Mapping of the Colombian musical diversity
Colombia's musical reputation and richness stem from its history and the cultural and geographical diversity of its territory. Each region has its own wealth of musical genres. There are no fewer than 157, with 1,025 rhythms! Here's a brief overview of traditional Colombian music by region.
Cumbia. If you haven't heard cumbia in Colombia, you haven't been there. If this saying doesn't exist, it's no less true because the genre is so important in the country. On the continent, even. "Cumbia" comes from the Bantu language, a derivative of cumbé, which refers to the rhythms and dances of Equatorial Guinea. Imported from West Africa by the first slaves, cumbia became "Latinized" over time. Originally, it was the music of the gaiteros in the early 19th century, a fusion of indigenous and African influences. It was played with two gaitas (long, typically Colombian flutes) in offbeat - the characteristic offbeat of cumbia - and a maraca (indigenous instrument), accompanied by African drums (including the llamador, a small drum) - today's groups have added saxophone, keyboards, trumpets, electric guitars... In the early 1940s, it was Lucho Bermúdez who brought this hitherto rural style to the middle classes of the big cities. Ten years later, cumbia was being heard everywhere, thanks in particular to the Discos Fuentes label. Among Colombian cumbia's key figures, José Barros gave birth to such legendary tunes as El Alegre Pescador and La Piragua. Others include Andrés Landero, "the king of cumbia", La Sonora Dinamita, iconic since the 1960s and still close to traditional cumbia, and Totó la Momposina, quite simply one of Colombia's most important personalities. Today, the genre is in the capable hands of young Colombians such as Bomba Estéreo and Frente Cumbiero, who are rejuvenating it with more modern sounds. Internationally, the genre is also enjoying great success, with groups such as Chico Trujillo in Chile, Bareto in Peru, Chicha Libre in Brooklyn, La Yegros or Hijo de la Cumbia or the ZZK label from Buenos Aires.
Vallenato is the other major musical genre popular on the Caribbean coast, particularly in the Valledupar region where it originated. " Vallenato " was originally an expression used to describe its inhabitants. When peasants in the valley were asked where they came from, they would reply: " Soy del Valle nato " ("I am a native of the valley"). A fusion of "cultural expressions from northern Colombia, the songs of the cow herders of the Magdalena Grande, the songs of African slaves and the rhythms of the traditional dances of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta", as described by Unesco, which declared the genre an Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2015, the vallenato has a strong narrative character, melancholy and joyful, telling love stories or describing characters. It is played on the accordion combined with instruments of indigenous origin: the caja (a kind of box-shaped bongo) and the guacharaca (a hollowed-out calabash with transverse grooves on the outer surface, which is scraped with a stick). The vallenato is made up of four basic rhythms: paseo, son, merengue and puya. Rafael Escalona, Alejo Durán, Emiliano Zuleta, Enrique Díaz and Diomedez Díaz are among the main composers and performers. Carlos Vives democratized the genre, fusing it with more pop sounds. Silvestre Dangond, Jorge Celedón and Iván Villazón are just a few examples of the new, more commercial, vallenata wave. For fans of the genre, the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata has been held every April in Valledupar since 1968. For a nice appetizer before heading off to the Costa, try watching Ciro Guerra's magnificent 2009 film Les Voyages du vent(Los viajes del viento), in which the accordion and the Vallenato are the main protagonists of this road-movie.
The champeta also originated in the Caribbean region. Very popular throughout the Caribbean, it was born in the working-class districts of Cartagena in the 1960s. Sailors disembarked at the port with vinyl records of soukous, highlife, mbquanga and juju from Africa, and others from the West Indies, such as zouk, soca, calypso and compas. Exotic music played at full volume on gigantic travelling sound systems, the famous picós, and gradually "creolized" (champeta criolla) in San Basilio de Palenque in the 1970s and 80s, fusing with Afro-Colombian rhythms from the coast (bullerengue, mapalé, zambapalo y chalupa). Between 1990 and 2000, champeta became more urbanized, incorporating reggaetón, dancehall and rap.
From the same region, we also find porro similar in origins to cumbia, with a faster, more upbeat rhythm despite a certain monotony, today played by "las bandas papayeras", using wind instruments.
