Cumbia sonidera is Mexico’s bass-heavy, sound-system reinterpretation of music originally emanating from the Colombian northwest. During performances, the sonideros (DJs) mix songs and get on the mic to recite fans’ dedications to people and places. These shout-outs (called saludos) trace an auditory archive of memory, migration, and longing across the US-Mexico border. This event will feature an audiovisual conversation using cumbia tracks, field recordings, and photographs to spark discussion on a music in movement, media materiality, and the interface of the visual and the sonic.

Featuring Brian “B+” Cross (UCSD), Sr. Tony (Sonido Fantasma), Juan David Rubio Restrepo (UCSD), and Roman Zepeda (Turbo Sonidero). Moderated by Alexandra Lippman (UCLA).

Friday, June 1 @ 3PM

UCSD Visual Arts, VisArts Performance Space (VAF 306)

Free and open to the public.
Free food provided by Zanzibar.

RSVP here

Stick around for el after con Very Be Careful, Tropa Mágica, Sonido Fantasma, and Turbo Sonidero.

RSVP | Tickets ($10 GA, Free for Students)

SPEAKERS

Brian “B+” Cross is an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California San Diego and co-founder of Mochilla, a production house whose output includes feature length music documentaries, music videos, music and photography. A former student of award-winning author Mike Davis and photographer Allan Sekula, Cross was the photo editor of the music magazine Wax Poetics from 2004 to 2010, and Rappages from 1993 to 1998. He has worked in hip-hop culture as a photographer and filmmaker for over twenty years. Cross’ 1993 book on the LA hip-hop scene, It’s Not About a Salary, was on “best book of the year” lists for Rolling Stone and NME magazines, and Vibe named it one of the top ten hip-hop books of all time. His latest book, Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed, was published in 2017 by University of Texas Press.

Sr. Tony Sonido Fantasma is a prominent sonidero born in Puebla and based in Los Angeles. In his performances, he DJs cumbia while improvising saludos (shout-outs or dedications) from his fans to their absent loved-ones and family members. These saludos create an auditory archive of feelings of longing and love for families separated by the border. With 27 years of experience, Tony is renowned for his skillfulness on the microphone and for his powerful sound system.

Alexandra Lippman is an anthropologist, DJ, and postdoctoral scholar at UCLA with the Institute for Society and Genetics. Her research explores the politics of sound, cultural and intellectual property, and technology in Latin America, primarily Brazil. She produced and curated ¡Un Saludo! Mexican Soundsystem Cumbia in LA, a compilation which highlights how Discos Barba Azul, a small music shop and label in downtown LA, became a hub of border-crossing cumbia sonidera in the United States. She founded the Sound Ethnography Project and is a member of the artist collective and independent music label, Dutty Artz.

Juan David Rubio Restrepo is a PhD candidate in the Music Department at the University of California San Diego originally from Manizales, Colombia. He is a musician, composer, improviser, and researcher. He has presented on genealogies of popular music, decolonialism, time, and technological agency and teaches a popular course on cumbia.

Roman Zepeda (Turbo Sonidero) is a music producer hailing from San José, CA who blends Rap/Hip-Hop with Cumbia Sonidera. In 2010, he moved to his father’s hometown in Puebla, Mexico to immerse in Cumbia Sonidera culture, where he played and toured extensively in the country. He is one half of Grupo Jejeje and a co-founder of Sonido Clash, a cultural arts collective exploring latinx art + sound. He has been featured in FADER, Afropop Worldwide, KQED, and XLR8R, among others.

