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Afropop.org, Hot Pick >>
Peru Negro
Sangre de un Don: Herencia Afro Peruana
World Connection, 2000
Times Square Records, 2001
If Susana Baca delivers the urbane, understated side of Afro Peruvian music,
Peru Negro kicks out a decidedly more hot-blooded variety. Not that Baca
doesn't swing with passion, and not that this group doesn't kill you with
subtlety--hanging rhythms, pregnant silences, and sparse instrumentation.
It's just that Peru Negro comes across with more of the edgy urgency of
village life. Call it Susana Baca on steroids.
As Afropop's Peruvian music aficionado Dan Rosenberg wrote, "While many Peru Negro legends such as Lucila Campos and Chocolate have moved on to pursue solo careers, this group is still regarded, along with Susana Baca, as the
cultural ambassadors of Peru. Unlike Baca whose ensemble often interprets
Peruvian classics from a Cuban-Jazz perspective, leaving room for improvisations and solos, Peru Negro stays closer to traditional acoustic
arrangements."
The eight-piece group originally came from El Carmen, two hours south of Lima, but they're city folk these days. They made this album in 1999 in Amsterdam, resulting in a clean, natural recording that retains that wild village spirit on every track. The lead track, "Ruperta" says it all, its understated rhythms creating a fiercely tugging undertow through which richly harmonized female vocals swim effortlessly. Singers Monica Dueñas and Eilna del Rio trade powerful leads and backing vocals from track to track. A few melodies are familiar, notably the sensational "Samba Malató," which was a standout on Luaka Bop's Soul of Black Peru compilation when performed by Lucila Campos.
Given the extraordinary power of this music and the small number of titles
available internationally, this is a significant release. Beyond all that, it's great and compelling roots music by any standard.
Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org
05/15/03
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