Bullerengue, which originated in Maroon communities (and is still performed by its descendants), is a sung dance performed exclusively by women - accompanied by two drums and hand-clapping whose rhythm has its roots in the African continent - symbolizing female fertility and paying tribute to the dead. The great interpreter of bullerengue is Petrona Martinez (born 1930), whose success and tours of Europe and the USA have made her a major contributor to the worldwide popularity of the genre. Every October, a festival dedicated to the genre is held in Necoclí. Originally from the Atlantic coast, let's not forget to mention the little bomb of joy that is chandé, a festive folklore fusion of indigenous rhythms and African music, performed on drums, maracas and flutes.
In the Pacific region, the land of African slaves during the colonial era, the very specific art of currulao has developed. This dance is the most representative of this part of the country, stemming from African culture and rhythms, and whose name refers to the cununao, a drum that plays an important role in the region's folklore. Full of percussion, the currulao is a courtship dance, naturally performed by couples and exacerbating feelings of love. Performed with the same instruments as the currulao, the bunde (or bunde chocoano) differs from the former in its choreography. Although a funerary rite, its dance is intended to be joyful. Another local dance, the chirimia , is a popular, festive brass band featuring the instrument of the same name (a type of oboe) which arrived with the Spanish military at the time of the Conquista. The region is also famous for its use of the marimba. A celebration of life, a form of saint worship or a farewell to the deceased, "marimba music, traditional songs and dances, integral musical expressions of the fabric of the Afro-descendant community in the Colombian South Pacific region " have been on Unesco's list of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity since 2010. The Festival de música del Pacífico Petronio Álvarez in Cali, held every August, features the best artists in the genre, including Grupo Gualajo, Grupo Bahía, Saboreo, Rumba Chonta, Socavón, Herencia de Tirimbiqui and Nidia Góngora, among others.
Let's move on to the Andean region. Here too, of course, many traditional aesthetics flourish. Music here is often of peasant origin and steeped in Andean rhythms. In particular, the guabina, very popular in the rural world, is danced in pairs and varies from community to community (sometimes with hands clasped or with a walking stick). A faster version of the guabina called torbellino is also very popular in the region. Meaning " whirlwind ", it can be performed in a group and contains many complex choreographic games. The pasillo is also danced here, an adaptation of the Austrian waltz that is full of joy, faster and sometimes even dizzying. This much-loved dance is celebrated every year in Aguadas at the Festival Nacional del Pasillo. Note that the pasillo is the national music of neighboring Ecuador, where the genre, more than a dance, has become a very melancholy and popular variety. "Popular" is an adjective that could also qualify bambuco, the region's most characteristic genre and one of the country's best-known and oldest traditional musics. Originating in Quechua and incorporating European influences, bambuco is a highly rhythmic dance, in which the dancer generally takes one step in front of the other, then, on tiptoe, glides backwards with a small jump. The genre is performed on the tiple, a twelve-string guitar widely regarded as the national instrument. The genre is so important that it has its own dedicated event, the Festival folclórico y Reinado nacional del Bambuco in Neiva, with parades and bambuco demonstrations.
ThePlains and Orinoco region is home to joropo, the characteristic music of the llaneros, the inhabitants of the llanos (the eastern Great Plains). Highly festive, joropo is descended from the Spanish fandango - of which it is a more straightforward heir - to which it has incorporated African elements. It is played with the cuatro, a harp and capachos , small maracas. It sometimes takes the form of sung duels, the contrapunteos. Also popular here, the galerón and paseo are variations on the joropo , which are listened to during farm work and danced to during festivals. Every year, for five days at the end of June, this traditional music of the Llanos is celebrated in Villavicencio at the Torneo Internacional del Joropo and at the Casa Del Joropo.
In the Colombian Amazon, Brazilian influences can be felt in dances such as the sensual carimbo and forró . The forró is a very popular and well-travelled form of dance, and is truly the aesthetic of the Brazilian Nordeste. Typically played on accordion and percussion, forró is based on Africanized European dances and comes in a variety of styles, some more rhythmic than others.
Current music
There's a lot more to Colombian music than Shakira. While the pop-rock diva embodies the country on the international scene, alongside other stars such as Carlos Vives and Juanes, the country is a buzzing hive of creative talent. One of the names to watch out for is Kali Uchis, a contemporary pop artist as eccentric as she is exciting, piloting a hyper-acidic universe. And although the country didn't invent reggaetón - that boiling hot mix of rap, dancehall and Latin American aesthetics born between Panama and Puerto Rico - Colombia has largely contributed to its popularization by offering some of its leading figures, such as J.Balvin, Maluma and, more recently, Karol G.