¡Un Saludo! Voice, Memory, and Migration in Cumbia Sonidera

Conversation and listening with Jace Clayton (Dj Rupture), Alexandra Lippman (Xandão) & Alejandro Aviles (Sonido Kumbala)

December 16, 2017, 8pm

UnionDocs, 322 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

$10 | Tickets here

Cumbia sonidera is Mexico’s bass-heavy, sound-system reinterpretation of Afro-Colombian folk music. During performances, the sonideros (DJs) mix songs and get on the mic to recite fans’ dedications to people and places. These shout-outs (called saludos) trace an auditory archive of memory, migration, and longing across the US-Mexico border. Hosted by Jace Clayton, who features a chapter on NYC cumbia and Sonido Kumbala in his book Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture, this evening will use tracks from NYC- and LA-cumbia sonidera compilations by Sonido Kumbala and Xandão to spark discussion on the roles of the sonidero, immigrant media systems, and translation.

Afterwards, stick around for the Annual UNDO Holiday Party [ Deep Freeze Disco: ¡ Un Saludo ! ] – DJ sets from Kumbala, Xandão , and DJ /rupture!

 

DJ Guaguis is Ali Gua Gua, the lead singer of the Kumbia Queers a powerful punk cumbia band out of Argentina and Mexico. With Kumbia Queers she as been spreading a unique brand of cumbia villera and sonidera sounds with a strong political message to new audiences across Europe and the Americas for years. As DJ Guaguis, she brings her Jarocho roots and globe trotting experience to the turntables.

She’ll be performing at the Que Bajo Barrioteca Tropical May 9th at Verboten in Brooklyn. Get your tickets at http://nyc.redbullmusicacademy.com/que-bajo-barrioteca-tropical

Tra Ba EP CoverWe travel in circles. Our lives move in cycles. Our dreams spin us around. This is something that artist Rafi El understands intuitively. Through his life and music, he’s been constantly circling back to the source of his creativity, the mountains of South America – long a source of cultural wealth and shamanic power. Raised by parents from Argentina’s historical Jewish communities, Rafi was born in Israel and grew up in Los Angeles, where he currently lives. His earliest days were steeped in the sounds and cultures of three continents.

In anticipation of the release of Rafi El’s debut full length album this summer, Dutty Artz releases the lead single “Tra Ba” as a free EP:

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Societte-Perrier-DJ-Mix-Gecko-Jones-600x380

Geko Jones turns in a wicked mix for Societe Perrier, showcasing his unique take on Latin American, Caribbean, and electronic club music. On it, you get a blended combination of remixed Afro-Colombian folk styles that he’s known for, alongside Samba, Kuduro, Nigerian Pop, Dominican Tipico, Salsa, Dembow, Reggaeton and even Chicago Juke filtered through a UK Bass lens. You can almost imagine this as the part 2, or response from the American side of the ocean to the Africa Latina mix that he and I did last month.

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QB-march15th

Friday March 15th we’re welcoming EL FREAKY from Bogota Colombia to NYC. Having just wrapped shows at Moombahton Massive in DC, and Tormenta Tropical and Afrofunke on the West Coast, we’re looking forward to hearing some of the new material they’ve been working on featuring Colombian Dancehall artists and Reggae veterans Tanto Metro and Devonte.

Brooklyn’s iBomba party is hosted by DJ Beto and our very own Ushka, whom a lot of you got to meet digitally last month via her Foreign Brown mix for our Mixtape Mondays series in February. She and Beto’s residency at Bembe has been turning it out on Mondays and bringin out some really great acts over the last year, so I’m looking forward to hearing what’s in their crates.

distritocosmico

What are your stereotypes about Washington, DC? A place to go for protests? Full of suits and wonks? Epicenter of evil? Totally boring?

We residents of the District call bullshit. Sure, there is some truth to be found in those assumptions, but the reality is so much more than that. We’re a place of people fighting on the front lines against gentrification and for social justice, a place with many stories of amazing music, dance and creative cultures. Not enough people talk about this. These aspects are lost not only on most people from elsewhere, but even on some in the area.

Thursday’s release of ‘Distrito Cósmico’ hopefully will help change that. “It’s a song inspired by the Maracuyeah community — music elevating and uniting people beyond the mundane in collective and collaborative experiences that celebrate culture, community and fun,” says Lucy Pacheco AKA La Yorona, who wrote and sings this DC cumbia original (G-Flux composed the music and Luis Torrealva weighs in on chorus).

