Colombian Music Festival Held In Chicago 7/1-30

Colombia is in the midst of a revolution and it's ready for the world to listen: to the rawest edge of its experimental urban dance scene, and to its life-affirming Afro-Latin drumbeats handed down over centuries. To the potent voices of youthful innovators ready to stand up and be counted, and to the skillful elder artists who inspire them. To a transformative turning point in the country's musical history.

This revolution takes the stage in Chicago, for the biggest, most exuberant Colombian concert and dancehall event ever held outside of Colombia, the First Annual Chicago Colombian Music Festival, at venues across the city from July 1-30, 2010. From international breakout groups like new salsa classic La Sonora Carruseles to the traditional Afro-Colombian rhythms of Las Alegres Ambulancias, this experience-with-a-cause is bringing the next wave of Latin music first to a new audience and then back to the people who started it all.

At the vanguard of the movement is Bomba Estéreo (July 26, Green Dolphin 2200 N Ashland Ave.), the "electro tropical" group recently voted "Best New Band in the World" on MTV. This punk-styled, boots-on band is fronted by the startlingly nymphish vocalist Li Saumet, the "Queen of Electro Vacilón," which loosely translated means "electric fooling around." Bomba have been yelping and thumping their way across the world, and Chicago will be the first stop on a new international tour. Yet even they take their musical cues from the African rhythms that beat still in the heart of Colombian village life, the cumbia and the champeta.

These traditional rhythms are the lifeblood of Palenque, Colombia's musical masters, Las Alegres Ambulancias(Chicago debut; July 2 Logan Square Auditorium, venue) The Ambulancias were founded in 1905 to perform the rituals of traditional Afro-Colombian life, especially the lumbalu funerary rite, and UNESCO declared them a treasure of intangible heritage in 2005. The Ambulancias, the joyful ferrymen of the afterlife, drum and sing and chant their way through days of mourning, bringing grieving families and friends through to the final ceremony. On that day, the only person allowed to perform the Palenque lumbalu is the Batata , a title currently held by band member Tomás Teheran, a friend and mentor to many dedicated Colombian musicians like Festival founder and organizer Leo Suarez.

Teheran's successor and nephew, the next Batata, is Moris Cañate, master percussionist of NYC's Grupo Rebolú(July 17; Irving Park La Tablas). Fans will get a chance to celebrate Colombian Independence Day with Rebolú, local Colombian salsa bands, and a festive DJ set. "Rebolú," proclaims Suarez, "I say it pretty often and I mean it, is the most authentic yet original and danceable Colombian music experience anywhere outside of Colombia." Cañate and his musical partner, Ronald Polo, both from the Colombian Caribbean coast, take traditional Afro-Colombian traditions and, along with Suarez, create high-intesity music for the Latin dance scene. Playing professionally since they were both twelve years old, Cañate and Polo have accompanied the Colombian president on official visits and performed for heads of state around the world.

Now they are grown up, and Rebolú is a popular and frequent act in Chicago, along with Grupo Cumbé (July 10; Old Town School of Folk Music), a new six-piece band that specializes in the sounds of the cumbia , a rhythm that began as a courtship dance and gives life to much of Colombian music. "What we do," explains Suarez, also a founding member of Cumbé, "is take Colombian classical music by famous composers, like Lucho Bermúdez," and fuse it with traditional Afro-Colombian percussion. Cumbé's fresh sound comes from big band jazz trumpet player Victor Garcia and Darwin Noguera, one of the most talented young pianists in Chicago. Cumbé will be joined on July 23 by local vallento darlings, Juvenato.

The Festival will also feature some of the biggest names in Colombian cumbia and salsa: accordionist Lisandro Meza, salsa stars La Sonora Carruseles, and the urbane La-33 . These artists promise to deliver an evening of salsa that hits all the right notes, mixing Colombian flair, flawless musicianship, and an unrelenting call to dance.

Meza (July 21, Old Town School of Folk Music) is the quintessential artist who, back home,needs no introduction, a grand master of Latin big band and a Colombian national treasure. His rustic, rough-edged voice contrasts with an effortless agility on the accordion, resulting in his signature heartfelt cumbias adored in Colombia but just catching on in the U.S.

La Sonora Carruseles (July 25; Excalibur) are on a worldwide mission: to bring back the classic salsa of the 1970s but with a hardcore, contemporary twist. They are so good at it that their songs have become mainstays at salsa clubs around the globe and drive fans wild around the globe. "This is salsa on steroids," smiles Suarez, anticipation on his lips. "It's just non-stop energy."

