Jarabe de Palo

Jarabe de Palo
Jarabe de Palo in concert in 2005
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) Quino Béjar (percussion) Jorge Rebenaque (keyboards and accordion) Jordi Mena (guitar)

Jarabe de Palo is a Latin rock group from Spain led by Pau Donés (1966), singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

History

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 not be 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 the likes of 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 the likes of 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 the likes of 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 the likes of Jorge Drexler, Lucrecia, and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).

Going Independent

In 2008, the band announced they were going to leave their discographic company and going 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.

Awards and collaborations

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.

Discography

• 1996 - La Flaca
• 1998 - Depende
• 2001 - De Vuelta y Vuelta
• 2003 - Grandes Éxitos
• 2003 - Bonito
• 2004 - 1m2(Un Metro Cuadrado)
• 2007 - Adelantando
• 2009 - Orquesta Reciclando

More details on the discography of Jarabe de Palo can be found at Music City.

Other members

Other members of Jarabe de Palo have been:

• Alex Tenas
• Jordi Mena
• Maria Roch
• Daniel Forcada
• Toni Saigi

Definition

Jarabe is a syrup, and is usually used when talking about medicine (cough syrup is jarabe de 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.

Though "Jarabe de Palo" is a neutral phrase in Spain, it has an obscene connotation in parts of Latin America (referring to semen).

External links

• Official webpage
• Jarabe de Palo's Official Label Site - Free music online