As for rap, for a long time, the genre was considered a niche music in Colombia. It wasn't absent, but it wasn't one of the dominant cultural trends. Then, all of a sudden, a powerful movement emerged. Although all aesthetics are represented, the Colombian scene seems to cultivate a penchant for "boom-bap", old-school rap, where nothing counts more than seductive rhythms, incisive punchlines and memorable puns. Although it has yet to attract the attention of the public and the international media, this scene is brimming with talent, including La Etnnia, a pioneer of the 1990s, Alcolirykoz, a duo from Medellín, and more recently Doble Porcion, who has helped shape the new wave of Colombian rap. And in the latter, the latest stars are undoubtedly Trueno and El Menor. Interestingly, rap is also a megaphone for Colombia's indigenous communities, who find it an ideal medium for recounting their daily lives and experiences as victims of forced displacement. Among them, Embera Warra, Linaje Originarios and Wera Fono are the best-known entities.
In the electronics field, the country is just as dynamic. The pioneers are called Sidestepper, and have won great success in the country by blending electronica with Colombian sounds, paving the way for numerous groups such as Bomba Estéréo, Lido Pimienta and labels such as TraTraTrax or Insurgentes. Ela Minus and Lucrecia Dalt are more experimental electronica. Two local entities not to be overlooked. Firstly, AAINJAA, a committed batucada group, as well known for the quality of its performances as for the strength of its commitments. Then there's Bomby, a great defender of Afro-Colombian culture, which he celebrates in traditional Colombian music - such as chirimía - to which he invites reggaetón, dancehall and rap.
Here's a selection ofunclassifiable music, blending Colombian folklore from the Pacific, the Caribbean and elsewhere, with fanfare, electro, rap or dub. Here are some of the must-hear bands you're likely to hear: ChocQuibTown, Cyntia Montaño, Systema Solar, Puerto Candelaria, Papaya Rublick, Kartel Pacifico, Pernett, la Mojarra Electrica, la Mambanegra.. or the Ondatropica, a big band featuring some of the biggest names in Colombian folklore, led by Mario Galeano, AKA Frente Cumbiero, in collaboration with the prolific English DJ and producer Quantic (Will Holland), who has worked extensively in Colombia (collaborations with Nidia Góngora, Esteban Copete, Pernett...). To finish off with some creative music that exports well, don't hesitate to watch the excellent documentary (in French) Que Pasa Colombia - www.quepasacolombia.fr - which describes the contemporary world of the Colombian alternative scene.
Last but not least, among the imported and Colombianized styles, we can't forget salsa. Originating in Cuba, Puerto Rico and New York, salsa made its way into the homeland of cumbia in the 1960s and 70s. Joe Arroyo was able to distinguish local salsa from that then being played in the Caribbean by creating his own style, the joesón. Other Colombians are also enshrined in the salsa pantheon: Fruko y sus Tesos, Grupo Niche, Los Latin Brothers, Orquesta Guayacán, and more recently Grupo Galé, Son de Cali, La Suprema Corte, Orquesta Yambao, Yuri Buenaventura, La 33... Since the 1980s, salsa has been a veritable popular phenomenon, especially in Cali, which has become the "salsa capital of the world"!
Classical music
Colombia boasts some great international talents, such as the young pianist and conductor Ricardo Araújo, and renowned philharmonic orchestras, including Bogotá's, the country's largest, which performs at theAuditorio Léon de Greiff. Bogotá is also one of the few cities in the world to have a women's philharmonic orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Mujeres. Colombian orchestras also bring a certain originality to the world of classical music, regularly incorporating elements of national folklore to produce unique works.
The most eagerly awaited event is the Cartagena International Classical Music Festival, which attracts music lovers from all over the continent every January. Fabulous concerts and encounters in an ideal setting, amidst ancient stones.
Some classical personalities to watch out for: bass Valeriano Lanchas, the country's most important lyric personality, pianists Blanca Uribe and Teresita Gómez, by far the most remarkable, as well as composers Guillermo Uribe Holguín (1880-1971), who founded Colombia's national orchestra, Blas Emilio Atehortúa (1943-2020), somewhere between Baroque and experimentation (dodecaphonism, atonality, etc.), Jacqueline Nova (1943-2020), who was one of Colombia's first composers.), Jacqueline Nova (1935-1975), a pioneer of contemporary classical music in Colombia, and Francisco Zumaque, who mixed electroacoustic and traditional music.
Let's not forget to mention conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, a great name in conducting, appointed Music Director of the prestigious Vienna Symphony Orchestra from the 2021/22 season.
