MUSICROUGHGUIDES

THE ROUGH GUIDE to

Cumbia

Cumbia, originally from the coastal regions of Colombia, is an internationally beloved genre of tropical music (and dance) with a syncopated 4/4 rhythm characterized by call-and-response vocals, a rolling drumbeat and a simple, repetitive timekeeping percussion laid out on the maracas (gourd shakers) or the raspy guacharaca scraper.

The three strains of people that make up Colombia’s racial heritage – African, European and indigenous Native American Indian – are also represented in cumbia’s rhythms, instrumentation and melodies. It is said that the cumbia developed out of Guinean and Yoruban drum and dance traditions brought to the New World through the importation of enslaved Africans, which in turn were exposed to indigenous and European elements during the Colonial era.

Originally the dances were used to commemorate rites of passage or courtship and were performed communally, at night, with the women holding lighted bundles of wood or candles for illumination, but also supposedly to signal the ‘kindling of amorous passion’ between African slaves and Indians from the interior. Whether or not this can be proved is up for debate; what can be verified is that the actual term cumbia (perhaps derived from the African

term cumbé) did not see widespread usage until the later 1800s.

The twentieth century witnessed many changes in Colombian society, and the cumbia, which eventually was adopted by the government as a symbol of national identity (due to its embodiment of racial mixing), reflected these changes, benefiting from the diffusion of radio and a burgeoning local recording industry that sprang up to support it. Starting in the 1940s, Colombian musicians and recordings brought the cumbia to the rest of South America, as well as Central America and Mexico, where it remains extremely popular and has been adapted to local tastes. From its humble folkloric origins, when it was associated with marginalized sectors of society, to its eventual international acceptance by people of all classes, and from the rural peasant conjuntos of the 1930s and the big bands of the 1940s and 1950s to the digital dancehall renditions popular today, cumbia has absorbed almost every style of outside influence, incorporating anything from surf instrumentals and mariachi to salsa, yet still retaining its distinctive beat and joyful exuberance.

La cumbia, style de musique (et de danse) tropicale né sur le littoral colombien, est universellement appréciée. Elle est caractérisée par un rythme syncopé à 4 temps, des alternances soliste/refrain que la foule peut reprendre, un rythme de percussions simple et répétitif appuyé par les maracas ou le son rugueux du guacharaca.

Les rythmes, l’instrumentation et les mélodies de la cumbia intègrent les trois peuples -africain, européen, amérindien- qui composent l’héritage de la Colombie. On dit ainsi que la cumbia s’est développée à partir des rythmes des percussions et des danses traditionnelles guinéennes et yoruba, apportés par les Africains emmenés en esclavage. En retour, ces esclaves ont été exposés aux éléments européens et indigènes durant la période coloniale.

A l’origine, les danses étaient utilisées pour commémorer des rites de passage ou de séduction. Elles étaient réalisées en groupe, de nuit: les femmes tenaient des fagots ou des chandelles allumés, pour s’éclairer mais aussi pour symboliser la «flamme de la passion amoureuse» brûlant entre les esclaves et les Indiens. Cette interprétation n’est pas certaine, mais on peut en revancher démontrer que le terme de cumbia (peut-être dérivé du

mot africain cumbé) ne s’est répandu qu’à la fin du XIXè siècle.

Au XXè siècle, la société colombienne a connu de nombreux changements, reflétés par la cumbia. Celle-ci, qui bénéficiait d’une diffusion radiophonique et d’une industrie musicale en plein développement, finit par être adoptée par le gouvernement comme symbole de l’identité nationale (étant donné qu’elle encourageait la mixité sociale). Depuis les années 1940, les musiciens colombiens l’ont propagée par leurs enregistrements dans toute l’Amérique du Sud, ainsi qu’en Amérique centrale et au Mexique, où, adaptée aux goûts locaux, elle a connu une grande popularité. Malgré ses humbles origines folkloriques et son association initiale à des secteurs marginalisés de la société, la cumbia a été acceptée dans le monde entier, par des personnes de toutes les classes. Jouée par des ensembles très divers -des conjuntos de paysans dans les années 1930 aux adaptations numériques actuelles, en passant par les big bands des années 1940 et 50-, elle a absorbé presque tous les styles, incorporant la surf music aussi bien que les mariachi ou la salsa. Ce faisant, elle a su conserver son rythme reconnaissable entre tous et sa joyeuse exubérance.

