s, we got along and understood each other from the beginning, and we’ve be growing together while being apart. This felt like a new family reunion. They are beautiful players and people in love with music and the work it takes.” Perhaps that is what stands out above all on this recording ; love for music, for possibility, and for creating an example.

La Pingo’s Orquesta and Todd Clouser hope to tour this music extensively in 2020 and 2021 as circumstances permit.