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PALENQUE, PALENQUE: CHAMPETA CRIOLLA AND AFRO ROOTS IN COASTAL COLOMBIA 1975-1985

On 7th June, Soundway Records release ‘Palenque Palenque! Champeta Criolla & Afro Roots in Colombia 1975-91’. Boasting twenty one pulsating tracks drawn from the northern coasts of Colombia, ‘Palenque Palenque!’ reveals a unique and fascinating story of how Afro Colombian music developed from the 1970s onwards and how the local sound-systems  in Cartagena and Barranquilla played such an important role in shaping the sound of the Colombian champeta.

Co-compiled by Lucas Silva (resident of Bogota and owner of Palenque Records) and Soundway Records’ Miles Cleret, the album highlights the long relationship that the Caribbean coast of Colombia has with Africa stretching back to the 17th century. Specifically, the rise of the percussion heavy champeta sound, born out of a wave of popularity for psychedelic Afro, Latin & Caribbean music inspired by the DJs of the time.

The influence of the sound-systems spread to local artists as well as re-energising traditional African folk songs and rhythms that had survived since the days of slavery. Record labels recognized the major change in direction from the days when cumbia and porro ruled the hearts of the ghettoes and began employing bands that began experimenting and tapping into these new cultural and musical movements. Disco Fuentes were one of the first labels to recognize this sudden swing and duly signed Wganda Kenya who went onto record some of the first Afrobeat records in Colombia. The trend in recording African music continued at pace with labels like Machuca, Discos Tropical, Orbe & Costeño quickly adapting to the newly adopted sound of the Palenques and bands like Son Palenque, Cumbia Siglo XX and La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad went onto readapt Afrobeat rhythms with a Caribbean slant.

THE PICOS
Soundsystems (picos) would be in full swing for days, DJs spinning African records from Ghana, Nigeria & Benin, alongside all varieties of experimental and psychedelic sounds from the vallenato of Valledupar to Nigeria´s Prince Nico Mbarga. The desire for keeping the ghettoes feet moving led to producers of the record labels traveling to France, Carribean and Africa sourcing hard to find highlife, soukous, compas and Afrobeat and feeding back to the DJs. The DJs were leaders of this musical revolution and their reputation as ambassadors for their chosen system preceded them all over La Costa. The most famous of these were the Cartagena based systems ‘El Ciclon’ and the `El Conde’ who would hold parties in and outside the ghettoes. El Conde’s legendary DJ Victor Conde recounts: “When I arrived in in Palenque it was if a president had arrived, damn! One kilometer before getting into town people would greet the pico, kids would run after the truck singing the songs I had to play that night”.

The histories of reggae sound-systems in Jamaica are very similar to the systems on the Colombian coasts – the culture of the exclusive record guarded in utter secrecy a key feature of both. So much so that DJs were renowned for throwing away record sleeves, scratching off labels and often not revealing track titles for up to 20 years!

L A MUSICA
Many of the artists featured on ‘Palenque Palenque’ only recorded one or two songs and then disappeared into obscurity or disbanded. Thanks to some of the collectors in La Costa, treasures like ‘El Burumbumbum’ recorded by Casimbas Negras, survived. Featuring Palenque singer Dionisio Miranda, the track ‘s eccentricity is immediate with its incessant percussion, madcap call and answer wails and bubbling horns – a common mix that pervades many of these tracks.

Around 1981 several groups were recording Afrobeat in Baranquilla including Alberto Carbono who features with his ode, ‘Quiero a mi Gente’. A true proponent of the avant-garde he can still be heard playing in Anibal Velasquez’s orchestra.  Son Palenque were considered pioneers of the crossover sound of Africa and the Caribbean and are featured three times including the title track of this album. Fela Kuti’s ‘Shakara’ is reworked by Lisandro Meza entitled ‘Shacalao’ whilst Fela’s influence is further felt through Wganda Kenya’s contributions especially on the shuffling cut that of ‘Pim Pom’.

In the 1990s the musical wave changed, a new era of unpredictability took hold and the styles on this compilation drifted into obscurity. Soundway have unearthed a magical era, exposed a radical movement and have, in the process, found some of the world’s most eccentric and highly addictive modern dance music.

PICÓS – Record collectors and producers would import records for soundsystems (picós – from p¨ick up in English) playing at ‘fiestas’ in Cartagena and Barranquilla. Local bands began recording new tracks inspired by these imported African Caribbean and psychdelic records.

CHAMPETA – The people in the poor neighbourhoods who danced to African music at the picós had champetas (big knives).  Champeta was born out of the notion of freedom for the black slaves and the emergence of a new musical rhythm – the cutting in two of the history of coastal Colombia.

PALENQUE – 500 years ago the first slaves were brought to Cartagena from Africa who went on to create cumbia music. Benkos Bioho led 100 slaves, from Bantu, Yoruba and Mandiga descent, to emancipation at the first ‘free town’ (Palenque) where they formed a sort of free society. There are plenty of Palenques thriving to this day.


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Dean Blunt

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