MEDARDO PADILLA Y SU CONJUNTO – ‘La Guacharaca’ is an example of the cumbia as played by the traditional folkloric groups from the coast of Colombia. The instrumentation includes the flauta or caña de milo reed flute, and another older, more shrill-sounding indigenous flute referred to as ‘gaita’ (a Spanish word for ‘reed pipe’, as in the bagpipes of Asturias). The song title is a homage to another typical native American Indian instrument, the guacharaca, made out of the cane-like trunk of a small palm tree and played with a fork composed of hard wire fixed into a wooden handle. The sound is said to simulate the Guacharaca bird’s distinctive song.

LUCHO BERMÚDEZ – Essential to any guide to cumbia is clarinetist Lucho Bermúdez (1912–1994), one of the founding fathers of the modern coastal sound of tropical music and arguably the most influential and internationally known proponent of the genre in the first part of the twentieth century. ‘Gaita De Los Flores’ pays tribute to the indigenous and humble gaita, but updates the instrument with the European clarinet, changing the feel from Indian flute to mambo/swing big band in the mould of Pérez Prado or Glenn Miller.

PACHO GALÁN – Like his compatriot Bermúdez, orchestra leader and trumpeter

Francisco ‘Pacho’ Galán was responsible for bringing the urban big-band sound of the mambo to Atlantic coastal music like the cumbia in the 1940s and 1950s, and ‘Cumbia Del Caribe’ demonstrates just how far the genre had come from its original rawness. Bermúdez and Galán made the cumbia more palatable for establishment patrons, as well as helping to popularize it in places like mountainous Medellín and Bogotá that were more European and far from the Afro-Atlantic coast. He is also credited with inventing the ‘merecumbé’.

LOS CORRALEROS DE MAJAGUAL – Created by record label impresario Antonio Fuentes in answer to accordionist/composer/vocalist Aníbal Velásquez’s innovative fusion of Cuban and indigenous Coastal tropical music, Los Corraleros De Majagual became a sort of supergroup made up of many of Aníbal’s devoted followers, such as Alfredo Gutiérrez, Lisandro Meza, Ernesto Estrada (aka Fruko) and Calixto Ochoa. Updating local rural folkloric vallenato and cumbia with the distinctive Afro-Colombian brass-band tradition and other innovations, like adapting Cuban charanga arrangements or, in the case of ‘La Cumbia Soba’, the use of an odd-sounding keyboard and ska rhythms, the band went on to tour South America and even played New York. The beloved Lucho ‘Argaín’ Pérez sings

here, later joining Alfredo Gutiérrez’s Los Caporales Del Magdalena and, more famously, the revamped La Sonora Dinamita in the 1970s and 1980s.

LOS CAPORALES DEL MAGDALENA – After a stint, beginning in 1959, in Los Corraleros De Majagual, by the end of 1965 accordionist Alfredo Gutiérrez had left Discos Fuentes for Sonolux, recording two albums as Alfredo Gutiérrez Y Sus Estrellas, which admittedly was based on the winning big-band formula of Los Corraleros (and staffed with members of same!). In 1968, Gutierrez signed with the newly formed Costeño label, under the name of Los Caporales Del Magdalena (a caporal is the boss of the ranch-hands, known as corraleros – the name therefore indicated that this band was better than Los Corraleros). Their funky signature song, ‘Fiesta En Corraleja’ celebrates the local cattle rodeo festival. After expanding the line-up to a much larger orchestra and experimenting with New York- style salsa mona (‘hard salsa’), Gutiérrez left Los Caporales in 1971 to concentrate on his much smaller (and more manageable) conjunto vallenato.

ANICETO MOLINA – In the 1970s, accordionist and vocalist Aniceto Molina helped spread the cumbia to Central America and especially Mexico, where he

and other Colombians gave authenticity to locally flavoured Mexican tropical groups like La Luz Roja De San Marcos. In fact, his El Salvadoreñan wife provided the inspiration for one of his biggest hits outside of Colombia, ‘Mujeres Salvadoreñas’. Here we include a track from his early career in the 1960s, the playfully sexy ‘Tu No Me Los Das’ (‘You Won’t Give it To Me’). The full brass and accordion sound is much like that of Los Caporales Del Magdalena, of which he was an original founding member.

