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 Entertainment | January 2008 
After Legal Feud, Duranguense Group Back in Saddle
 Ayala Ben-Yehuda - Billboard
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| | The singing group Los Creadorez del Pasito Duranguense De Alfredo Ramirez of Mexico holds their award at the Premio lo Nuestro latin music awards show in Miami February 22, 2007. (Reuters/Molly Skipper) | | |
Los Angeles - The title of the new album by Los Creadorez del Pasito Duranguense de Alfredo Ramirez - "Listos, Montados y Armados" (Ready, Mounted and Armed) - is inspired by cowboys, a common theme in regional Mexican music. But it could well refer to a group ready to defend its hard-fought position as one of duranguense's top acts.
The band was born when Alfredo Ramirez Corral, the onetime lead singer of duranguense pioneer Grupo Montez de Durango, split from that act, taking most of his bandmates with him. Amid a bitter court battle with Montez leader Jose Luis Terrazas, Ramirez Corral and several of his band members spent two months in jail in 2006 on charges of illegally benefiting from the Montez name.
Disa Records released compilations that year with a few songs by Ramirez Corral and other acts on the label. But in 2007, the newly named Los Creadorez del Pasito Duranguense de Alfredo Ramirez bounced back strongly with the album "Recio, Recio Mis Creadorez," which has sold 131,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
"The other group went romantic," said Ramirez Corral, Los Creadorez's vocalist, keyboardist and producer. "We are like cowboys ... I've always fought for that. The other group was too light and didn't fit us."
In keeping with that, "Listos," due February 5, has a country-party feel and features a corrido, fast polkas, waltzes and a ranchera single, "Por Quien Me Dejas."
Now on its own, Los Creadorez has the freedom to express "our style and our taste, without leaving our roots," Ramirez Corral said.
Duranguense is a fast-clipped hybrid of traditional banda and electronic instruments - originally from Durango, Mexico, but popularized in Chicago. In recognition of the youthful audience the genre has developed, Los Creadorez's release will carry a heavier online and mobile emphasis in its marketing than on previous releases, according to Disa marketing vice president Gerardo Vazquez. Los Creadorez will be one of the acts featured in AT&T's catalog for new customers, with a text code for a ringtone download of the single.
Los Creadorez's album may be Disa Records' last major studio release before Univision Music Group is sold, a move expected to be announced soon.
Ramirez Corral counts on the fans who have stayed loyal to his group, whom he said have told him, "These are the people I've always seen and the ones I want to see, even under a different name." |
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