Beyond Bogotá

I've been playing a lot of Colombian music lately.  La Perla played live in WRIR's Studio C on May 4 before their performance at Get Tight Lounge; when they were here I spun another 40 minutes of music by other current Bogotá bands.  Then Meridian Brothers, also from Bogotá, played Get Tight on May 13 and you heard their music on Global A Go-Go as well.

 

But the Colombian musical scene extends way beyond Bogotá.  This week on Global A Go-Go you'll hear four more current Colombian bands from across that big country, including Rancho Aparte from Cali who will be headlining the Richmond Folk Festival this fall.

 

Also this week (Sunday May 19, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): The unique Ethio-jazz of Qwanqwa; the latest from Dutch-Indonesian hipsters Nusantara Beat; probably the two best American Congolese bands right now: Occidental Brothers Dance Band and Loboko; a great new juju single from Franck Biyong; and burger highlife, the sound of the Ghanaian diaspora.

Charts May 6-12, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 MIGHTY JOSHUA | Dreaducation | Mighty Music

2 MDOU MOCTAR | Funeral For Justice | Matador

3 MYRIAM GENDRON | Mayday | Thrill Jockey

4 MERIDIAN BROTHERS | "En El Caribe Estoy Triste" [Single] | Ansonia/Bongo Joe

5 IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE | Pull The Rope | Merge

6 AMADOU AND MARIAM | "Mogolu" [Single] | Because

7 YELLOWMAN | Zungguzungguguzungguzeng | Greensleeves

8 LOS BITCHOS | "La Bomba" [Single] | City Slang

9 BONGO HOP, THE | Satingarona Pt. 1 | Underdog

10 RAIL BAND | Rail Band | Mississippi

Those confusing nooks & crannies of self-improvement

It was great to meet so many Global A Go-Go listeners at the La Perla show at Get Tight Lounge last Saturday night!  And the Colombian takeover of Richmond continues on Monday May 13, once again at Get Tight (Richmond's Colombian embassy, I guess?), with a performance by another one of Bogotá's hottest bands, Meridian Brothers.

 

I've seen them before and they're not to be missed.  Meridian Brothers' forthcoming album Mi Latinoamérica Sufre takes a characteristically off-center approach to champeta, the uniquely Colombian mixture of traditional rhythms with African highlife, soukous and Afrobeat.  If you want to get an idea of what they sound like, I'll play Meridian Brothers' brand new single this week on Global A Go-Go alongside other Colombian artists past and present working in the champeta groove.

Also this week (Sunday May 12, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): The new album from Richmond's own Mighty Joshua; new Afro sounds by Amadou & Mariam, Aboubacar Traoré and Afla Sackey; Eastern European roots music including the latest from Russia's Otava Yo; Get in the Garage presents current garage rock from Yiddishland, Turkey via Israel, London and Brooklyn; and the latest guitar heroics of Mdou Moctar, who will be playing Richmond's Friday Cheers on June 7.

Charts Apr 29 - May 5, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 LOS BITCHOS | "La Bomba" [Single] | City Slang

2 LES BELGICAINS: NA TANGO YA COVADIA 1964-70 | various artists | Covadia

3 MDOU MOCTAR | Funeral For Justice | Matador

4 CEU | Novela | Urban Jungle

5 LINDIGO | Oye Maloya | Helico

6 YEMAYA LA BANDA | Asimetricas | Cultur'el

7 MEKLIT | Ethio Blue [EP] | self-released

8 BROOKLYN SOUNDS | Brooklyn Sounds! | Vampisoul

9 BLACK ROOTS | Roots | Nubian

10 LUCIANA DEMINGONGO | Une Plume Une Voix Une Guitare | Une Plume Une Voix Une Guitare

Las tres brujas del tambor

La Perla, las tres brujas del tambor (the three witches of the drums) from Bogotá Colombia, are coming to Richmond this week.  They will be performing at the Get Tight Lounge, 1104 W. Main Street, on Saturday May 4.  Doors open at 7:30 PM; La Perla goes on stage at 9:00.

They will also be performing live on WRIR this Saturday afternoon between 1 and 3 PM.  I'll be hosting a special edition of the WRIR program "Cause & Effect," featuring the music of La Perla, their influences, and some of the many bands in the very hip current Bogotá scene.  And La Perla will join me in WRIR's Studio C for a live performance and conversation.

La Perla is a band of three young Bogotanas whose 21st century feminist global perspective on traditional Afro-Colombian rhythms is adding a new dimension to contemporary Latin music.  Using just voices and drums, and maybe a little bit of electronics, their music encompasses Afro-Colombia (genres like cumbia, chalupa and mapalé), the broader Latin world (samba, guaguancó, chicha) and the ever-present North (rap, punk rock).  They are the folk process in action, in real time.

Charts April 15-28, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 CONGO FUNK! SOUND MADNESS FROM THE SHORES OF THE MIGHTY CONGO RIVER |various artists | Analog Africa

2 MULATU ASTATKE | Mulatu Of Ethiopia | Strut

3 LASS | Passeport | Chapter Two

4 SAM MANGWANA AND ORCHESTRE VOX AFRICA | 1967 Kinshasa [EP] | SAM Productions

5 TETE MBAMBISA | African Day | As Shams/The Sun

6 SABRI BROTHERS | Jami | Piranha

7 FLORENCE ADOONI | "Uh-Ah Song" [Single] | Philophon

8 FRANCO LUAMBI MAKIADI | Presents Les Editions Populaires | Planet Ilunga

9 WAGADU GROOVES: THE HYPNOTIC SOUND OF CAMARA 1987-2016 | various artists | Hot Mule

10 ALPHEUS | Unify | Liquidator