ANÍBAL VELÁSQUEZ Y SU CONJUNTO – Dedicated to the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo, Aníbal Velásquez’s ‘Luz De Cumbia’ describes the romantic night-time scene of dancing in a traditional cumbiamba (‘cumbia party’) in a circle lit by the flames of whale-oil candles (espermas). It is one of those infectious tropical jams that demonstrates how easily the cumbia spread from its birthplace to all points of the compass in Latin America. In fact, the peripatetic Velásquez spent a portion of the earlier part of his long prolific career in Venezuela. Though he often recorded the Cuban genres popular in his Caribbean birthplace of Barranquilla, his sound here is simple and spare, with no brass section and employing the unique caja (‘box’) percussion with its X-ray film drumhead. The arrangement and instrumentation is more aligned with the vallenato genre of

Los Hispanos Valledupar, where he often won prizes in that region’s festival contests.

GABRIEL ROMERO – ‘Ay Hombe’ is a common Latino expression (‘Oh, man!’) and as a song was a smash success for vocalist Gabriel ‘El Negrito Fino’ Romero (b. 1943 in the Atlántico region of Colombia). Originally gaining notoriety with his iconic version of ‘La Piragua’ with Los Hermanos Martelo in 1969, later that same year Romero helped form the innovative but short-lived tropical band Los Black Stars, where he hit big with ‘Ave Pa’ Ve’. By the mid-1970s Romero had made a name for himself as a solo artist with Discos Fuentes.

ADOLFO ECHEVERRÍA Y SU ORQUESTA – ‘Noche De Cumbia’ was a big hit in 1977 for Barranquilla-born singer and composer Adolfo Ernesto Echeverría Comas. By 1976, when he signed with Discos Fuentes, Adolfo had hit on a recipe for success: combining the folkloric music of his Atlantic coastal region with muscular New York-style salsa arrangements.

JUAN PIÑA Y LA REVELACION – Born in 1951 in the region of Sucre, Colombia, bassist and vocalist Juan de la Cruz Piña Valderrama exemplifies the native Afro-Caribbean music of his region. In Medellín he was a member of the famous orchestra Hermanos Martelo and, in 1975, along with

its brother Carlos, founded La Revelación. Updating the trumpet-led tropical sound of earlier groups like La Sonora Dinamita by adding a New York salsa sensibility to the Cuban son (as exemplified by the use of tres guitar), but also retaining the clarinet associated with coastal music, Piña was able to find a formula for widespread success by the 1980s. The humorous ‘La Canillona’ translates as ‘The Long-legged One’.

LOS DESTELLOS – Just as Peru encompasses many different terrains and has a populace that commingles indigenous, African, Asian and European heritages, so, too, does it contain a multitude of flavours within its robust music industry. Los Destellos and leader guitarist Enrique Delgado exemplify this diversity within their sound. They are rightly credited as ‘The Fathers of the Peruvian Cumbia’. ‘Dame Tu Cariño’, from 1978, demonstrates their influence on the origins of the immensely popular working-class variant of cumbia, played by people of mixed (mestizo) or indigenous heritage, known in the 1980s as chicha (named after the fermented corn drink).

LOS HISPANOS – A 1960s teenybopper pop group that brought the cumbia to the upper-class kids of the interior, Colombia’s Los Hispanos (not to be confused with the

was very thankful for the international fame it brought him.

LOS CHAPILLACS FEAT. PASCUALILLO CORONADO – Upstart underground Peruvian punk-cumbia band Los Chapillacs (the name is a take-off on Argentina’s Fubulosos Cadillacs) have joined forces with veteran chicha artist Pascualillo Coronado (ex-singer for Los Sanders/Los Jharis) on this lovelorn tune. The recording, produced by seasoned salsa artist Cecilia Noël, combines funk bass, reggae riddims, psychedelic guitar and Andean melodies, injecting some quality flavour into the typically low-budget-sounding brew of commercial chicha.

