Links to two Google Maps I created: Places visited; and World dance, music and culture

Over the past few months, I've been busy updating two Google Maps I've created, which represent my interests in travel and culture.

The first map pinpoints all the places I've visited. You can find it at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1J3OA20JGNDea1vMZTx1YMDqFJAI&usp=sharing .

The second map highlights, and contains many links to, audio and video that I've been able to find showing the cultures of the world. This map is located at https://drive.google.com/open?id=186yxS_EKfmTb6Dn7WguKLVvc_F4&usp=sharing .

Hope you enjoy these!

Latin and Caribbean recordings map on Google Maps / Mapa de grabaciones latinoamericanas y caribeñas en Google Maps

For years I had wanted to write a book compiling what I had researched regarding world music, especially Latin and Caribbean music, but with a recent upgrade of Google Maps, I found a better solution: post the information regarding recordings and styles of music on a map, according to their location. This will continue to be updated as I learn more on the subject, but I believe that it finally has enough information to share with all of you. The link to the map is listed below. 

Por muchos años tuve el deseo de escribir un libro compilando lo que había investigado acerca de la música mundial, especialmente latinoamericana y caribeña, pero con una mejora reciente de Google Maps, encontré una mejor solución: poner la información acerca de grabaciones y estilos de música en un mapa, según su localidad. Seguiré ampliando el mapa mientras aprendo más sobre el tema, pero tiene suficientes datos para poderlo compartir con todos ustedes. El enlace al mapa se encuentra abajo.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/ edit?mid=zX6KP5pPw6Jw. kq1ngryvXotI 

Featured CD: Bovea y Sus Vallenatos (Los Cantos Vallenatos de Escalona)

This CD review is, by necessity, about much more than the CD. There is a whole context behind it that I have to explain in order to transmit the significance of a particular piece of music.

Back in 1983, when my interest in the folklore of Latin America was confirmed, I had the opportunity to visit Colombia again for three weeks after having spent a year there on a Fulbright scholarship in 1980-81. This time, what brought me there was my then-fiancée Adriana and my first "meet the parents" visit to their home in Bogotá. We had met in Philadelphia in 1982, got engaged, and after her visa expired later that year, communicated through snail mail and very infrequent, expensive long-distance calls. Remember, this was pre-Internet, pre-Skype, pre-Facebook and pre-everything else.

When I arrived at the airport, I was humbled and overwhelmed by the reception of many people, not only Adriana and her family but also several friends I had met during my year of study. So many had come out, it looked like an official welcoming committee.

While I was in Bogotá and juggling visits to Adriana´s family and my friends, I also had an enormous curiosity to delve further into an interest in culture, and particularly music, that had grown since I finished my one-year grant. One of the styles of music was the popular "vallenato" music, a regional style from
Colombia´s Caribbean coastal region, though not exactly from the coast but rather a valley slightly inland, the same area where Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez was born.

The word "vallenato" refers to a person who lives in the area surrounding the principal city in the valley, Valledupar. This style of music has a relation with the merengue from the Dominican Republic and developed during the 20th century. One of its principal composers was Rafael Escalona (1927-2009), who began creating songs in the 1940s and was a legend in his country. Like García Márquez, Escalona had a great gift for storytelling.

With this information I proceeded to one of the largest record stores in Bogotá, called "Mercado Mundial del Disco" ("World Record Market") whose slogan was "Disco que no tengamos, no existe!" (A record that we don´t have, doesn´t exist!) Of course, this was in the days of LPs and cassettes. I asked about classic vallenato music, and the seller produced the LP of the songs of Escalona, sung by the group (Julio) Bovea y Sus Vallenatos. When I first listened to it, I was disappointed because I expected to hear the accordion, whereas this music was with guitars, along with the scraper and drum. It was explained to me that there was vallenato music interpreted on the guitar, and the more I listened to it, the more I liked it, and it quickly became one of my favorites. When CDs became available, I was able to purchase the album, which added a few songs from the same group that did have the accordion as the lead instrument.

Escalona´s life was often the subject of these songs, and the best known song on the album is "La Casa en el Aire" (The House in the Air), which has the "son" rhythm. In the song Escalona fantasizes how he is going to build a house in the air so that he can protect his daughter Ada Luz from any potential suitors. While I like this song, my absolute favorite is "El Testamento" (paseo rhythm), which describes how Escalona has to leave his girlfriend to travel to Santa Marta to attend school.

As you can imagine, I identify that music with that whole period in my life, which has led to many wonderful things, especially my marriage to Adriana and the ties to her family. Even without that context, the music is highly infectious and will motivate you to dance.

A side note: Colombian singer Carlos Vives began his climb to fame by starring in the soap opera "Escalona" in 1991, based on the life of the composer. My favorite episode was a fictional one that appropriated the legend of "Francisco el Hombre," an accordionist who wins a duel with the devil by singing the Creed in reverse. The segment can be found on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WwBhKIO7k4

This album is available on iTunes. Amazon.com doesn´t have mp3 files of this album for sale but you can find the link to the CD at http://www.amazon.com/Cantos-Vallenatos-Escalona-Bovea-Sus/dp/B00008FZ3J/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_aud?ie=UTF8&qid=1404299899&sr=8-1&keywords=bovea+y+sus+vallenatos+los+cantos+vallenatos+de+escalona

Please check out my Facebook pages "Mike Esposito´s Travel Blog" and "Folklorelatino" (in Spanish).

Reflections on traditional music versus modern music

Learning about traditional music goes a long way in helping me understand a place that I have visited, as well as have a greater appreciation for the cultural diversity that exists in the world. For the most part, what seems to identify a region and separate it from its neighbors is a particular style of music. Usually, the older the style is, the more it represents its region because the earlier difficulties of transportation from one place to another tended to foster the development of a particular style of traditional music distinct from the surrounding regions. Styles that have come into vogue later on tend to be more pan-regional and often don't provide this sort of insight, with a few notable exceptions, such as the brand of salsa that has developed in Cali, Colombia.

