| 2010 Colombian Music Festival Press Release (Spanish version below) |
Colombia
is in the midst of a revolution and it’s ready for the world to listen:
to the rawest edge of its experimental urban dance scene, and to its
life-affirming Afro-Latin drumbeats handed down over centuries. To the
potent voices of youthful innovators ready to stand up and be counted,
and to the skillful elder artists who inspire them. To a transformative
turning point in the country’s musical history.
This revolution takes the stage in Chicago, for the biggest, most exuberant Colombian concert and dancehall event ever held outside of Colombia, the First Annual Chicago Colombian Music Festival, at venues across the city from July 1-30, 2010. Featuring international breakout groups like new salsa classic La Sonora Carruseles and the funky Bomba Estéreo,
this experience-with-a-cause is bringing the next wave of Latin music
first to a new audience and then back to the people who started it all.
At the vanguard of the movement is Bomba Estéreo (July 26, Green Dolphin 2200 N Ashland Ave.),
the “electro tropical” group recently voted “Best New Band in the
World” on MTV. This punk-styled, boots-on band is fronted by the
startlingly nymphish vocalist Li Saumet, the “Queen of Electro
Vacilón,” which loosely translated means “electric fooling around.”
Bomba have been yelping and thumping their way across the world, and Chicago
will be the first stop on a new international tour. Yet even they take
their musical cues from the African rhythms that beat still in the
heart of Colombian village life, the cumbia and the champeta.
These traditional rhythms are the lifeblood of Palenque, Colombia, led by a ritual master or Batata. Next in line to inherit this title is Moris Cañate, master percussionist of NYC’s Grupo Rebolú (July 17; Irving Park La Tablas).
Fans will get a chance to celebrate Colombian Independence Day with
Rebolú, local Colombian salsa bands, and a festive DJ set. “Rebolú,”
proclaims Suarez, “I say it pretty often and I mean it, is the most
authentic yet original and danceable Colombian music experience
anywhere outside of Colombia.”
Cañate and his musical partner, Ronald Polo, both from the Colombian
Caribbean coast, take traditional Afro-Colombian traditions and, along
with Suarez, create high-intesity music for the Latin dance scene.
Playing professionally since they were both twelve years old, Cañate
and Polo have accompanied the Colombian president on official visits
and performed for heads of state around the world.
Now they are grown up, and Rebolú is a popular and frequent act in Chicago, along with Grupo Cumbé (July 10; Old Town School of Folk Music), a new six-piece band that specializes in the sounds of the cumbia,
a rhythm that began as a courtship dance and gives life to much of
Colombian music. “What we do,” explains Suarez, also a founding member
of Cumbé, “is take Colombian classical music by famous composers, like
Lucho Bermúdez,” and fuse it with traditional Afro-Colombian
percussion. Cumbé’s fresh sound comes from big band jazz trumpet player
Victor Garcia and Darwin Noguera, one of the most talented young
pianists in Chicago. Cumbé will be joined on July 23 by local vallento darlings, Juvenato.
The Festival will also feature some of the biggest names in Colombian cumbia and salsa: accordionist Lisandro Meza, salsa stars La Sonora Carruseles, and the urbane La-33 .
These artists promise to deliver an evening of salsa that hits all the
right notes, mixing Colombian flair, flawless musicianship, and an
unrelenting call to dance.
Meza (July 21, Old Town School of Folk Music)
is the quintessential artist who, back home,needs no introduction, a
grand master of Latin big band and a Colombian national treasure. His
rustic, rough-edged voice contrasts with an effortless agility on the
accordion, resulting in his signature heartfelt cumbias adored in Colombia but just catching on in the U.S.
La Sonora Carruseles (July 25; Excalibur) are
on a worldwide mission: to bring back the classic salsa of the 1970s
but with a hardcore, contemporary twist. They are so good at it that
their songs have become mainstays at salsa clubs around the globe and
drive fans wild around the globe. “This is salsa on steroids,” smiles
Suarez, anticipation on his lips. “It’s just non-stop energy.”
Energy and intensity also come easily to La-33 (July 15; Excalibur),
a jazz-inflected salsa band known for its hipness and humor. And like
La Sonora Carruseles, their sound is rooted in old-school salsa, but
captures the quirky, danceable new spirit of urban Bogotá. La-33 broke
into the Colombian limelight with a tongue-in-cheek salsa rendition of
“The Pink Panther,” and has kept dancefloors across the Americas packed with its wry channeling of Henry Mancini, Los Van Van and New York greats like Charlie Palmieri.
The
Festival will have resonance not only in Chicago, but also back in
Palenque, thanks to Suarez, who when not blazing with El Grupo Rebolú
is the owner of Macondo, a Colombian café and cultural center named for
the setting of Gabriel García Márquez’ Nobel-winning novel, 100 Years of Solitude. Suarez came to the U.S.
as a child along with his parents, who soon became steakhouse
restaurateurs. He grew up with the idea that he had a responsibility to
show the world that Colombia was just as bright a jewel in the treasure box of Latin American culture as better-known musical troves like Cuba and Brazil.
At first, however, bringing Colombia to Chicago
was difficult. “When my parents first opened the steakhouse, we had to
sell tacos and burritos,” Suarez laughs. This year, he seized on the
date of Colombia’s
bicentennial–July 20–and a rare convergence of musical stars to turn a
loose series of performances into Colombian music’s coming-out party.
