Andy Palacio, Garifuna Collective - Watina (Dig)
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Artist: Andy Palacio, Garifuna CollectiveEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-02-27
Music Label: Cumbancha
Soundtracks:
- I Called Out
- Day By Day
- Miami
- Father
- Together
- Take Advice
- Go Away
- Worthless
- My Canoe
- My People Have Moved On
- Goodbye My Dear
- In Times To Come
Music reviews of Watina (Dig)
Music Review: Could this be the most enjoyable World CD since...Buena Vista?
Rating: 5 Stars
It takes a lot to make Americans listen to music recorded beyond our borders. Like Buena Vista Social Club. I'll bet you bought that CD, played it to death, and drag it out now on occasions when you want an easy, hip-skaking lilt as background. But would you have given Cuban geezers a listen if renowned musician and producer Ry Cooder hadn't brokered the sale and turned an otherwise obscure CD into a Grammy-winning hit ? If Wim Wenders hadn't made an exquisite documentary film that turned seventy-year-old musicians into brand names?
Andy Palacio doesn't have Buena Vista's advantages. He's from Belize, the least-populated country in Central America. His music celebrates the Garifunan culture, which is known to maybe five American Caucasians. And although his record company couldn't be more distinguished in World Music circles --- Jacob Edgar, its founder, was head of A&R at Putamayo --- few of you have heard of him or his sparkling label, Cumbancha.
No matter. This musician you've never heard of, singing in a language spoken by no more than a few hundred thousand people, has delivered what could easily be the most enjoyable CD of the year.
What's it like? Everything. And that's the key to the music.
In the 1700s, West African slaves were shipwrecked on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. They intermarried with Arawak Indians and lived peacefully until the English forced them into exile on a small, resource-poor island off Honduras. They moved on to the mainland, but their identity has blurred over the centuries. Now there are just 11,500 Garifunans living in Belize --- and the Garifunan language, which is taught in only one village there, has been designated by the United Nations as among the "masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity."
Andy Palacio, a Garifunan from Belize, once modified his culture's music so it would have wider appeal. But the threat that it might become extinct encouraged him to return to his roots. And so he assembled all-star Garifunan musicians in a thatched-roof shack on Belize's Caribbean coast and spent four months with that band, playing endangered music deep into the night.
The musicologist in me wants to tell you about the richness to be found here: the sexy thrust you'll find in the Cape Verde songs of Cesaria Evora, the raw vocals reminiscent of the Peter Tosh era with The Wailers, the lyrics about life's everyday challenges that could have been written by Ali Farka Toure or Boubacar Traore --- and, of course, the joyous bounce of Buena Vista.
But it's the enthusiast in me that carries the day. Here are 12 songs, each radically different, that, taken together, form a classic mosaic. The electric guitar couldn't be more seductive, the drumming catchier, the lead vocals more urgent, the harmonies more subtle. This CD is as irresistible as Amadou & Mariam --- you will leave your chair.
As I write, the music industry in America is facing the greatest crisis in its history --- it can't find much to sell that you care about. Well, here are some poor musicians no one ever heard of, who made the recording of their lives without any thought of fame or fortune. And here's a guy in a Vermont farmhouse, lavishing beautiful packaging and energetic promotion on these nonentities.
And what's the outcome?
For one of the planet's smallest subcultures, a moment of bracing attention.
For you, satisfaction on the order of Buena Vista --- and maybe greater.
No kidding about that. Andy Palacio and his friends aren't just good, they're seriously great.
Description of Watina (Dig)
These soul-stirring melodies and vibrant grooves from the Garifuna community of Central America unite the musical legacies of Africa and the Caribbean to create a powerful saga of exile, longing, hope and celebration. Years in the making, Watina is infused with contemporary influences, yet firmly rooted in the rich musical traditions of this unique and inspiring culture. Belizean icon, Andy Palacio, leads an all-star, multi-generational lineup to deliver a monumental tribute to the Garifuna of yesterday and tomorrow.* 32-page booklet features full lyrics and stunning photographs.
* Deluxe enhanced CD includes "making of" video and a preview of the upcoming Garifuna women's project "Umalali".
* The third release from Cumbancha, the new label founded by the head of music research at Putumayo World Music.
"****. Endlessly satisfying." --Charlie Gillett, The Observer Music Monthly (UK)
"Brimming with Buena Vista-ish elegance and dignity." --The Boston Globe (US)
"A little bit Cuban, a little bit Brazilian, with a reggae lilt, a Cape Verdean melodic lushness and a whole range of African echoes that you can't quite put your finger on." --London Daily Telegraph (UK)
"A fascinating musical mash-up...Transcendent, infectiously rhythmic music." --Veryshortlist.com (USA)
"There's a full year worth of listening on Watina... It's a fantastic recording that makes me thirst for more..." --Bob Tarte, Beat Magazine
"Rampacked to overflowing with amazing music." --Dave Hucker, Beat Magazine
"Superb" --Mondomix (France)
"****. Will spellbind the most indifferent listener." --Irish Times
"Consider this the first must-have album of 2007." --World Music Central
"An immediate world music classic." -Folk Roots (UK)
Palacio is from Belize and his music celebrates a culture called Garifuna, in which indigenous Arawak and Carib sounds, plus West African influences imported during the dark years of the slave trade are twisted around one another like a helix. Over the centuries, fiercely independent tribes-people maintained their identity even as European colonizers relentlessly pushed them from St. Vincent, where the Africans had been shipwrecked and intermarried with the local population, toward the Central American coast. But more recently, the culture had begun losing ground, especially in Nicaragua, a fact brought to Palacio's attention when he visited that nation as teenage literacy advocate. His impassioned espousal of his birthright began when he got involved with punta rock, a synth-and-drum-machine-driven dance style popular during the 1990s. The present album represents a return to his roots. Blended Native, African and Latin exhalations create softly pretty, simply constructed, yet indelible melodies while percolating, hypnotic rhythms, some of which are anchored by a prominent Afro-Cuban clavé, get everyone moving. The songs are sung exclusively in the Garifuna language and built around folkloric sources like the ritual-based dügü. There's not a false note anywhere in earshot but "Yagane", a seafaring tune composed by and performed with Paul Nabor, a septuagenarian buyei (spiritual healer), is one stand-out; the delightful title track is another. The CD is enhanced with videos and other extras. --Christina Roden
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