She’s talking of course of local DJ and booking collective Maracuyeah! (in which I’m something of a sub-comandante to comandantes rAt and Mafe) which has been expanding the dance and party universe in our city for over a year. “Maracuyeah has a role as a creative forcefield in this release,” says rAt, describing how she and Mafe helped the song come to fruition. The various players were all doing their own thing until they came together in Maracuyeah space. “La Yorona and G-Flux have been collaborators with us,” says Mafe. “They met each other at a Maracuyeah gathering and decided to work together. We’ve been part of the process through creative input and media outreach and are very excited to present this new single.”

Maracuyeah siempre sabrosa
Fiesta tropical — travesura
Fiesta tropical — baile duro
Fiesta tropical con mi gente nocturna

Says La Yorona:

“Synchronicity connected me with Mafe, rAt, G-Flux and Luis Torrealva and ‘Distrito Cósmico’ just seemed like a fitting representation of this collaborative representation of DC’s tropicalismo. My approach to MCing is based on playfulness, fun and encouraging others to let loose and enjoy themselves, to notice the inspiring spaces and experiences we are all creating together. The song is a representation of playfulness; I love it. I love that it’s DC artists meeting and creating together through music.”

Global sonidos turnin’ up the heat
Booty beats all up in the street
Cuz we takin’ over like a tropical boom
Tropical monsoon, tropical typhoon

Maracuyeah, like sister collective Anthology of Booty and several other projects, is part of a new wave of music and party innovation that has a long history in our city. “We have created a space for collaboration of people interested in exploring alternative tropical sounds,” says Mafe. “This single reflects the coming together of individuals who have been in the DC music scene for a while, collaborating with individuals who are newer to the scene.”

At Maracuyeah’s one year anniversary in April, the incredible local cumbia band Los Tribaldis played, along with Dutty Artz wunderkind Chief Boima plus rAt, Mafe and other local DJs. It represented the dual efforts of Maracuyeah — highlighting amazing DC talent as well as bringing folks to the city who otherwise wouldn’t come here, like Chancha via Circuito, Zuzuka Poderosa or Pernett.

“We are excited about the vibrant community that keeps growing and mutating and producing exciting experiments like ‘Distrito Cósmico,’” says rAt. “We are excited to see what comes next. I love to see creative people criss-crossing ‘flavor lines’ and expanding the concepts of self-interest and solidarity, in meaningful, long-lasting ways.”

The download for ‘Distrito Cósmico’ will be available on Friday — the release party is Thursday night at Tropicalia on U Street. Birthed in transitional 2012, La Yorona says she’s “gonna keep creating and collaborating and dancing.” Same goes for Maracuyeah… and DC.

[youtube width=”525″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESj164wKc6I[/youtube]

Super excited about this new event, BomBeat, that I am launching with my crew Cumba Mela, and Nickodemus from Turntables on the Hudson.  Its all going down this Saturday, November 24th at Le Poisson Rouge, in Manhattan. Expect to hear a wide range of global bass music: cumbia, dancehall, kuduro, house, moombahton, reggaeton….

We have Jeremy Sole coming from LA, repping KCRW, TheLift, and Afro Funke.

We are going to try our best to get a free EP for ever event. Be sure to check out the first one bellow!

BomBeat EP1 November 24, 2012 @ LPR NYC by BomBeat

So here’s a full length mix featuring a lot of the homies I’ve made via my travels and Que Bajo?! parties. Its been an exciting couple of years watching this music go global and getting in touch with a lot of you producer types. There’s a heap of roots remixes, kuduro, moombahton, dembow, boombahchero and the type of latino raveyness that makes ya wanna put your hands on your knees while shouting QUE BAJO CARAJO!!! .

Sabrosura pa la kalle

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[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9954478/Geko%20Jones%20NYE%202012.mp3]