Though largely instrumental and heading towards jazz, the vocal hollers that interject the music, as well as the percussion and clarinet breaks throughout, give the music real edge and make sure it doesn’t leave cumbia too far behind. Fiesta En Colombia was his debut and it still sounds great with signature merecumbe standard ‘Ay Cosita Linda’ opening proceedings. He called the resulting style merecumbe and it became a huge success in Colombia where its jazzy arrangements and danceable melodies were perfect for the dance halls and radio. With mambo, tango and boleros getting ever popular, the visionary composer Pacho Galán came up with a unique idea of combining the jovial spirit and beat of cumbia with the swing of Colombian merengue (a style that blossomed in parallel with the better-known merengue of the Dominican Republic). I dare you to not be moved by such rare delights as ‘Judith’ by Lucho Perez. This record brings together some of his most impressive discoveries with cumbias dating back to the ’40s and ’50s. In the process he became a fine accordion player and something of an authority on Colombian vinyl. Holland spent a number of years living in Colombia where he worked with local musicians and released albums with Ondatropica as well as variations of his Quantic moniker. There have been many cumbia compilations over the years – with World Circuit’s Cumbia Cumbia series doing a fine job of collecting together some of the most popular cumbia tracks out there – but this collection put together by British producer Will ‘Quantic’ Holland is a fine way of getting into some of the lesser known tracks. There are a slew of great Landero records out there – he made very few bad records – but this recent compilation, featuring a wide variety of tracks, does a fine job of bringing them together, especially on killer cumbias like ‘Perdí Las Abarcas’ and ‘Mi Machete’. ![]() His songs, about the harvest season, local characters and daily life for many on the coast, have seen him rightly lauded as a master of folk music. It may be straightforward in its construction, but on tracks like ‘El Garabato’ and ‘Cumbia Cineaguera’, it’s hard to not be moved by that rhythm.Īndrés Landero offered the other major variant of traditional cumbia that you will hear these days, though with accordion instead of flute. This music is still hugely popular at carnival time and it’s easy to see why. ![]() Led by master flautist Pedro ‘Ramayá’ Beltrán, this is simply recorded with the reedy caña de millo flute playing the main melody as a bass drum hits the beat, and hand drums, along with the odd vocal outburst from the musicians, encourage everyone to get up and dance. This list is a primer to some of the amazing cumbia LPs that have been made over the years, focusing on Colombia as the heartland of the style, but with a handful of foreign takes showing its remarkable journey.įor those who want to go back to the source of cumbia then this is your starting point. ![]() These days, its success continues with new electronic-based cumbias being made by producers all over the world, and even a few Western pop, rock and Americana bands – like Franz Ferdinand, Calexico and Giant Sand – having a go. As the ’70s arrived though it changed again, slimming down to being played by smaller combos with electric guitar and keyboard at the fore, with Mexico, Peru and Argentina all picking up their own variations of cumbia along the way. This style would travel the world in the ’50s and ’60s as its transformation continued, gaining many new fans along the way. With a truly Latin American DNA made up of indigenous, African and European ancestry, it was originally played by accordion or flute with drum backing to get people dancing on the coast (something it still does), but it saw its popularity blossom as it moved to the ballrooms of the cooler cities of Colombia’s interior where it refashioned itself as a big band style with hints of mambo and jazz. ![]() With its simple driving rhythm and ‘chick-chicka-chick-chicka-chick’ percussive heartbeat, it has shown itself to be a style that simply loves to travel. A beginner’s guide to the quintessential Latin American dance music.Ĭumbia passed from being the sound of campesinos (farm workers) on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to becoming one of the most popular rhythms ever to come out of Latin America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |