Music with Bob Duskis artist info. for February 6, 2004
Artist: Various Artists
Release: "Champeta Criolla, Vol. 2" (Palenque Records)
Champeta music has been described as "what happens when West Africa
gets reintroduced to the once-upon-a-slave-trade Caribbean coastline of
Colombia." In the late '70s, West African sailors passed through the
heavily African port cities of Cartagena and Barranquilla armed with LPs
of soukous, highlife and Afro-beat. The African sound soon met up with
the Latin sound and champeta's "Colombiafrica" fusions of cumbia and
highlife, merengue and soukous were born.
Because champeta is defiantly black music on a continent that still
defiantly denies and suppresses its black roots, the scene's zealous
embrace of pan-African "blackness" has kept it in the Colombian
underground. In Baranquilla, dancing champeta is even banned from public
places. This compilation is the second volume in a series that is
exposing this infectious music to a global audience.
Artist: Peru Negro
Release: "Jolgorio" (Times Square Records)
Song: "Picaron"
For most music fans in the U.S., Peruvian music means Andean panpipes.
While the African presence in such countries as Brazil and Cuba are well
known, Peru's African legacy has only recently gained major attention
here. It wasn't until 1995 when David Bryne's Luaka Bop label released
"The Soul of Black Peru" compilation that the general public became aware
of the rhythms and sounds propagated on Peru's coast by African slaves
brought to work in the mines.
It is widely accepted that during the international black pride
movements, the Peru Negro ensemble -- founded by Ronaldo Campos de la
Colina to preserve Peru's African heritage 30 years ago -- became the
national standard other bands emulated. The group continues to thrive
today under the leadership of Ronaldo's son and this recently released
new album shows their current vitality.
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