Cumbia

Culture of Colombia

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Cumbia is a Latin American musical style that originated in Colombia. Traditional cumbia and its associated dance is considered to be representative of Colombia, along with Vallenato. Cumbia originated from the Caribbean coast of eastern Colombia, with folkloric variants in Panama from where it spread gaining particular popularity in Mexico, Argentina, and the Andean region. Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African slave population that was later mixed with European instruments and musical characteristics. Cumbia is very popular in the Andean region and the Southern Cone and was until the early 1980s more popular in these regions than the salsa.^[1]

Origins

It is often asserted that Cumbia is a variant of Guinean cumbé music. However, it should be noted that the rhythm of Cumbia can be found in music of Yoruba (more specifically, the rhythm is associated with the god Obatala), and in other musical traditions across West Africa. Cumbia started in the northern coast of South America, what is now Colombia and Panama, mainly in or around Cartagena during the period of Spanish colonization. Spain used its ports to import African slaves, who tried to preserve their musical traditions and also turned the drumming and dances into a courtship ritual. Cumbia was mainly performed with just drums and claves.

The slaves were later influenced by the sounds of the new world instruments from the Kogui and Kuna tribes, who lived between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Montes de María in Colombia and Kuna Yala in Panama. . Millo flutes, Gaita flutes, and güiros were instruments borrowed from these new world tribes. The interaction between Africans and natives of the new world under the Spanish caste system created a mixture from which the gaitero (cumbia interpreter) appeared, with a defined identity by the 1800s. (These gaiteros are not the same as the Venezuelan Zulian gaiteros.) The European guitars were added later through Spanish influence. According to legend, the accordion was added after a German cargo ship carrying the instruments sank as a load of accordions washed ashore on the northwest coast of Colombia.

Cumbia as a courtship ritual

The slave courtship ritual, which featured dance prominently, was traditionally performed with music played by pairs of men and women and with male and female dancers. Women playfully wave their long skirts while holding a candle, and men dance behind the women with one hand behind their back and the other hand either holding a hat, putting it on, or taking it off. Male dancers also carried a red handkerchief which they either wrapped around their necks, waved in circles in the air, or held out for the women to hold. Until the mid-20th century, cumbia was considered to be an inappropriate dance performed primarily by the lower social classes.

Style

The basic rhythm structure is 4/4. Due to its origins, both African and new world natives influences can be felt in cumbia.

Musical instruments

Traditional instruments used in cumbia:

• Drums: Cumbia drums were of African origin and were brought along with slaves to the new world by the Spanish conquerors. natives used wood, ropes made out of sisal (Agave sisalana), and dried animal skins to make their drums. The drums were played either with hands or with sticks. The ends of the sticks were sometimes wrapped with dry skin to prevent wearing of the drums. Cumbia interpreters produce variations of the sound emitted by the drum by hitting it on almost every area of the wooden base and dry skin. Today, modern deep-toned drums are used in cumbia as well.

The tambora is a bass drum, played in the very first Cumbia rhythms before the accordion entered the cumbia scene. It is rarely seen today as most of the percussion instruments of traditional Cumbia have been replaced by the more versatile conga, güira, claves, and timbales. Now, Colombian tamboras are generally only seen at folkloric presentations ^[2].

• Claves: These percussion instruments are a pair of hard thick sticks and usually set the beat throughout the song.
• Instruments of European origin used in cumbia today include the guitar, the mejoranera and the violin (in Panama), the accordion, the bass guitar, and the modern flute.

Modern Cumbia

During the mid-20th century, Colombian musicians such as Pacho Galán and Lucho Bermudez created a more refined form of Cumbia that became very popular through all of Colombia and Latin America. This period is known as "The Golden Age of Cumbia".

Due to the diversity of Latin America, Colombian Cumbia has undergone major changes as it mixed with the regional music styles of several countries (especially in Ecuador, Peru and Mexico). There are several distinct variations of the music:

Colombia

Today traditional cumbia is preserved and considered representative of the Colombian identity, especially on the northern Caribbean coast. The best representation of traditional Cumbia is shown every year on Festival de la Cumbia in El Banco Magdalena. This festival was created by the biggest Colombian Cumbia composer Jose Barros in order to preserve the original rhythms of traditional Cumbia music. Also it is associated with the Carnival of Baranquilla. Modern forms of cumbia are also combined with other genres such as vallenato, electronica or rock. This mixing of genres is found in the music of modern artists such as Carlos Vives, Bomba Estéreo and Andres Cabas

Costa Rica

A very famous song in the Costa Rican cumbia is "jugo de piña".This song has gone around the world. In the modern cumbia they have made new singles of jugo de piña with new instruments.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua became a stronghold of Cumbia music during the 1950s and 1960s. The country has its own variation of cumbia music and dance.^[3] Mostly known for its cumbia chinandegana in the Northwestern section of the country, it has also seen a rise in cumbia music artists on the Caribbean coast like Gustavo Layton.

Panama

Panamanian cumbia is found specially in the provinces of Veraguas, Los Santos, Herrera, Panama, (cumbia chorrerana) and Darien (cumbia darienita) and the precursor of modern popular folk music. In this country, cumbia is played with pujador (or llamador) drum, caja drum, accordion, violin, pito flute and mejoranera guitar. The female cumbia dancers wear polleras and usually dance with ignited candle in the hand. Out of the borders of Colombia, Panama is the only country where the cumbia is a dance with strictly folklore and cultural character.