PABLO MAYOR’S FOLKLORE URBANO ORCHESTRA – Pablo Mayor is a New York-based composer, arranger, pianist and university professor originally from Cali, Colombia. Mayor has taken his studies of Colombian musical traditions and combined it with an extensive knowledge of jazz harmonies and arranging. According to Mayor, more than just creating and performing, he has ‘been on a mission to promote Colombian music and culture worldwide’, so, beginning in 2003, he founded the annual ‘Encounter of Colombian Musicians in New York’. Mayor has worked with Totó La Momposina, Orquesta Broadway and Arturo O’Farrill’s

Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. ‘Expresar Amor’, beautifully sung by Sofía Rei Koutsovitis, says, ‘the words of love that are not expressed are like seeds of solitude, the one who doesn’t express them is denying life; that’s why, my love, I sing to you to tell you what I feel’.

EL HIJO DE LA CUMBIA – DJ/producer Emiliano Gómez, aka El Hijo de la Cumbia, hails from the working-class Buenos Aires suburb of San Martín, where traditional old-school cumbia is the soundtrack for parties and dances. While he respects (and occasionally samples) the past, he has no interest in slavishly recreating the popular sound of his parents’ generation. Argentina of late has become famous for its own brand of modern cumbia (sometimes referred to as cumbia villera) that combines elements of reggae and digital dancehall; Gómez adds hip-hop breakbeats, dub and electronica to that base. Here he is joined by Argentinian MC Alika – a biracial rapper of the Rastafarian faith originally from Uruguay – and her band, Nueva Alianza.

Pablo Yglesias would like to thank all the musicians, Jamar Chess, Juan Carlos Barguil, Dennis Murcia, Myrna Li Luque, Vivian Gutiérrez, Cecilia Noël, Los Chapillacs, Mike Piggot, Pablo Mayor, Anna Povich de Mayor, Emiliano Gómez and Margot Glass.

Puerto Rican group of the same name) reformed in the 1970s and 1980s, the period from which holiday-themed ‘Fiesta En Mi Pueblo’ dates. Their most famous vocalist was Rodolfo Aicardi, who reunited with the band to sing here.

LA INTEGRACIÓN – Discos Fuentes had many studio bands (from Orquesta Emisora Fuentes in the 1940s, to Los Líderes, Latin Brothers and Wganda Kenya in the 1970s), and La Integracíon, started in 1974, was one of the most successful. Under the leadership of Fruko, La Integración had several hits, most of them covers of songs from other countries. Like many Fuentes creations (most notably ‘Se Me Perdio La Cadenita’ by La Sonora Dinamita), the romantically themed ‘Amargo Y Dulce’, from 1980, was aimed at the Mexican market (hence vocalist Lina Rossi’s shoutout in the intro).

JOSE ALEX Y LOS TROTAMUNDOS – Discos Fuentes has a history of updating and revamping older songs, and Alex Trotamundo’s ‘El Fosforito’ is no different. The song was originally recorded in 1970 in the paseo genre by Agustin Bedoya y su conjunto with a much more stripped down acoustic sound for the parranda (holiday party) market. The playful double entendre lyrics liken a lover’s romantic malfunctions with his partner to his inability to strike a

light with a match (when the phosphorous head has gotten dull from too much rubbing on the sandpaper striker).

ALFREDO GUTIÉRREZ – This famous vocalist, composer and acordeonero, known as ‘El Rebelde Del Acordeón’ for his iconoclastic approach to innovating local folkloric music, was born into poverty in the region of Sucre in 1941. A child prodigy, Gutiérrez started singing and playing professionally at the age of 7 in order to help feed his family. After membership in Los Corraleros De Majagual and his own spinoff orchestra Los Caporales Del Magdalena, he formed the controversial salsa/tropical group Los Revolucionarios and also recorded some carnival and romantic vallenato albums. In addition to these innovations, he was crowned ‘King of Vallenato’ several times – no small feat for such a non-traditionalist. On his hit song ‘El Solitario’ (subtitled ‘el diario de un borracho’ – ‘the diary of a drunk’), Gutiérrez brings the heartbroken, bluesy feel of vallenato, adding thrilling yodels and accordion virtuosity, pointing to the important influence of German music on the cumbia. Gutiérrez has said, ‘I was the first one that recorded that song, written by my Panamanian friend Dorindo Cárdenas, who composed the famous “Festival En Guararé” and is the most important minstrel of that country,’ adding that he

