It’s ironic but interesting trivia nonetheless. Putumayo, a record label christened after a Colombian river valley, had never released a collection of its namesake country’s music—until now. In 1974, CEO Dan Storper was so struck by the valley’s serenity that it became the moniker of his New York City clothing and handicrafts store. In the ’90s another Putumayo baby was born, this time the label specializing in world music. Sixty-plus acclaimed releases later, this Colombia was well worth the wait.
The third largest country in South America, Colombia is flanked by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea/Atlantic Ocean to the north. The majestic Andes Mountains hug the Pacific Coast and elsewhere lie expanses of grasslands and rain forests. Colombia’s diverse geography factors into their equally diverse musical personality, an amalgamation of European-based melodies stratified by industrial strength Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
With each region boasting indigenous styles, the African-originated cumbia has remained Colombia’s most popular dance music. Appropriately, this collection features several scintillating, high brass piercing, low brass seductive cumbias from Orquesta de Edmundo Arias, Gabriel Romero, the Latin Brothers and the long-standing La Sonora Dinamita. After that, there is no singular stylistic dominance. Lucho Bermúdez, the country’s Benny Goodman equivalent, wails on clarinet supported by an equally hellish horn section on a gaita, a jazzier sub-form of the porro. Like the cumbia and the porro, the accordion-led vallenato hails from the Atlantic Coast as well. The collection’s lone vallenato, “Temporal,” is pumped here by Tulio Zuloaga, an artist responsible for giving vallenato classics a modern voice.
Yet, the Colombian odyssey hardly ends with these popular favorites. Young blood revivalists Grupo Bahia and Los 50 De Joselito give fresh treatment to lesser-known regional styles such as the Pacific Coast currulao and the acoustically rendered Andean bambuco, respectively.
Other selections emphasize the astonishing cross-pollination the African and Latin music world has had on Colombian music. In this vein, the charismatic Joe Arroyo croons in an African Gambian tongue on the Cuban/salsa inspired “Yamulemau;” Los Warahuaco’s “La Tuna” bears strong Cuban boogaloo and son influences only to be augmented by slinky montuno piano riffs. If this is any indication, the Latin dance craze is far from smoldering.