Energy and intensity also come easily to La-33 (July 15; Excalibur), a jazz-inflected salsa band known for its hipness and humor. And like La Sonora Carruseles, their sound is rooted in old-school salsa, but captures the quirky, danceable new spirit of urban Bogotá. La-33 broke into the Colombian limelight with a tongue-in-cheek salsa rendition of "The Pink Panther," and has kept dancefloors across the Americas packed with its wry channeling of Henry Mancini, Los Van Van and New York greats like Charlie Palmieri.

The Festival will have resonance not only in Chicago, but also back in Palenque, thanks to Suarez, who when not blazing with El Grupo Rebolú is the owner of Macondo, a Colombian café and cultural center named for the setting of Gabriel García Márquez' Nobel-winning novel, 100 Years of Solitude. Suarez came to the U.S. as a child along with his parents, who soon became steakhouse restaurateurs. He grew up with the idea that he had a responsibility to show the world that Colombia was just as bright a jewel in the treasure box of Latin American culture as better-known musical troves like Cuba and Brazil .

At first, however, bringing Colombia to Chicago was difficult. "When my parents first opened the steakhouse, we had to sell tacos and burritos," Suarez laughs. This year, he seized on the date of Colombia 's bicentennial-July 20-and a rare convergence of musical stars to turn a loose series of performances into Colombian music's coming-out party. "I feel the best way to share a culture with somebody is through music," opines Suarez, who hopes to make Colombian music a central part of the Chicago arts scene.

Yet, at the heart of Colombian music, there is an uprooted tree, the town of San Basilio de Palenque. Four centuries ago, the Spanish governor granted freedom to the runaway slaves who settled there. In the lifetimes that followed, Palenque 's unique creole music, full of the rhythms of long-lost kings and half-remembered gods, sustained the soul of the Afro-Colombian community and infused the sounds of Colombian pop. Yet, in the 1970s, the economy changed, Palenque opened up, racial friction set in, and a generation all but forgot the culture, language, and music of its ancestors.

The Colombian Music Festival will raise funds to change this, as Suarez and Tomás, the Batata, hope to establish a cultural center in Palenque, a lifelong dream for both. "You have a generation of people who didn't learn their language and culture because they were ashamed," explains Suarez. "Some of the only people that have that knowledge are the people from the Ambulancias. They want to found a school where kids can go to learn how to drum, how to dance, learn the language of their town. We can reverse the trend."

Suarez plans to fund the center with the undiscovered delicacies of Colombia-coffee, empanadas, and music. As Macondo grows and the Festival returns for years to come, so the people of Palenque will reap the benefits. "Half of everything we make on the Ambulancias' show will go towards the purchase of a little piece of land," Suarez explains. Members of the Palenque community have already pledged time, labor, and donations to make the cultural center a reality-now, as Colombian music grows against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline, its roots will find new purchase in its native soil.

Columbian Music Festival (Chicago, IL)
07/01/2010, Thu
Chicago, IL
Batata & las Alegres Ambulancias (Short Performance)
Millennium Park @ 201 E. Randolph Street,
Show: 6:00 pm
Tix: Free Admission.

07/02/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
Batata & las Alegres Ambulancias (Full concert)
Logan Square Auditorium @ 2539 N. Kedzie Blvd.
Tix: $10 Advance/$12 door, Show: 9:00 pm
Ages 18+.

07/03/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
'Carpacho' Marin & Yankatino
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Show: 7:30 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/06/2010, Tue
Chicago, IL
Musical Tour of Colombia 88.5 FM
88.5 FM WHPK
Show: 5:00 pm
host DJ Leo Suarez Free

07/09/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
EnsAmble Ad Hoc
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Show: 7:00 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/10/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
'Carpacho' Marin & Yankatino
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Show: 7:30 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/10/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
Grupo Cumbé
Old Town School Folk & Roots Festival @ corner of Lincoln and Montrose Avs.
Tix: $10, Show: 3:00 pm

07/11/2010, Sun
Chicago, IL
Cuarteto Arpa
Las Tablas Lincoln Ave. @ 2965 N. Lincoln Ave,
Show: 12:00 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/13/2010, Tue
Chicago, IL
Musical Tour of Colombia 88.5 FM, 88.5 FM WHPK
Show: 5:00 PM
host DJ Leo Suarez

07/15/2010, Thu
Chicago, IL
La 33 (short performance)
Millennium Park @ 201 E. Randolph Street,
Show: 6:30 pm
Tix: Free Admission.

