For the final episode of ReCurrent’s first season, Roque traveled to New York to get to know the late artist through his friends and family including his brother, jazz musician Gerry Eastman, who Roque had the privilege of seeing live with his band. Each member improvised solos. Even friends in the audience hopped on stage. “You just don’t see performances like that anymore,” marvels Roque.
Body Content
At Getty, we also experience art through music. Our exhibitions have playlists, our photographs have soundtracks, and our staff has great music recs.
Take, for example, Jaime Roque. He's the producer for ReCurrent, Getty’s newest podcast. In it he takes us all around LA—to a beloved barbershop in the San Fernando Valley, a whitewahsed mural of Chicano history in Boyle Heights—to explore what shapes our collective cultural heritage.
And each episode is accented with music references that were so good we asked him to make us a playlist. Take a listen below, and keep scrolling to learn more about ReCurrent and its musical inspiration.
Afuera, Caifanes
In episode three, Resonance of the Codex, Roque speaks to multi-instrumentalist Christopher Garcia to help trace his musical cultural heritage.
Christopher Garcia, a multi-instrumentalist who plays breath, percussion, and string instruments of Mesoamerica, standing with his collection of instruments in his studio.
Photo: Jaime Roque
Afuera is also one of the songs Roque, who comes from a family of musicians, learned to play by ear.
With Garcia's help, Roque trace's its history all the way back to a 16th-century record of Indigenous Nahua music recently digitized by the Getty Research Institute.
Edge of the Ocean, Stick Figure
In The Recipe of Us: Food, Family, and Memory, Roque explores the role of food in preserving cultural heritage, specifically the heritage of his mother who passed during the production of this podcast.
Gabriela making handmade tortillas in her kitchen, circa 2002
Photo: Jaime Roque
As he tries to recreate his mother's flour tortilla recipe, he recalls “a saying from my culture that’s more meaningful to me now than ever: 'El recordar es volver a vivir. To remember is to live again.'”
Edge of the Ocean is a song that evokes memory for him. “I would just play that song over and over again,” Roque recalls, “That was the song that reminded me of her and of that time in my life. I don’t know. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. And that’s how I feel life is like for me now. Every time I was stuck, or it was getting too much to work on–because her voice is on it, her whole essence is on that episode–I would listen to this song to bring me back.”
People of the Sun, Rage Against the Machine
Episode two of ReCurrent explores the hidden history of Los Angeles’ once-censored, now-restored with help from the Getty Conservation Institute mural América Tropical. Part of the Chicano mural movement, it depicts indigenous suppression, imperialism, capitalism, and US foreign policy in Latin America to teach a visual history not often taught in schools.
People of the Sun, written by Mexican-American frontman Zack de la Rocha, also tells a story not often found in school curriculums: about the Zapatista revolution and references the destruction of the Aztec Empire and the Zoot Suit Riots of Los Angeles in 1943.
Hold On - Thee Sinseers
Hailing from East Los Angeles, Thee Sinseers pay homage to the oldies, drawing from 1950s R&B ballads and doo-wop with a dash of Chicano flavor. You can tell just by listening that frontman Joey Quiñones is a big fan of Ritchie Valens, as is Roque (who used to dress like Valens when he was little!).
Considered the pioneer of Chicano rock, Valens was born and raised in Pacoima, which is also the location of the Stylesville barbershop, nominated as a city landmark by Getty and the City of Los Angeles’ Office of Historic Resources in 2021 and featured in episode four.
Brown Skin Gal, Gerry Eastman Quintet
Long before ReCurrent was a concept, Roque caught a performance of Julius Eastman’s (Masculine | Feminine) through Getty Music Public Programs and immediately knew it had to be part of the podcast he created.
Julius Eastman in Buffalo. Photographer unknown.
