Title: Agua del Sol

Artist: Hijos de Agüeybaná

Label: Tumi Music

Formats: CD, MP3

Release date: September 25, 2012

Bomba is one of the most internationally renowned of Puerto Rican traditional musics and dances. It is a style highly influenced by the African diaspora in the Caribbean, and typically consists of a multitude of hand-drums, shakers, call and response vocals, and dancers. This music is the specialty of Hijos de Agüeybaná, an experienced Puerto Rican band whose first release, Agua del Sol, is a collection of bombas composed by its musical director, Otoquí Reyes.

Most of the tracks on the album portray a traditional sonority with chants and percussion. Some others, though, employ a wider range of instruments and arrangements. For example, the opening track “Saludo al Sol” (“Greetings to the Sun”) uses plenty of synthesized sounds, while the title track, “Agua del Sol” (“Water of the Sun”), features a classical salsa orchestration with guest vocals by the legendary sonero Andy Montañez (El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico).

Agua del Sol is published by Tumi Music and comes with a 16-page booklet, which includes a short historical overview of traditional bomba and plena music, as well as lyrics for the songs. In general, the album is a good manifestation of how newer generations assimilate and represent traditional musics: by paying homage to the ancestral sonorities where they emerged while also experimenting and blazing new musical paths.