07/15/2010, Thu
Chicago, IL
La 33 (Full concert)
Excalibur @ 640 N. Dearborn St.
Tix: $10 Advance/$15 door, Show: 10:00 pm
Presented by Macondo and Latin Street Dancing
(also w/ 6 different DJs on three floors of music and Salsa lesson by Lisa la Boriqua @ 9:00pm).

07/16/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
Samuel del Real Trio
Las Tablas Lincoln Ave @ 2965 N. Lincoln Ave
Show: 7:30 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/16/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
The Diana Mosquera Band
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Show: 7:30 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/17/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
Grupo Rebolú
Summer Dance @ 601 S. Michigan Ave.
Show: 7:00 pm
Tix: Free Admission. Featuring salsa dance lessons by Latin Rhythms from 6:30 - 7pm.
Presented by Summerdance.

07/17/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
Grupo Rebolú
Las Tablas @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Tix: $5 Advanced/$10 door, Doors Open: 7:00 pm, Show: 10:30 pm
Ages 18+. Featuring Colombian Salsa & Latin Jazz
with Carpacho Marin & Yankatino from 7-10pm
and a full concert by Rebolu at 10:30pm.
Also w/ DJ Leo Suarez playing Colombian salsa, vallenato, cumbia & champeta until 3am.

07/18/2010, Sun
Evanston, IL
Grupo Rebolú
Central Stage of Evanston Arts Festival @ 1700 Sheridan Rd.
Show: 1:30 pm
Tix: Free Admission.

07/19/2010, Mon
Chicago, IL
Cumbia Workshop
Africaribe Cultural Center @ 2547 W. Division St.
Tix: $7/class,
3 classes between 7:00pm - 10pm

07/20/2010, Tue
Chicago, IL
Colombian Independence Day
Millenium Park @ 201 E. Randolph St.
Show: 6:00 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/21/2010, Wed
Chicago, IL
Lisandro Meza
Old Town School of Folk Music @ 4544 N. Lincoln Ave.
Tix: $30, Show: 8:00 pm
Also featuring appearances by Grupo Cumbé and Tierra Colombian Folkloric Dance Company.
Presented by World Music Wednesdays at Old Town School,
The International Latino Cultural Center and Macondo.

07/22/2010, Thu
Chicago, IL
EnsAmble Ad Hoc
Las Tablas Lincoln Ave. @ 2965 N. Lincoln Ave,
Show: 7:00 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/22/2010, Thu
Chicago, IL
Vallenato Accordion Workshop
Old Town School of Folk Music @ 4544 N Lincoln Ave.
Tix: $20, Show: 6:00 PM

07/23/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
Carnival de Barranquilla in July
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Tix: $5, Show: 10:00 PM

07/23/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
EnsAmble Ad Hoc
Casa Michoacan @ 638 S. Blue Island Ave
Show: 7:00 PM

07/24/2010, Sat
Chicago, IL
'Carpacho' Marin & Yankatino
Las Tablas Irving Park @ 4920 W. Irving Park Rd
Show: 7:30 PM
Tix: Free Admission

07/25/2010, Sun
Chicago, IL
La Sonora Carruseles
Excalibur @ 640 N. Dearborn St.
Tix: $18 Advance/25 door, Show: 8:00 pm
Ages 21+.
Also featuring DJs Steven & Leo Suarez.
Presented by Macondo and Latin Street Dancing in association with Albert Torres Productions.

07/26/2010, Mon
Chicago, IL
Bomba Estero (Short performance)
Millennium Park @ 201 E. Randolph St.
Show: 6:30 pm
Tix: Free Admission.

07/26/2010, Mon
Chicago, IL
Bomba Estero (Full concert)
Green Dolphin @ 2200 N. Ashland Ave.
Tix: $10 Advance/$15 door, Show: 8:00 pm
Age TBA.
Official closing concert.
Also featuring opening group Ngoma Alegre Percussion Ensemble and DJ from 3golpes.com.
Presented by Macondo and RATIOnation.

07/30/2010, Fri
Chicago, IL
Wrap Up Party!
NV Penthouse @ 116 W. Hubbard Street
Tix: $7, Show: 9:00 PM
21+
Featuring various DJs spinning classic and contemporary Colombian dance music

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