Peru

Peruvian cumbia, particularly from 1960s to mid-1990s, is generally known as "Chicha", although this definition is quite problematic as both Peruvian cumbia and Chicha currently co-exist and influence each other (good examples include Agua Marina's popular cover of Los Eco's "Paloma Ajena" and Grupo Nectar's cover of Guinda's "Cerveza, Ron y Guinda"). Peruvian cumbia started in the 1960s with groups such as Los Destellos, and later with Juaneco Y Su Combo, Los Mirlos, Los Shapis, Cuarteto Continental, Los Diablos Rojos, Pintura Roja, Chacalon y la Nueva Crema and Grupo Nectar. Some musical groups that play Peruvian cumbia today are: Agua Marina, Armonia 10, Agua Bella, and Grupo 5. These groups would be classified as Cumbia but often take songs and techniques from Chicha and Huayno (Andean Music) in their stylings or as songs (see Armonia 10's "Quise Morir"). Grupo Fantasma was a Peruvian-Mexican cumbia group. Andean Cumbia, is a style that combines Andean music and cumbia. This style has even become popular in Mexico, as some groups like Grupo Saya claim to be Cumbia andina mexicana, Mexican Andean Cumbia.

Mexico

In the 1940's Colombian singer Luis Carlos Meyer Castandet, emigrated to Mexico where he worked with the Mexican orchestra director Rafael de Paz. He recorded what many people think was the first cumbia recorded outside of Colombia, La Cumbia Cienaguera. He recorded other hits like Mi gallo tuerto, Caprichito, and Nochebuena . This is when Cumbia began to be popularized in Mexico. From 1952 to 1954 Lucho Bermudez lived in Mexico City where he met and recorded with Perez Prado and Benny More.

In the 70s Aniceto Molina also emigrated to Mexico, where he joined the group from Guerrero, La Luz Roja de San Marcos , and recorded many popular tropical cumbias like El Gallo Mojado, El Peluquero, and La Mariscada. Also in the 70s Rigo Tovar became very popular with his fusion of Cumbia with ballad.

Other popular Mexican Cumbia composers and interpreters are Mike Laure, Chico Che, Efren David, La Tropa Vallenata, Grupo Cañaveral, Los Angeles Azules, Celso Piña, Super Grupo Colombia, Grupo Saya, La Internacional Sonora Skandalo, Grupo Luz de Luna, Amandititita,Angeles de Charle and Grupo Bronco to name a few.

Nowadays Cumbia is played in many other different ways: Cumbia andina mexicana, Cumbia Norteña, Tecno-Cumbia, Cumbia sonidera, Cumbia with Ska and Reggae.

Argentina

In Argentina, due to its identity crisis, there is a social divide that is exemplified by the cumbia villera phenomenon that represents and resonates with the poor and marginalized dwellers of villas miseria, (shanty towns, and slums). Argentinian cumbia lyrics typically glorify theft and drug abuse. Pablo Lezcano, ex-member of Amar Azul and founder of Flor Piedra and Damas Gratis is known to be the creator of the cumbia villera "sound". However, it must be noted that a lighter form of cumbia enjoyed widespread popularity in Argentina during the 1990s (see Argentine cumbia). Antonio Rios (ex-Grupo Sombras, ex-Malagata) is a good representative of the Argentinian cumbia from the 1990s. The emergence of cumbia as a massively popular form of music in Argentina came perhaps with the release of Tarjetita de Invitacion by Adrian y Los Dados Negros (from Jujuy, northern Argentina) in 1988 which was certified platinum, a first back then for a cumbia act.

Bolivia

Los Ronisch, the Cumbia ambassadors of Bolivia, are one of the most popular Cumbia bands in South America. The press have called this band "the box-office record breakers" due to its vast popularity among people in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador and other countries.^[4][5][6] The cumbia sound from Bolivia usually incorporates saya beats and tecnocumbia. Another important cumbia band from Bolivia that peaked in popularity in the 1990s but remains highly popular is the band Maroyu.

Chile

It is one of the most popular dance forms in the country. It is widely danced at parties and gatherings. Chile has a long development history of its own style: the Chilean Cumbia. Sonora Palacios is one of the most successful orchestras of this genre. However, Cumbia's popularity has been declining since the 1990's, and since the success of reggaetón in early 2000's, Cumbia has lost the preference of the popular sectors of society. Nowadays, Cumbia is considered a backward music style partly due to its old fashioned lyrics and its degeneration into Cumbia villera in Agentina and Cumbia sonidera in Mexico.

El Salvador

Orchestras such as Orchestra San Vicente, Los Hermanos Flores and Grupo Bravo perform cumbia with basic instrumentation, replacing accordion with brass instruments and woodwinds, and using traditional percussion and electric bass.

"Chanchona" is a neoligism to describe a musical band that follows a cumbia rhythm and uses instruments such as the accordion, electric bass, conga, güira, and the occasional keyboard. This genre is popularized by artists such as La Chanchona de Tito Mira and La Chanchona de Arcadio. Chanchona sometimes also features a marimba, made famous in the genre by Fidel Funes.

United States

Los Lobos, Locos por Juana, Ozomatli, Grupo Fantasma, Super Reyes, Nando y Solja Kingz, La Internacional Sonora Show, Chicha Libre, Kumbia Kings , Selena y Los Dinos, Candelaria and the Very Be Careful are famous musicians based in the United States that have performed and/or specialize in cumbia.

See also

• Panamanian music
• Colombian music
• Totó la Momposina
• Latin rock

References

External links

• In a Nutshell: Cumbia Guide to cumbia (English)