Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective
The Garifuna have a legend about their
genesis that claims that Pre-Colombian Western Afrikaners sailed to the
Caribbean coast of Central America to coexist with the indigenous peoples
there. Conventional history suggests that when two European slave ships sank
near the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1635, the survivors swam to shore,
where they cohabitated with the natives there, known as Arawaks. However it
occurred, the descendents of these
people are now called Garifuna, as is their now-threatened culture and unique
language, a mixture of Arawat, African and Spanish. One of the offspring of
this lineage, Andy Palacio, is from the coastal Belize village of Barranco. In
1987 he moved to London to work, upon invitation, with the Cultural
Partnership, Ltd., a community-based organization committed to the preservation
and documentation of Belizean music. In 1991, Palacio recorded his first solo
album, “Keimoun“, on Stonetree Records for the label’s producer and president,
Ivan Duran. He also received the Best New Artist Award at the Caribbean Music
Awards and later hosted a television music show in Belize. Since that time,
Andy has visited Garifuna villages in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala,
tooling and broadening his musical scope.
The result of this research has come to
fruition with “Watina“, the first CD by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna
Collective, on the Cumbancha label. The music on the disc is a distinctive
blend of Caribbean, Latin and Afrikaner music, heavy on the backbeat. In an
exclusive interview, Cumbancha founder Jacob Edgar explained to me that he had
lived in Costa Rica in 1989 and 1990 while in college. He played trumpet with
several local bands while in San Jose, including one with guitarist Edin Solis,
who would go on to found three-time Grammy winner Editus. He also met Ivan
Duran and “we hit it off. Later when I was at Putumayo, I was able to get some
Stonetree tracks onto Putumayo discs. I had been made aware of Garifuna music
in San Jose and recording this album is a perfect example of why I started the
Cumbancha label.” So, the making of “Watina” has been something of a culmination
for Jacob Edgar as well. He even played a conch shell on one of the songs for
the CD!
The new disc was recorded over a four month
span by a multigenerational group of musicians, some who had worked with Andy
on his first CD and others he had admired but never played with before this.
The actual recording took place in a thatched-roof cabin by the sea in the
village of Hopkins, Belize. The result is incredible. Traditionally, Garifuna
songs reflect everyday occurrences, backed with distinctive drums, called “primero”
and “segundo”. “Watina” is a celebration of living, tinged with a melancholy
toward the everyday challenges of life and mixed with cries of hope and
individualism. The music has an organic, wooden percussive sound to it, the
ethereal harmonies ranging in and out of the spotlight. The very themes of the
songs, such as the last three on the disc, “Aguyuha Niduhenu (My People Have
Moved On)”, “Ayo Da (Goodbye My Dear)” and “Amunegu (In the Future)” indicate
the temperament of the CD and the Garifuna culture as well. As Andy Palacio says, “Music is the
soundtrack that we live to”.
As is the trademark of the Cumbancha label,
the packaging of Watina is impeccable, including a book of lyrics printed in
English and Garifuna. In Tamarindo, the Andy Palacio and the Garifuna
Collective CD is available exclusively at Jaime Peligro, where they will gladly
sample the disc for the customers.All comments concerning this article are welcome.
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