Celebrating the birthday of Totó La Momposina, Colombia's Queen Of Cumbia!

Raising a glass to Colombia's cultural ambassador and cumbia icon Totó La Momposina on her 86th birthday! Cheers Sonia!

Midweek Mixdown: Colombia at 78 RPM with Quantic

Check out Will "Quantic" Holland spinning a selection of Colombian 78 gems for My Analog Journal. 

Colombia at 78 RPM with Quantic 

Caribbean Rhythms From The Jukebox Era

"I spent years searching for records in Colombia, collecting LPs, 45s and especially fragile 78rpm shellac discs, often losing them to breakage along the way. What fascinated me was how Colombia’s jukebox culture kept 78s alive well beyond the 70s, preserving a rich, folkloric sound shaped by labels like Fuentes and Curro and artists such as Andrés Landero. Through digging, compiling The Original Sound of Cumbia, and later projects like Ondatropica, I’ve tried to share these recordings and honour the musicians behind them. Despite the technical challenges of playing and restoring these records, there’s something powerful about how music recorded over seventy years ago can still resonate so deeply today.

"I had a lot of fun compiling these records for My Analog Journal and I'm really proud with how the mix turned out. Live now on Youtube. 

"Hope you enjoy."

Peace,

Will

Vampi Soul strikes again with fourth set of rare 60s cumbia gems

The fourth volume of Vampi Soul's dig into the Discos Fuentes/MAG vaults yields more amazing cumba swingers from the 60s

Here's the scoop...

After digging deep into the overwhelming archives of Discos Fuentes, Codiscos and Discos MAG in our previous volumes, this fourth instalment in the series “Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!” comprises 28 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos Tropical, all of them originally released between 1960 and 1984.

Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! Vol. 4 combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns. Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Check the tracklisting followed by a couple of audio clips below. 

Various Artists - Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! Vol. 4

CUMBIA MÍA – CARLOS HAAYEN Y SU COMBO, CUMBIAMBERA – BOVEA Y SUS VALLENATOS, MI SENDERO – ÁLVARO CÁRDENAS Y SU CONJUNTO, AMORES CONMIGO – CARLOS ROMÁN Y SUS ESTRELLAS, CUMBIA DE VALLEDUPAR – LUIS ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ Y SU CONJUNTO, DAME UN BESITO MANUELA – PELLO TORRES Y SUS DIABLOS DEL RITMO, YOLANDA – BANDA 20 DE JULIO DE REPELÓN, EL CLARÍN DE LA MONTAÑA – ANDRÉS LANDERO Y SU CONJUNTO, CUMBIA PACHANGA – CUMBIA MOCHILA, TIBURÓN CON PELO – COMBO MARAVILLA, CUMBIA PANORÁMICA – A.M. CAMACHO Y CANO, LA TORMENTA – ELICEO GARCÍA Y EL CONJUNTO PALMA AFRICANA, SATANÁS – WASAMAYE AFRICAN ROCK, LEOBIGILDA – CONJUNTO MARAVILLA DE PALO ALTO 

SUÉLTALE LA TRENZA – MANUEL VILLANUEVA Y SU ORQUESTA, CUMBIA BOGOTANA – MANUEL CARABALLO Y SU CONJUNTO, LA AMANECEDORA – PEDRO SALCEDO Y SU COMBO, EL INDIO FIESTERO – LOS TIBURONES, LA SERRANÍA – CUMBIA BOLIVARIANA, CUMBIA QUE ME ALEGRAS – LOS CURRAMBEROS DE GUAYABAL, LA DEMOCRACIA – JUAN POLO VALENCIA, CUMBIA MARINA – LUCHO BETTER Y SU ORQUESTA, CUANDO TE VAYAS – FLORENTINO MONTERO Y SU CONJUNTO, SAL CON LIMÓN – JOE MONTES Y SU ORQUESTA, LA PALMA – TERE GARCÍA CON RAMÓN ROPAÍN Y EL TRÍO FANTASÍA, CUMBIA CONTINENTAL – LOS INDIOS SELECTOS CON ALBERTO PACHECO Y SU ACORDEÓN, EL MUNDO SE VA A ACABA – RUFO GARRIDO Y SU ORQUESTA, CUMBIA CASINO – MINCHO ANAYA Y SU COMBO MODERNO 

Whaddya mean you don't know Don Medardo y sus Players

Ecuadoran maestro Don Medardo cut a swingin' set of cumbia cookers with a bit of porro & gaita called Desde Nueva York in 1970.

Midweek Mixdown: 50s & 60s Tropical Swing in Colombia

Today we've got Taro_Nsmr's swinging mix of vintage Colombian gems featuring Lucho Bermudez, Pedro Ruiz and others. 

Some classic 45s on the Discos Colombia, Silver, Sonolux and Ondina labels. Have a listen here. 

