We formed a delegation with the director of Colcultura in order to accompany the Nobel Laureate to Sweden. Singers like La Negra Grande and Toto, la Momposina; folk groups, a group from Barranquilla and a group from the Valle Province. There were 150 of us. They had told the vallenato musicians that Swedish girls went ape over Latin American men, so the guys went there ready, willing, and able to screw all the Swedish girls that crossed their paths. On the third day we said, “Hey, we haven’t gotten any calls yet. ” Seeing that the mountain wasn’t coming to Mohammed, we took Mohammed to the mountain, and we went to a striptease joint. What a joke! They were a bunch of nuns, all covered up, flashing an occasional breast. We were lodged onboard a comfortable but inexpensive ship while the guests of honor were put up in a first-class hotel. It was so cold, one of our crowd wanted to leave. He said: “The thing is that I have a problem and I need your help. When I go outside to take a leak I don’t find my penis.” He wondered how on earth he was going to go back to his country, where he had three women to respond to. When I asked him where he went to release himself, he told me that he went on deck. I told him that with four or five inches of snow, it was only natural for his penis to hide. I told him, “For goodness sake, man, what’s the matter with you? There is a bathroom downstairs.” At a restaurant, the woman behind the counter let out a shriek because Escalona was going to drink the vinaigrette, thinking it was some sort of fruit juice: “You’re drinking the salad dressing!” Aracataca had arrived in Stockholm!

One of my latest is a piece on Afrobeats for Songlines. I’d been wanting to write something on Afrobeats for a year or so after being seriously impressed by some of the pop music I heard coming out of Africa.

This was a chance to get a bit deeper into the subject, and thanks must be laid out to Chief Boima and Antoinette Isama, who were crucial in helping me put this one together.

The article is in Songlines #164, which is out now!

At some point Long Live Vinyl put the article up on their website, albeit with the credits for any photos, or even annotations for what each photo is about, non existent. Anyway, you can still read it. Here’s the link:

I feel very fortunate that it’s loved by so many people these days, and that I get to work with so many amazing collaborators, including all our writers and all the artists, musicians, record companies, PRs, events promoters, other media, etc., etc., that are part of this community we’ve found ourselves in.

We’re now in a position where it feels like we can really push Sounds and Colours to another level, to make it an even better resource for Latin culture (esp. as there is so much incredible content on the site, but which can be hard to find) and to get involved in different types of content (podcasts, short docs, big research projects, regular compilations, online film festivals, and we have many other ideas too!)

So to celebrate our 10th anniversary we’ve launched a fundraiser, with all money raised going towards making Sounds and Colours even bigger and better. As part of that campaign, you can buy our compilation of new Latin American music (have a listen: https://soundsandcolours.bandcamp.com/…/sounds-and-colours-…), pre-order a 10 Years anniversary book and also buy some amazing perks donated by Mr Bongo, Mais Um, And Other Stories, Songlines, Names You Can Trust, ZZK Records / Zizek Club, Peace & Rhythm, Discos Rolas, Movimientos and Soundway Records, as well as grab a few choice items from my record collection!

You can find out more about the campaign at https://www.indiegogo.com/…/sounds-and-colours-10…/x/627815…

Thanks for reading!

Hence, here’s Quipomundo, a new company specialised in Global Music PR. Led by myself, but also using frequent collaborators as needs be.

My first campaigns are for El Palmas Music, a record label based in Barcelona led by Venezuelan Maurice Aymard. Maurice has been releasing music in various forms for many years, but with El Palmas he is focusing on music close to his roots, getting into tropical sounds, and they have some exciting releases on the horizon.

One of these is a split 7″ single featuring tracks by two Colombian producers, El Dragón Criollo and La Jungla. You can listen to the tracks here.

I’m also very excited that, as part of the campaign for this release, Afropop agreed to premiere the video on their site.

Check out their site to watch the video and find out more about the release.

We also put together this Spotify playlist featuring tracks from our favourite albums:

So, if you have any ground-breaking and/or scintillating news on world music please send it my way.

See what I chose below:

Emerson puts the influence of Latin music on primarily Jewish songwriters and producers like Leiber & Stoller and Phil Spector as being down to their proximity to Latin communities, such as the Puerto Ricans, in New York, as well as the popularity of baião beat, which had arrived from Brazil. Little is said about exactly how this beat arrived in the US though some quick Google searches reveal that the performance of “El Negro Zumbón” in the 1952/53 Italian movie Anna may have been one of the first instances of it being heard in the States. Here’s that track below:

I think I may have to do some more digging on how this beat, which originated in the north-east of Brazil, was defined and popularised by the rural singer/songwriter Luiz Gonzaga, reaching national fame there in the 40s and 50s, and then found its way north to become a hugely important rhythm in global pop music. Definitely an interesting avenue to explore.