|
May to November 2006 Ecuador and Colombia
Category: Music
Bogota, Colombia May - June 2006 Back in South America after spending 4 months in the Katrina devastated coast of Mississippi. Bogota is a massive, modern city of 8 million plus people and a range of musical talent and genres to match. There we met up with the official third member of Howling Earth, Andrea Rodriguez from Bogota who provides translation and liason between the musicians. The first two weeks were spent scoping the night life and posting fliers advertising our search for musicians to record. The calls started coming in and taping commenced soon after. The first group Mata Mata was recorded in the apartment we rented. The sound was good but the surroundings of the apartment didn't do the band justice. We scheduled for a re-shoot in September. Next came Sandwich de Cromo (Chrome Sandwich referring to the harmonicas these wildly talented cats play) gave us some amazing recordings combining Colombian folk, American blues, middle eastern riffs and more to create a truly unique and compelling sound. Acorde en Trio, a fine group of guitarists gave us some solid tunes while we faced our first challenging lighting conditions. The restaurant we shot in had very low light so we added some lights and used candles for additional atmosphere. We found a few downtown cafes which provided our next couple of performers. Oscar Ferreira sings Argentinian tango numbers every weekend at the San Remo cafe, while Aire Tierra plays excellent traditional andean folk tunes. Filling out the first round of videos recorded in Bogota, we taped Ioma and Sandwich de Cromo (this time with multi-instrumentalist Samuel Alonso) in the ultra cool jazz bar Studio 54. We ended this session with Leonardo and Camilo playing harmonicas and Samuel doing some wild Mongolian throat singing while playing the brazilian instrument known as a Berimbau to create something we believe has never been played or recorded before; a song called "Metal." 14 hours south of Bogota by bus lies the small colonial town of Popayan. After an earthquake damaged much of the city center it was rebuilt and painted almost entirely in white, conjuring up some kind of weird version of High Plains Drifter in my head. We recorded two great groups here. The first was a duo comprised of guitarist -harmonica player and vocalist Fernando Oyagata and Charango player Juan Gabriel Gonzalez. Fernando sang one song in the indigenous language of Quichiua and you can check out this song and others on his page by clicking here. The other group Semilla is an amazing ensemble of 12 youths playing heavily percussive andean music. On to Ecuador... The andean town of Otavalo 2 hours north of Quito hosts one of the largest outdoor markets in the western world. Several hundred vendors and thousands of tourists cram the center plaza every weekend. We were fortunate enough to record one of the hottest local andean groups Faccha Huayras who performed 4 songs, 2 with a dance troup and one song "Inti Raymi" which features the infamous "Haya Huma" or Diablo de la Cabeza (devil in the head) who appears and playfully corrupts the dancers ala the pied piper. The large capital city of Quito proved to be a surprising disappointment for recording groups. There is a law prohibiting live music performance in public unless you're handicapped, but we did manage to record a few artists like Ruben Dario who really made the entire stay worthwhile with his classic style and unique heart-felt voice. We then took a trip to the center of the world. Mitad del Mundo that is, which is located at 0'0'00' latitude-longitude. We recorded some excellent Colombian musicians /dancers and taped a lively percussion and horn based ensemble called "Grupo Nacional" who reminded me alot of brass bands from New Orleans. Great party music. I researched alot about indigenous tribes located in the "oriente" or Amazonian part of Ecuador, an area which would prove quite significant for our project. 7-31-06 Next we hit the Ecuadorian coast and the fishing village of Manta. (see Justin's blog for more on Manta) Esmeraldas 8-3-06 We recieved a tip from someone in Manta about a festival in Esmeraldas, so we skipped Puerto Lopez and other points south and headed directly to Esmeraldas, 9 hours northwest by bus. Turns out we missed the live marimba players on Thursday and ended taping some salsa groups and less interesting performances over the weekend. Finally after 5 days of striking out we were finally able to record the fine afro-colombian sounds of Bambuco the last day we were there. Banos 8-9-06 Banos, situated in the southern highlands of Ecuador, is a popular recreational spot for tourists and the gateway to the upper amazon basin. We recorded a large ensemble called "Banda San Miguel Chugilan" who play what is referred to as "musica nacional." Puyo 8-11-06 2 hours south of Banos we found the amazonian frontier town of Puyo. It is here that we recorded 2 tribes, the Quichiua and the Shuar. We visited the Jardin Botanico Medicina of the Shuar which offers tours of their unique botanical reserve. We recorded several songs and took part in an intense "Hayahuasca" (also known as Yage) ceremony. 8-16-06 Back to Quito. While Justin was in the Galapagos I managed to record a few musicians and severely damage my camera in a torrential downpour at a festival on the 27th. We headed back to Colombia on the 31st, taking a rather unusual route east from Pasto, Colombia across 6 hours of breathtaking and dangerous mountain roads (at one point the bus hit a rock and slammed into the side of the mountain breaking out one of the passenger windshields and missing one scared little girl by a foot) and down into the groovy tropical town of Mocoa. Most people in Mocoa ride mopeds and motorcycles, and on a Saturday night you can guzzle beer at an open air bar and watch hundreds of Mocoans two-wheeling the boulevardand, sometimes with 3 or 4 people on one bike. When it was time to vamos, Justin headed directly to Bogota while I went to what would prove to be one of my favorite places yet...San Agustin. Sept. 2006 - San Agustin San Agustin is a small town of 20,000 people in the southern province of Huila. An archeologists' dream, both San Agustin and nearby Tierradentro house some of South America's most important discoveries. Statues and burial sites dating back thousands of years left behind by a mysterious nameless civilization who possessed considerable architectural and mathematical skills, and equally as important, a society which treated females on an equal level with males, often taking on leadership roles. The first day I visited Parque Arqueologico where most of the known statues are kept and well cared for, displayed in various sections throughout the massive park. I was lucky to meet top-notch multi-lingual guide Luis "Polyglot" Salazar who agreed to do an interview and talk about the significance of many of the statues and of the civilization itself. Luis was also instrumental in connecting me with a local group Altitud, a tight ensemble of Andean musicians whose playing ability was only matched by their kindness and hospitality. After an all too short stay in this remarkable area, I too made my way back to Bogota and to the next six weeks of hectic work to get the videos and site ready with Justin and Andrea. October-November 2006 Bogota After weeks of creating and tweeking we were ready for a launch party! What better time (in my opinion) than October 31....Halloween. We chose the bar "El Taller" in the Candelaria section of the city and the event was a howling success. Bogota favorites Sandwich de Cromo, Aires del Pacifico and Aire Tierra were on hand to supply some killer music, many people dressed up in crazy costumes and a good time was had by all. It was a perfect end to an amazing 6 month odyssey through Colombia and Ecuador.
10:36 AM
-
0 Comments - 0 Kudos
- Add Comment
|
