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LOOKING TO AFRICA FOR PERU'S LEGACY
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Boston Globe, LOOKING TO AFRICA FOR PERU'S LEGACY >>
In the 1970s a key movement in Latin music swept this country's East Coast: the salsa boom, which began in New York's barrios. Meanwhile, on South America's west coast, a whole new movement, driven by black Peruvians whose ancestors had emigrated from Africa, was taking shape. A group called Peru Negro bewitched the country with its revival of Afro-Peruvian music and dance.
Suddenly, a wooden crate, a small church offering box, and the rattling teeth of a donkey jawbone became Peru's cultural ambassadors. Unlike the trombones and timbales that made New York's salsa so famous, these unconventional instruments were giving a signature sound to Peru Negro, the 20-piece music and dance ensemble that performs this Sunday at the Berklee Performance Center. But if it weren't for the ban Spanish colonizers imposed on African drums and the vibraphone-like marimbas, Peru Negro would not exist today. This is how the slaves put into practice the popular saying in Spanish "La necesidad es la madre de la invencion" (Need is the mother of invention). And so fruit crates became cajones (a sturdier version of the flamenco kind), church offering boxes became cajitas (a small cajon variety) and the donkey jawbone became the staple instrument that gave Afro-Peruvian music its unmistakable charm.
The low tones that these percussion instruments generate were then combined with guitar and voice melodies. And when Peru Negro came to the scene, the group added the tall and colorful djembe drum, the round, beaded-on-the-outside shekere, as well as conga, bongo, bata, bells, acoustic bass, violin, and flute. More than a dozen black dancers wearing folkloric slave attire in primary colors complement the appealing sound of the ensemble.
"Peru Negro is passionate because it tries to reflect social consciousness and speak about the diversion from misery. It is also celebratory," said Juan Morillo, the group's US manager.
Sensual, fiery, and festive, the repetitive chants and beats of Peru Negro's second CD, "Jolgorio," are a hypnotizing elixir that will walk you through Latin America's slavery and colonization times. "De Espana" says: "From Spain Christ arrived/ But so did the master/ And just like the master did with Christ/ He took blacks and crucified them."
Other songs will transport you to the dense jungles of Africa, where tribal ceremonies are lighted by fire and people succumb to primal moves. A perfect example is "Carnaval Negro," a song whose intro consists of bells, then repetitive chants in dialect followed by conga slaps and shouts.
And yet other songs refer to courtship and fertility rituals practiced by the slaves. These songs are mostly performed in lando, a dance derived from an African fertility dance called the landu. Peru Negro also rescues the hip-focused alcatraz dance, where the man tries to light a tissue on the woman's behind. If he is successful at this, she is his, according to tradition. You can hear this flirtatious rhythm on the song "Alcatraz."
"What draws people to Peru Negro is curiosity," said Morillo. "First," he notes, "most people are surprised to hear that there are blacks in Peru. Second, people usually think that Peruvian music equals Andean music, but it's not like that."
A good representation of Peru Negro's richness lies in "Picaron."
The song begins with percussion and guitar in low register. Lyrics that speak about waist moves and the delight of dancing the picaron rhythm morph into a conga-cajon-bongo jam, followed by a funky bass pattern similar to that of Cuban son.
On the memorable "Con Su Toque de Violin," the singer tells the story of how she learned several violin notes from her grandfather. Unexpectedly, the music stops, the guitar plays a cue phrase and the zapateo begins. Danced to the cajon, the zapateo is a cousin of tap dancing where dancers exhibit the complicated footwork involved in African dancing.
E-mail Ana Morales at globelatin@yahoo.com. 02/19/04
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