I recently got asked at very short notice (well two days notice to be precise) if I could lead a musical tour around Colombia for Songlines. The answer was of course “yes!” so from September 12th until the 22nd this year I was in Colombia, passing through Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena with a group of six Songlines readers on a journey into Colombian music. It was a great trip with time spent in San Basilio de Palenque (discovering the first free slave community in Latin America), Merlin Productions (THE production house in Medellín these days, home to Puerta Candelaria and Maite Hontelé), Matik-Matik (where Mario Galeano gave an expert talk on the history of Colombian music), Plaza de Bolivar in Cartagena (a great place for watching cumbia and mapalé on the streets), on a graffiti tour of Comuna 13 in Medellín (thoroughly recommended) and a whole lot more.

Hopefully Songlines will be running another similar tour in 2017. Fingers crossed for that one. If you want to find out more about the last tour have a look at songlines.co.uk/music-travel/tours-festivals-2016/colombia.php. And if you have any questions about how this one went feel free to give me a buzz.

Here’s a photo from the trip, which is the group with Rafael Cassiani (Sexteto Tabalá) and Justo Valdez (Son Palenque):