“I feel the best way to share a culture with somebody is through
music,” opines Suarez, who hopes to make Colombian music a central part
of the Chicago arts scene.
Yet, at the heart of Colombian music, there is an uprooted tree, the town of San Basilio de Palenque.
Four centuries ago, the Spanish governor granted freedom to the runaway
slaves who settled there. In the lifetimes that followed, Palenque’s
unique creole music, full of the rhythms of long-lost kings and
half-remembered gods, sustained the soul of the Afro-Colombian
community and infused the sounds of Colombian pop. Yet, in the 1970s,
the economy changed, Palenque opened up, racial friction set in, and a generation all but forgot the culture, language, and music of its ancestors.
The Colombian Music Festival will raise funds to change this, as Suarez hopes to establish a cultural center in Palenque,
a lifelong dream. “You have a generation of people who didn’t learn
their language and culture because they were ashamed,” explains Suarez.
“Some of the only people that have that knowledge are from musicians
from Palenque.
They want to found a school where kids can go to learn how to drum, how
to dance, learn the language of their town. We can reverse the
trend.”Suarez plans to fund the center with the undiscovered delicacies
of Colombia–coffee, empanadas, and music. As Macondo grows and the
Festival returns for years to come, so the people of Palenque will reap the benefits. “We hope to work towards the purchase of a little piece of land,” Suarez explains. Members of the Palenque
community have already pledged time, labor, and donations to make the
cultural center a reality–now, as Colombian music grows against the
backdrop of the Chicago skyline, its roots will find new purchase in its native soil.
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¡El festival de música Colombiana es más caliente que el verano!
Macondo Colombian Coffee & Empanadas celebra durante el mes de Julio la fiesta del bicentenario de la independencia.
La mejor forma de honrar el bicentenario de la independencia es con el primer Festival de Música Colombiana en Chicago.
Durante todo el mes podremos disfrutar de los más reconocidos artistas
colombianos, con sonidos tradicionales y modernos para todos los gustos.
Desde
el primero hasta el 30 de Julio, podremos disfrutar: música en vivo,
conciertos, talleres musicales y programas radiales destacando lo mejor
de la música Colombiana. Lo mejor de todo es que son eventos para toda
la familia y gratis.
Los siguientes son los eventos mas destacados del festival:
· 15 de Julio, La 33 en Excalibur:
En una casa ubicada en la calle 33 en el barrio Teusaquillo de Bogota
Colombia, nace una nueva propuesta musical originada de la calle. Nace
de la idea de los Hermanos Sergio y Santiago Mejía, dos jóvenes
bogotanos que deciden convocar un grupo de jóvenes músicos para
estudiar ritmos del caribe, especialmente salsa, boogaloo, jazz, rock y
folklore. Ultimo dia en EU antes de iniciar su tour por Europa.
· 17 de Julio, Grupo Rebolú en Las Tablas:
La fiesta official de la independencia Colombiana sera celebrada con
este popular grupo de NY, Grupo Rebolú es una de las más vivas y
alegres presentaciones de música Colombiana en EU. Creaciones y
arreglos originales inspirados en el famoso Carnaval de Barranquilla que te pondrán a bailar toda la noche.
· 21 de Julio, Lisandro Meza en el Old Town school of music: Leyenda viviente de la musica del
caribe colombiano, pertenecio al legendario grupo los Corraleros de
Majagual, y ha compuesto vallenatos que han puesto a bailar a toda
latinoamerica.
· 25 de Julio, La sonora Carruseles en Excalibur: Nacida en Medellín, Colombia, en el año 1995. Esta orquesta interpreta salsa colombiana y otros ritmos como
la cumbia, el porro y algunos ritmos caribeños, pero su sonoridad
caracteristica es la del Boogaloo, lo cual destaca en la gran mayoría
de sus interpretaciones y en su formato instrumental.
· 26 de Julio, Bomba Estereo en Green Dophin:
es un grupo musical de Colombia que fusiona la música electrónica, el
reggae y el rap con aires de la región Caribe de su país, como la
cumbia y la champeta. Luego de alternar en presentaciones con grupos
como Calle 13, La 33 y Chocquibtown, Bomba Estéreo presentó a finales
de 2008 el álbum Estalla, editado por Polen Records y para el mercado
anglo por el sello Nacional Records bajo el titulo Blow Up. En 2009, el
grupo promocionó el sencillo "Fuego", con presentaciones en Europa,
Brasil, Japon y Estados Unidos.
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| Media Feedback of 2010 Edition |
"The most ambitious Latin cultural event of any kind attempted in
Chicago for well over a decade"
-NewCity
"Don't miss one of the coolest events happening for and by Latinos this summer!"
-Nochelatina.com
"Colombian Fest offers beats, rhythms for all"
-Chicago Tribune
"The biggest, most exuberant Colombian concert and dancehall event
ever held outside of Colombia"
-Broadwayworld.com
"Una Berraquera de Festival...Puro Fuego Colombiano"
-Hoy Newspaper
"Fuego en Chicago: a rare convergence of musical stars to turn a loose
series of performances into Colombian music?s coming-out party"
-Mundovibe.com
"Celebrating the culmination and monumental success of Chicago?s very
first annual, Colombian Music Festival, Bomba Estereo brought the
impressive roster of incredible artists to a climax."
-Gozamos.com
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