When I began to listen to traditional music, there were a lot of styles that I didn't enjoy listening to because they were made by societies that didn't have the benefit of technology to make refined instruments, plus the melodies were often repetitious and sounded strange to my Western ears. Over time, however, I began to appreciate the context in which these styles were created and didn't allow my earlier prejudices to prevent me from embracing those styles as the authentic expression of the people.

As these traditional styles have evolved, there have been tendencies for the people to make certain adjustments based on the possibilities that technology offers. Dancers often like recorded music because the beats are more predictable and easier to dance to than a live group that may not play to a rhythm conducive to dancing. I had a direct experience with this situation as an organizer of a cultural event in Philadelphia in which a group of tango dancers struggled to adjust to the shifting rhythms of the local Argentinian music group and found a recording much easier to follow. The compromise was using the musicians for some songs and the recordings for others. Also, modern musicians often prefer electronic instruments to acoustic instruments because they are sometimes easier to transport, plug into sound systems directly instead of having to be amplified by a microphone, and appeal more to contemporary audiences. For example, musicians may add the electric bass in situations where the tradition didn't have a bass or had a rudimentary bass, as is the case with many Colombian "vallenato" groups (a type of music from the Caribbean coast) like the one shown above. At least one writer has decried this modification as only serving to drown out the percussion, but the more traditional vallenato groups with only three instruments - the accordion, scraper and drum - still exist alongside their larger, electrified counterparts. The venue dictates which type of group will take precedence.

Despite this evolution, pop music is seen as a competitor to traditional and regional music, and with the huge marketing resources that pop music has at its disposal, the playing field is very uneven. There are differences of opinion among those promoters of regional music as to how to deal with this situation. The late folklorist Alan Lomax gave this assessment: "We now have cultural machines so powerful that one singer can reach everybody in the world, and make all the other singers feel inferior because they're not like him. Once that gets started, he gets backed by so much cash and so much power that he becomes a monstrous invader from outer space, crushing the life out of all the other human possibilities. My life has been devoted to opposing that tendency." I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Lomax that the incredible variety of human expression that is represented in folklore should not be extinguished by a  money machine. Where I see divergence is how those representatives of their local cultures choose to deal with the situation.

I have heard some local musicians complain about how they are passed over in representing their region in festivals in favor of singers who represent a style foreign to their particular area. While I certainly sympathize with them and realize that they often need an advocate to increase their influence, the end result often is the fading of the traditional style as their most storied proponents pass away. Another approach is similar to the saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" but is more like "If you can't beat 'em, meet 'em halfway." Realizing the enormous reach and influence of popular music, some promoters of the traditional style try to incorporate certain elements of pop music into their repertoire, or perform in both traditional groups and fusion groups, so that they do not sell out to pop. For example, in a conversation with a traditional Colombian Pacific Coast music group at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2009, one of the musicians mentioned that he was looking for a fusion of his local music with popular music that could serve as a "hook" to get their young people more interested in the local traditions. I couldn't answer his question at that time, but a few weeks later I traveled to Bogota, Colombia and found the answer: a group that developed a fusion of that same style with rap. It sounded great and represented the best that both the Pacific Coast music and rap had to offer. I personally prefer the acoustic sound of the traditional music, but felt that the fusion group had done a very good job of respecting the roots music and may have provided a bridge so that people could appreciate the tradition better. The debate is not likely to go away, but I am hesitant to disagree with anyone who has faced a decline in popularity of their regional style and would like a wider audience to appreciate it so that the style does not disappear completely. Ultimately, the standard bearers of the tradition should be the ones to decide.

Check out the article on Latin music on my website for more information.

Caribbean: Musicians on St. Martin, 2002

In 2002 I traveled to the island of St. Martin, which is shared by the French and Dutch. My goal was to look for people who were involved in music and dance traditions. One person I was fortunate to meet was Carlson Velasquez, who has spent nearly all of his life there; he was born in Aruba but was taken to St. Martin by his family when he was six months old.

Carlson is one of a generation who learned the guitar and its Cuban cousin, the tres, from other island musicians. Their repertoire includes music from the Caribbean islands, including the Spanish-speaking ones, as well as old-time American country music and religious songs. The style of music reminds people of Cuban musicians such as Compay Segundo and others from the Buena Vista Social Club. The photo shows Carlson with his resonator guitar.

Carlson also makes a bass instrument called the marimba, not the same as the marimba from Guatemala and other Central American countries. The Caribbean-style marimba comes from a smaller African instrument called the kalimba, which consists of a number of metal tongs attached to a resonator box. This instrument is still used in folk bands in different parts of the Caribbean.

See my webpage on the Caribbean at http://www.latinandcaribbeantravel.com/caribbean.html

Caribbean: Trinidad Steel Band, 2006

I was in Trinidad and Tobago in September 2006 for a few days of Carifesta, a Caribbean regional arts festival that takes place every three or four years in a different Caribbean destination. Most of the events took place in the stadium area in downtown Port-of-Spain, the capital, but there were plenty of events in other places as well. The events were not publicized in the most efficient manner, so in some cases it was hit or miss. I did get lucky, however, when I was in the town of Arima, which featured a small-scale arts event with calypsonians, Hindu and native American dancers, a steel band and another percussion band with an incredible amount of energy. The next Carifesta is scheduled to take place in Guyana in 2008. Information can be found at http://www.carifesta.net/public_html/

Visit my webpage on the Caribbean at http://www.latinandcaribbeantravel.com/caribbean.html