Where Salsa, Jazz and Funk Collide

Posted on November 10, 2014November 27, 2014 Posted in Colombia, Culture, Latin AmericaTagged cali, Music, SalsaLeave a comment

The town of Timbiquí, the world Colombian singer Begner Vásquez grew up in, seemed more likely to deal him a fate of digging gold out of an illegal mine or send him into the crosshairs of his country’s armed conflict. But some things tilt history in your favor — like the record player Vásquez and his friends used to listen to in their small river town, a place tucked away and almost forgotten, a place buried in the thick jungle along Colombia’s Pacific coast. Population: 100. Continue reading on Ozy…

Monsieur Periné: Latin American Folk Meets Gypsy Swing

Posted on September 30, 2014October 13, 2014 Posted in Colombia, CultureTagged Bogotá, Catalina García, monsieur periné, Music, Santiago PrietoLeave a comment

“I spent one whole year trying to convince the other band members we should dress up,” says Catalina García, lead singer for Monsieur Periné.

“But finally I got them to do it,” she told OZY, after Colombian designer Alejandra Rivas insisted that they all needed costumes.

Now, when the Bogotá. -based quartet performs, its outfits are eccentric and just as hard to define as its music. One minute it’s a poppy, bouncy, jazzy rhythm carrying lyrics in French, and the next, it’s slow, serene, passionate and all in Spanish. Continue reading on Ozy…

A Hole In The Drum: The Musicians From Buenaventura

Posted on April 6, 2014April 17, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureTagged Buenaventura, Curralao, MusicLeave a comment

The place smelled like rotten fish when I walked into my house that day, and a fat woman wearing a bandana was screaming – or maybe singing – at the top of her lungs. There were children and kids of every age. The younger ones played a rambunctious game of hide-and-go-seek that ran late into the evening. Every once in awhile you could hear the soft dance of mallets on the marimba or a palm strike a drum. But it sounded for only a moment, and then it faded it away.

Colombia’s Pacific port city Buenaventura is sinking in a human rights crisis. Awhile before the news started to break last week, a group of musicians from Buenaventura came to Bogotá and stayed at my boarding house – where I keep a room. I got to hear them play. It was a surprising encounter, and let me enter a world of Colombian life that rarely reaches the capital. Continue reading on Beacon…