| Jarabe de Palo | |
|---|---|
Jarabe de Palo in concert in 2005 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Barcelona, Spain |
| Genres | Latin rock |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Warner Music Group (1996–2008) Tronco Records (2008–present) |
| Website | JarabeDePalo.com |
| Members | |
| Pau Donés (vocals and guitars) Carmen Niño (bass) Alex Tenas (drums) Jordi Busquets (vocals and guitars) Riki Frouchtman (guitars) |
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Jarabe de Palo is a Latin rock group from Spain led by Pau Donés (1966), singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
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Pau Donés, born in Montanuy Huesca, Aragon and raised in Barcelona, worked for various groups before being able to take on his current project, Jarabe de Palo. He began at age 15 with his brother Marc, with whom he formed a group known as J. & Co. Band and later another one named Dentaduras Postizas. During this period he completed his musical tracks in Barcelona with a job at an advertising firm.
His greatest success came to him after a trip to Cuba, where he was inspired to write "La flaca" which became the title of his first album in 1996. A year later came the big surprise: millions of albums were sold around the world, and "La flaca" became the song of the summer in 1997.
After this great success on his first album, Pau was determined to show that the band would be more than just a one-hit wonder, and with this idea he launched Depende (1998), which was produced by Joe Dworniak in Moody Studios in London over a period of two months. This album featured collaborations with Ketama and continued with Jarabe de Palo's ironic and ingenious lyrics, which managed to connect with the Hispanic public and even made inroads among Italians.
In 2001 they released De vuelta y vuelta, their most conceptual album. It showed a change in the band with the first music video of the album, in which Pau appears shaving his head, shedding his long-haired features. This album featured collaborations with Antonio Vega, Jovanotti, Vico C and Celia Cruz.
In 2003 the band tried to show a change to more positive songs with their album Bonito, which featured Los Mártires del Compás, the singer-songwriter Elena Andújar and their Italian friend Jovanotti.
In autumn of 2004 the band announced that they would go on tour with their new album, 1 m2 (Un metro cuadrado, A Square Metre) featuring Jorge Drexler, Lucrecia, and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).
Jarabe de Palo songs are known for their repetitive use of lyrics in their songs. In particular, the name of their songs are repeated continuously, more so than what would be considered normal. Instances include: "Depende," "Dicen," and "Ying Yang."
In 2008, the band announced they were going to leave their record company and go independent, founding their own record label. They changed their name to "Jarabedepalo" because their former record label had the rights to the name.
In 2009 the released a new album, "Orquesta Reciclando" ("Recycling Orchestra"), in which they made new versions of their old hits, including a new song.
The group has received great awards such as Premios de la Música, Premio Ondas, and Grammy nominations. They have collaborated with La Vieja Trova Santiaguera, Antonio Vega, Vico C and Celia Cruz (soundtrack of El milagro de P. Tinto). Pau has also composed tracks for Ricky Martin and starred in a music video with Alanis Morissette. They also collaborated with Italian musicians Jovanotti and Niccolò Fabi.
More details on the discography of Jarabe de Palo can be found at Music City.
Other members of Jarabe de Palo have been:
"Jarabe" is a syrup, and is usually used when talking about medicine (cough syrup is "jarabe para la tos"). "Palo" is a stick. The expression means to "cure" someone by giving them a beating - e.g. saying that a child who is acting up needs "jarabe de palo". The name has a musical double entendre along the lines of drumstick medicine as well as an obvious sexual interpretation.