Timing was perfect for Jaguares' latest release

BY LAURA EMERICK lemerick@suntimes.com

When the Latin rock group Jaguares titled its latest disc "45," it was making a bold political statement. That's not surprising, since the Mexico City-based band has championed many causes, such as human rights and environmental awareness, over its long career.

The title, which in Spanish is "Cuarenta Cinco," refers to 45 million, the number of people estimated to be living in poverty in Mexico.

"We think the government isn't doing enough to help its own people," said Jaguares' frontman Saul Hernandez in a recent phone interview. "We're growing up in crisis. We don't have the [opportunities] that countries in the First World have.

"The idea of 'Cuarenta Cinco' is to help create a consciousness in Mexico, to point to the system and to say we have had enough."

The situation has not improved under the regime of President Felipe Calderon, who took office in late 2006 after a contested election.

"We need a president who is closer to us," Hernandez said. "I feel he's further away. There's no sense of connection with the people. We need a president who will break the boundaries between Mexicans in the cities and [indigenous] Mexicans, the Indians in the rural areas. Mexico needs to become one Mexico, that's the way to the future."

The disc, which came out Sept. 2, marks Jaguares' first studio release in three years. It's also the group's first on EMI Televisa, after a long run with RCA/BMG and then Sony BMG.

The band, which performs tonight at the House of Blues, didn't intend to take such a long hiatus from the studio.

"We were touring for more than a year on our last album," Hernandez said. "Then we were touring for Amnesty International on their 'Give Me Some Truth' tour. During that time, we could not concentrate on our next record, just performing. Also during that period, we were changing labels. Then EMI came to talk to us. They offered us a nice [working] environment, so we decided to go with them."

When Jaguares, which also consists of guitarist Cesar "Vampiro" Lopez, drummer Alfonso Andre and bassist Marco Renteria, finally went into the studio this summer, "45" fell quickly into place.

"We recorded it really fast," Hernandez said. "I wrote the songs in two months. And then in one month, we recorded everything. We even did the mix in one month. It was so clear to us that everybody in the band was just waiting to make something new."

Though Jaguares' last few discs, such as "Cronicas de un Laberinto" (2005) and "Cuando la Sangre Galopa" (2001), had a highly layered, almost orchestral sound, "45" returns to a more pure rock style.

"It was something natural, like an impulse," Hernandez said. "We didn't look back to what we did on our other records. It's not the same eclectic sound. I told Vampiro, 'Let's leave the songs brief.' What I like about the record is the silence between the phrases. The songs can breathe.

"Marco, our bassist, has a jazz background. He's amazing; he introduced me to lots of artists I had never follow before, such as [American guitarist] Bill Frisell. In jazz, there are lots of risks, they jump into the abyss. For us, '45' was so simple, we did it in one month. It was like the first disc from a new band. It's almost like starting over."

Coincidentally, "45" runs exactly 45 minutes.

"We didn't realize that until later," he said, "when we were making the master and we found out, wow, the record is 45 minutes long. It was like fate."