Watch Totó La Momposina in action

Here's Colombian legend Totó La Momposina performing a rousing set – including the classic "El Pescador" – back in 2017.  

Anibal Velásquez's salsa side gets spotlight on new Vampi Soul reissue

Colombian accordion ace Anibal Velásquez has his descarga experiments from Tremenda Salsa recirculated by Vampi Soul.  

Here's the scoop...

Aníbal "Sensación" Velásquez is one of Colombia's most innovative and prolific Costeño musicians, known as "El Mago del Acordeón" and "El Rey de La Guaracha". Velásquez grew up hearing Cuban music as well as the local rhythms of his region, and this led him to tinker with and transform the beats and melodies of the regional music encountered in his home city of Barranquilla during the 1950s and '60s. After playing a sideman in several groups, Velásquez formed his own conjunto with his elder brother Juan, a talented musician in his own right, and his younger sibling José. 

The album, En Tremenda Salsa is a perfect example of Aníbal Velásquez's wanderlust and restless creative spirit. A pioneer of the adventuresome mixing of rhythms, genres, and styles that was happening at the time in Barranquilla and the rest of coastal Colombia, in retrospect one can say that Velásquez was quite daring in combining the music and instrumentation of his native country with other Caribbean forms. In 1968, when he made this album, very few Colombians were attempting to record an accordion-led session of descarga, guaracha, boogaloo, guajira, guaguancó, and mambo, and for that Velásquez should be recognized as a forerunner of various other records by Lisandro Meza y su Combo, Los Corraleros de Majagual, Los Caporales del Magdalena, and Chico Cervantes y su Conjunto Internacional. 

The album kicks off with an intense and mesmerizing descarga featuring the guaguancó bass line, hot Cuban style piano and a heavy timbales solo, reminding one of the Tico-Alegre or Fania All-Stars jam session records. And yet, the accordion and caja are there throughout the tune, giving it plenty of "sabor colombiano" and distancing it from the New York or Havana sound. It bears repeating that for this album Velásquez and Fuentes added a crucial ingredient in salsa, the piano. 

Overall, the feeling on the album is of the loose, improvised jam session implied in the genre term descarga. Although En Tremenda Salsa is just one of many such records that Velásquez cut with his Cuban and Puerto Rican influences writ large on his sleeve, it is perhaps his most consistent and well-recorded, certainly only one of a few of his featuring prominent piano played in a salsa style, and this is why it is a highly sought after record by collectors in the know. Remastered from the original tapes, with original artwork intact. Includes two bonus tracks. 180 gram vinyl. Get a copy from Forced Exposure mailorder right here. Have a listen to the album below followed by Anibal Velásquez in action. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Teresita Rendón

A singer with Climaco Sarmiento's band, Teresita Rendón got the spotlight on "Moliendo Cafe" from 1961. 

Totó La Momposina vs. Bovea y sus Vallenatos

Here are two different takes on the Colombian cumbia classic "El Pescador" by Totó La Momposina and Bovea y sus Vallenatos caption

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Quantic vs. Drake

Check out the cumbia-style revamp of Drake's Hot Line Bling courtesy of Quantic's Colombian Los Míticos crew.

Cut Chemist went to Colombia and all we got was this wicked mix

Upon return from a recent trip to the deepest of crates in Colombia, Cut Chemist and company sought out to remix a unique set of dusty records, each different from the last, with an equally diverse list of producers. As the title suggests, Going Back to Cali: Cut Chemist’s Colombian Crates Remixed is more than cumbia, its a reflection on a tropical culture rich in spirit, creativity and passion strung together with field recordings found along the way. These records were bought in Cali, Colombia during Patronio Alvarez Festival last year, hence the name.

Our trip begins with folklore Colombiano favorites Los Corraleros de Majagual over a crunchy boom-bap by Co. Fee from Los Angeles’ beat collective, My Hollow Drum. Dance Kill Move (Stockholm, Sweden) adds some serious low end to Los Jovenes de Hierro’s classic charanga, “Ritmo Sabroso.” Ubiquity recording artist, currently residing in Colobmia, Bosq and Yukicito of La Junta (Los Angeles) contribute absolute party starters, while El Dusty’s “Mi Chola” give Los Teen Agers a taste Corpus Christi, TX. Atropolis (Queens) pays homage with a heavy stripped down edit of Julio y su Combo’s “Lamento Cumbiambero” and Los Chicos Altos (Barcelona) add in some rub-a-dub flavor on Los Hermanos Tuiran’s “Lluvia.” In addition we explore national treasures and the lesser known, new styles of chirimía, porro, pachanga, salsa and cumbia as interpreted by Sumohair (Los Angeles), Gabe Real (Pomona CA) and Greece duo SUPERSAN (aka Panama Cardoon & Mister Kentro).