Comments on: Festejo

Festejo

Rubbstone — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:07:56 -0800

Festejo? ... Festejo!

The group in the last video is Peru Negro who were dubbed the cultural ambassadors of black Peru more of there work:First Half, Second Half of the New york show The performer in the first video is Eva Ayllon more of her work: El Guarangito I would be remiss if I didn't point you of the person who first caught my eye in peruvian music Susana Baca be sure to check out her excellent version of Negra Presentousa PS Zapateo 1 2 3 4 5

By: nola

nola — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:27:58 -0800

I don't know what it is but I like it.

By: umbú

umbú — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:29:06 -0800

Thanks for posting this, Rubbstone. Fascinating stuff. Afro-Peruvian music is such an unique historical case. What happens when the Afro-diasporic population of a country is .5% instead of over 50%, like Brazil? And what happens when music that is marginal in its home country begins to take on a strong association with the country elsewhere? This is music and dance that has been actively cultivated as an defining characteristic of the Afro-Peruvian community. It was shaped by the Santa Cruz family (brother and sister Nicomedes and Victoria), who gathered memory shards--some dances were even recreated from watercolor paintings! It is interesting to consider what you can really learn about a dance, which is all about motion, from a static medium like a watercolor. Baca's record eco de sombras (echo of shadows) acknowledges the challenge of piecing together through music heritage that has been fractured by the legacy of slavery. If the youtube clips caught your attention, there is a terrific book by Heidi Feldman called Black Rhythms of Peru: Reviving African Musical Heritage in the Black Pacific. The last chapter looks the differences in the U.S. audiences between Eva Ayllon (whose audience is more strongly centered on Peruvian immigrants) and Susana Baca (whose audience is more of a multicultural luaka bop 'world music' audience with a pan-latin contingent). Baca is the most well-known Afro-Peruvian performer outside of Peru, but inside Peru, at least for a long time, she was on the more experimental edge of the scene, asserting that she didn't want to buy into a stagnant view of tradition. This insistence is part of what led her to collaborate with people like David Byrne, Caetano Veloso and some of Tom Waits' sidemen, to create arrangements that were more jazz/bossa inflected, and to set poetry to music.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:44:32 -0800

Man, Eva is so cool. Thanks!

By: umbú

umbú — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:48:43 -0800

Something that I just love about this music is the way that you can feel the meter in so many ways at once. If you listen to the first song in the First Half link in the original post Toro Mata, you can hear this. This is how I heard it. After listening to the guitar line in the intro, my first impulse was to count it in cycles of six, like this, with the counts on the capitalized nonsense syllables, except for the 5, which falls in between the guitar's notes: DOON . DOO da DOON . DA doon (5) da DOO . (repeat) But then, once the percussion comes in, people start clapping in cycles of four. DOON . doo DA doon . DA doon . DA doo . But those four beats can each be broken down into groups of three (12/8 meter) 1 (2 3) 2 (2 3) 3 (2 3) 4 (2 3). It's so great how as a listener (or dancer) one way of counting it doesn't necessarily dominate. Instead, they can keep shifting back and forth in the way you hear the song. This is key to gives this music its groove.

By: umbú

umbú — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:50:18 -0800

Oh wait, the first one should be: DOON . DOO da DOON . DA doon (5) da (6) doo

By: ausbürgern

ausbürgern — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:07:39 -0800

Very, very, very cool. The intersection between west african and latin dance, music and costume are very interesting. My immediate reaction is that it is such happy music! The few lyrics I can glean seem very head-on political about the struggle between negro and blanco, though - is there a source for a translation or at least a paraphrasing of what the songs are about?

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:17:27 -0800

This is excellent. Great post.

By: hortense

hortense — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:19:14 -0800

This is cool. anyone know what's the rectangular box drum thing the player sits on at the beginning of the first clip?

By: Rubbstone

Rubbstone — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:30:46 -0800

hortense its called a cajon. ausburgern for lyrics this website seems to have some for Susana Baca by album, for the rest I'm not sure. Thank you guys for the nice comments

By: ratita

ratita — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:40:49 -0800

The box is called "Cajon" and it is an instrument native to Peru, specifically to the south coast of Lima/Ica where the biggest afro-peruvian population lives. And it is used mainly for afro music. Also, they use cattle jaws (Quijada) and sometimes spoons too. Eva has been around for a long long time and it is one of the most respected traditional Peruvian music performers. Afro is very happy and very energetic music most of the time, but it is true that has a deep social and political tone to it. All I want right now is to go to a Peña and have some ceviche or causa limeña and a cold Cuzqueña while watching some good traditional performances and dancing the night off. sigh...:)

By: ratita

ratita — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:46:24 -0800

Oops! Sorry Rubbstone, I overlooked your answer...:) Susana Baca is really good too! And some old school Quipus always hits the spot even if they mostly sang valses criollos...The cover that Eva did of their songs is really nice.

By: ausbürgern

ausbürgern — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:16:38 -0800

Thanks rubbstone. That site has at least one of the songs I was curious about. Also, upon review of my earlier comment I would like to say that rather the intersection *is* interesting. Subject-verb agreement is not my strong point. :)