Perceptive Travel World Music Reviews
December 2010 - By Laurence Mitchell

In this issue: Garifuna meets West Africa, Afro-European chamber music, Copal, and the South Indian Nagore Sessions.

Laru Beya
Aurelio
We say: A Caribbean—West Africa two-way journey

The Garifuna have an interesting heritage. Descended from shipwrecked West African slaves that mixed with local Arawak and Caribs, they were eventually deported en masse to Central America’s Caribbean coast by British colonizers and more or less left for dead: an unhappy journey that is recorded in one of the songs here – Yurumei. These days, Garifuna are sparsely spread along the coastline of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, although there are diaspora communities in the larger cities of the United States too. The artist in question here, Aurelio Martinez, grew up in a tiny Honduran village and learned sacred drumming from his family before graduating – if that is the right word – to home-made tin-can guitar. Adulthood brought with it a proper instrument and a growing reputation as a fine musician.

Aurelio’s precocious talent was sufficient for him to be adopted as a protégé of Youssou N’Dour in 2009, and the Senegalese singer appears on several tracks on this album, as do the almost equally prestigious Orchestra Baobab on two tracks. The West African influence can be clearly heard, as beyond the traditional Garifuna punta and paranda rhythms that lie at the centre of this music like a Caribbean heartbeat there are plenty of Senegalese-inflected ones too. To these ears at least, it sounds rather like what Cheikh Lô might come up with if he were to record an album in the Caribbean – certainly, there are echoes here of Lô’s husky voice and lopsided mbalax feel.

But never mind the mbalax, the Caribbean has its own role to play in all of this. Laru Beya was recorded at a small studio on the Honduran coast and the relaxed informality of the setting has paid dividends. There’s a languid goodtime feel throughout, with great drumming, inventive playing and gorgeous chorus singing by local village women who showed up at the studio. You can actually hear the incoming tide swashing the beach on one track and almost smell the sweet tropical air as the moon rises over the sea. OK, I am writing this on a cold English winter’s day...but I can imagine. Maybe it’s a soundtrack for someone else’s summer?