01 MEDARDO PADILLA Y SU CONJUNTO La Guacharaca from the album HISTORIA MUSICAL DE LOS GAITEROS: GAITEROS DE SAN JACINTO/TOÑO FERNANDEZ Y SUS FOLKLORICOS/MEDARDO PADILLA Y SU CONJUNTO/GAITEROS DE SAN PELAYO (E20271) (Medardo Padilla) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

02 LUCHO BERMÚDEZ Gaita De Las Flores from the album 20 GRANDES EXITOS (D11141) (Lucho Bermúdez) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

03 PACHO GALÁN Cumbia Del Caribe from the album 40 EXITOS (E20122) (Luis A. Rodríguez) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

04 LOS CORRALEROS DE MAJAGUAL La Cumbia Soba from the album EL ALBUM DE ORO – CON TODAS SUS INIGUALABLES VOCES (E20296) (Luis Pérez Cedrón) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

05 LOS CAPORALES DEL MAGDALENA Fiesta En Corraleja from the album EXITOS DE CORRALEJO (Prodemus) pub Ruben Dario Salcedo. Licensed from Codiscos/Dennis Murcia.

06 ANICETO MOLINA Tu No Me Lo Das from the album EPOCA DE ORO (Prodemus) pub José Castro C. Licensed from Codiscos/Dennis Murcia.

07 ANÍBAL VELÁSQUEZ Y SU CONJUNTO Luz De Cumbia from the album CUMBIAS CON ACORDEON DESDE COLOMBIA, VOL. 4 – 40 EXITOS (D10413) (Jose Velázquez) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

08 GABRIEL ROMERO Ay Hombe from the album HISTORIA MUSICAL 40 EXITOS (Edmundo Arias) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

09 ADOLFO ECHEVERRÍA Y SU ORQUESTA Noche De Cumbia from the album SABROSO BACALAO (Tubalain Ortiz/Manuel Cortes) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

10 JUAN PIÑA Y LA REVELACION La Canillona from the album JUAN PIÑA Y LA REVELACION (Prodemus) pub Alejandro Rodríguez Perez. Licensed from Codiscos/Dennis Murcia.

11 LOS DESTELLOS Dame Tu Cariño from the album 10 AÑOS DE TRIUNFO (Humberto Caycho) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from IEMPSA.

12 LOS HISPANOS Fiesta En Mi Pueblo from the album EL RITMO INCONFUNDIBLE DE COLOMBIA (D10367) (Julian Vargas) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

13 LA INTEGRACIÓN Amargo Y Dulce from the album 40 CLASICOS BAILABLES (E20155) (Anabella Zago/Doris Salas) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

14 JOSE ALEX Y LOS TROTAMUNDOS El Fosforito from the album QUE SIGA LA PARRANDA! (11210) (Gildardo Montoya) pub Edimusica Ltda. Licensed from Sunflower Entertainment Group/Discos Fuentes/Miami Records.

15 ALFREDO GUTIÉRREZ El Solitario from the album ROMANCE VALLENATO (Samp Colombia) pub Daniel Dorindo Cárdenas. Licensed from Codiscos/Dennis Murcia.

16 LOS CHAPILLACS FEAT. PASCUALILLO CORONADO He Traicionado Tu Amor from the album ODISEA CUMBIA 3000 (Jean Paul Quezada Lira/Renato Rodriguez Durand/Yawar Mestas Calderon/Jorge Infantas Alarcon, prod Cecilia Noel) pub Catchasan Songs (ASCAP). Licensed from Cecilia Noel.

17 PABLO MAYOR’S FOLKLORE URBANO ORCHESTRA Expresar Amor from the album CORAZÓN (CHON007) (music Pablo Mayor, words Ricardo Leon Peña Villa) pub Pablo Mayor. Licensed from Chonta Records.

18 EL HIJO DE LA CUMBIA Para Bailar (Alika Y Nueva Alianza Remix) from the album FREESTYLE DE RITMOS (3230692) (Alicia Dal Monte) pub Rinoceronte Ediciones Musicale/EMI Melograf SA. Licensed from Ya Basta Records.

Los Corraleros De Majagual Aníbal Velásquez Gabriel Romero Juan Piña Los Chapillacs

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Los Hispanos

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