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):
So, after trying to work out who the hell Family Atlantica are (the answer was a rather good band) for the October issue of Songlines, this month I can be found in Songlines once more, though this time talking a whole load of nonsense about new Latin American psychedelic music. Of course, if you happen to be interested in new Latin American psychedelic music you will soon discover that nonsense = gold (don’t get greedy though, there’s plenty to go around).
The people at Songlines can confirm that I ain’t lying to ya! – songlines.co.uk/world-music-news/2013/10/novdec-2013-issue-of-songlines-96-is-now-on-sale
I was given the opportunity to write a feature on the rather fine English/Venezuelan/West-African band Family Atlantica for issue #95 of Songlines, which you can find out more about here.
Have a listen to Family Atlantica below:
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First off, if you’ve not heard Sem Nostalgia yet by Lucas Santtana then you need to pull yourself together. Get a taster via this clip on Youtube. The album was released in Brazil in 2009 and finally made it’s way to the UK via Mais Um Discos on August 29th, the same record label that put out the superb Oi! A Nova Musica Brasileira! last year. Well, it turns out I got a bit excited about it’s release and wrote quite a few articles about the album as well as interviewing Lucas himself! Continue reading A Glut of Articles on Lucas Santtana →
Writing and Editing by Latin American music expert Russell Slater