Once I read that Cumbia music is the daughter of a Native indigenous man and an African woman, who dresses with European clothes. And I can't agree more. Cumbia was born in Colombia, but it has traveled through the whole American (Abya Yala) continent.In times of fast speed mass media, communication high technology and multicultural societies, this world has almost no borders and nationalities tend to mean nothing when it comes to music and culture.
While in Lima, Peru some young kids love to attend concerts of American rock stars and to listen to foreign tunes; in Brooklyn, NYC a group of American and French amigos decided to play the rythms of an indigenous urban music genre: the Peruvian Chicha, a very catchy and festive type of Cumbia created by the Amazon and Andean people, during the mass migration from farm land to big cities of Peru, back the 1970's.
Chicha is the Peruvian Cumbia, it was born as the music of the brown people, the poor, the hard-working Peruvians. It has the tropical sensual flavor and the Andean deep touch of longing. And as usually happens, the culture of the poorer becomes the main root of national identities, an art that everyone enjoys. It has happened all over the world before, and in Peru of today Chicha is a favorite for most.
In some corner of Brooklyn, Chicha Libre has been born.
Via The Village Voice of New York:
Chicha Libre and the Brooklyn-Peru Connection
Bringing Lima's trippy underground sound to Park Slope
by Richard Gehr
March 25th, 2008 12:00 AM
The Peruvian music sensation known as chicha wasn't on Olivier Conan's cultural itinerary when the Brooklyn musician and club owner flew into Lima in 2005. The Paris-born expat was a bigger fan of guitarist Oscar Aviles, singer Arturo "Zambo" Cavero, and other emotionally supercharged criollos. So he was delighted to hear buskers performing his favorite song, Zambo's "Cada Domingo à las Doce Despues de la Misa" ("Every Sunday at Noon After Mass"), not long after stepping off his plane. (He'd even recorded the tune in New York with his own group, Las Rubias del Norte.) A fervent record collector, Conan soon stumbled upon Lima's flourishing army of street vendors, specifically some mom-and-pop record shops that he says exhibited "almost curatorial tendencies." One such savvy proprietor introduced him to vintage tracks by chicha pioneers Los Mirlos—"the old Amazonian stuff"—and Conan was hooked: "I must have bought 600 songs while I was down there."
The Peruvian music sensation known as chicha wasn't on Olivier Conan's cultural itinerary when the Brooklyn musician and club owner flew into Lima in 2005. The Paris-born expat was a bigger fan of guitarist Oscar Aviles, singer Arturo "Zambo" Cavero, and other emotionally supercharged criollos. So he was delighted to hear buskers performing his favorite song, Zambo's "Cada Domingo à las Doce Despues de la Misa" ("Every Sunday at Noon After Mass"), not long after stepping off his plane. (He'd even recorded the tune in New York with his own group, Las Rubias del Norte.) A fervent record collector, Conan soon stumbled upon Lima's flourishing army of street vendors, specifically some mom-and-pop record shops that he says exhibited "almost curatorial tendencies." One such savvy proprietor introduced him to vintage tracks by chicha pioneers Los Mirlos—"the old Amazonian stuff"—and Conan was hooked: "I must have bought 600 songs while I was down there."
VIDEOS - CHICHA LIBRE
Chicha Libre: 6 Gringos from Paris, New York, Virginia and elsewhere (and special guests like Allyssa Lamb of Las Rubias Del Norte) take on psychedelic surf Cumbias from the Amazon and other stuff. Bongo/Percussion: Greg Burrows & Timothy Quigley—Guitar: Vincent Douglas—Vocals/Cuatro: Olivier Conan—Bass: Nick Cudahy—Hohner Electravox Accordeon: Jesus Campos (a/k/a/ Josh Camp)
Solo on Primavera en la Selva
Joshua Camp channels the spirit of Rick Wakeman through the electravox.
Olivier Conan: cuatro and vocals Timothy Quigley: bongos Nicholas Cudahy: electric upright bass Vincent Douglas: guitar Greg Burrows: guiro Joshua Camp: electravox
Chicha Libre: 6 Gringos from Paris, New York, Virginia and elsewhere (and special guests like Allyssa Lamb of Las Rubias Del Norte) take on psychedelic surf Cumbias from the Amazon and other stuff. Bongo/Percussion: Greg Burrows & Timothy Quigley—Guitar: Vincent Douglas—Vocals/Cuatro: Olivier Conan—Bass: Nick Cudahy—Hohner Electravox Accordeon: Jesus Campos (a/k/a/ Josh Camp)
Solo on Primavera en la Selva
Joshua Camp channels the spirit of Rick Wakeman through the electravox.
Olivier Conan: cuatro and vocals Timothy Quigley: bongos Nicholas Cudahy: electric upright bass Vincent Douglas: guitar Greg Burrows: guiro Joshua Camp: electravox
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