|
|
 |
Concert Preview
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Examiner - Los Angeles, Concert Preview >>
Honduran Garifuna music at The Getty this weekend
Jan 13, 2011 - Many years ago, a sea venture from West Africa ended as a shipwreck that deposited its human cargo on the island of St. Vincent. The Africans intermarried with the natives of the island, a mixture of Arawak and Carib groups, and formed a people of their own that became known as the Garifuna. In the late eighteenth century and after unsuccessfully fighting British colonizers, the Garifuna were deported en masse to the Central American Caribbean coast.
The Garifuna, in the coasts of Honduras, Belize, and Nicaragua, have preserved their traditions up to this day and a few of them have accomplished to make them known globally. Andy Palacio comes to mind, a Belizean musician who toured the United States (including Los Angeles) just a few years ago. Palacio, however, passed away unexpectedly and untimely at 48 years of age in 2008.
Now, the Honduran musician Aurelio Martinez, a friend and admirer of Palacio, has taken it upon himself to continue his predecessor’s legacy of introducing the Garifuna tradition to the world. Aurelio’s latest album, Laru Beya, was created with such purpose. Just a month after Palacio’s death, Aurelio and his musicians headed to a small fishing village where they set up a studio in a beachfront house. There they were often joined by local dancers and singers, like the chorus of women who were eventually recorded as part of the title track of the album - “Laru Beya.” The developing of the album also took Aurelio to Senegal, where he was mentored by Afropop legend Youssou N’Dour and where he met the members of Orchestra Baobob. Both N’Dour and Orchestra Baobob are now part of the recording.
Laru Beya fuses traditional rhythms of the Garifuna with sounds that may be more familiar to the listeners – reggae, bachata, rock, punta, for example. It is all in an effort to keep the Garifuna sounds alive. “We’re not going to let this culture die,” says Aurelio, “I know I must continue the culture of my grandparents, of my ancestors, and find new ways to express it. Few people know about it, but I adore it, and it’s something I must share with the world.”
And sharing it with the world he is, currently on a tour that will see him in Los Angeles this weekend, and later in Seattle and San Francisco. (Tour details below.)
Tour Dates: Sat 1.15.11 The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive
Show: 7:00 pm. Tix: Free Ph: 310.440.7300
Sun 1.16.11 The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive
Show: 3.30 pm. Tix: Free Ph: 310.440.7300
Mon 1.17.11 Triple Door, 216 Union Street
Tix: $20/$23, Doors Open: 5:30 PM, Show: 7:30 pm
Tue 1.18.11 Yoshi's, 1330 Fillmore Street
Tix: $20, Show: 8:00 pm. Ph: 415.655.5600 01/13/11 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
