zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric

Monday, January 05, 2004

CHE CHE COLE TO THE FUTURE

Just want to second Doug Wolk's paean to Antibalas' "Che Che Cole", which for me was easily among the best cultural, not just musical, moments of 2003.

For one it happened to touch on one of my private obsessions this past year, which has been trying to quickly learn as much about early 70s Latin music as possible, and my growing comfort level with the idea of polyculturalism. (On the latter, check this interview Vijay Prashad.)

The song:

Che Che Cole is a cover of the Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe salsa classic from 1971. The single features a Makossa version and an Afrobeat version. Both are pure fire.

The history (first, a shout out to Peter Shapiro for launching me on this journey):

Colon was an ex-Bronx gang member during the mid-60s and a contemporary of South Bronx movers like the Ghetto Brothers, Savage Skulls, and Savage Nomads, who began revolutionizing salsa in the late 60s. Young, street-smart, hardcore (his album covers tended to highlight gangsta themes), he was also polyculturalist to the core. The bilingual (in Spanish and a West African dialect I don't know). lyrics to "Che Che Cole" came from a Ghanaian children's rhyme he learned, and he set the song to a Puerto Rican bomba rhythm, before adding salsa sabor.

This was an era when salsa bands were going Afrodiasporic, experimenting with--as the title of Grupo Folklorico's classic album put it--"concepts in unity". The most obvious touchstone for Antibalas' experiment is Fania All-Stars' NYC performance with Manu Dibango of "Soul Makossa", but going strong at the same time were Cortijo and his Time Machine and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive, while on the west coast, groups like the Escovedo's Azteca and Cesar Ascarrunz' San Francisco band were rocking a new sound.

Unlike the bugalu moment of the mid-60s, when Latin bands mostly de-clave'd to move toward North American black funk and soul, the new hybrid sound of jazz, rock, soul, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Rican sounds leaned south to Latin America and east to Africa. The diversity of ideas--sonically, culturally, politically--that came out of that are just boggling to me. You could begin at the end of the 60s by drawing a line between, say, Ray Barretto's "Acid" and JB's "Sex Machine Live" album and then see the connections begin to multiply as the new decade begins. Palmieri to Mayfield to Bartz to the AEC to Wonder to Santana to Cortijo and the web just expands.

In this Bush unilateralist world, it seems as good a time as any to revive the open-hearted riddims and ideas of that period. In fact, if Antibalas has often been accused of being too retro-purist, this form of cultural globalization feels more in line with their one-world politics and better displays the range of the individual band member's talents and riddim-knowledges (from dub to vodun to santeria, and on and on). Kuti's Afrobeat did not evolve far (blame the cult of personality, perhaps), and while classicism has its place, it rarely intersects with right-now relevance. If this is Antibalas' new groove, it's a wide open and promising one, and, if things can be right in this world, might become the soundtrack of this coming summer's protest season.

OK, one more post this week--the Bay Guardian piece--is about all I can handle for now. Mad work to do this month. You're welcome to peep the holiday content explosion below and in the leftbar. Peace.

posted by Zentronix @ 1:03 AM 1 comments

1 Comments:

At 4/28/08, 1:50 PM, Jozephus said...: Bravo man! Our unilaterism, like most of the stuff folks are projecting onto abstracts like "government" or single entities like Bush...are more of a product of our Utopian, Triumphalism, Materialism, clothed in somewhat Religious tones that is more the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and everyone else after him who equated American "progress" especially technological and healthcare-ish, with Heaven on Earth. Bush is just an easy target, because unlike so many others...you actually know who you're mad at when you hear/see him, as he suffers from that most un-diplomatic of tendencies...when he says yes and no...most times anyway, he means it. Not the brightest bulb in the shed no doubt...many things I disagree with on the part of his administration, etc.but I fear after him it'll be another century of forked tongues...no matter how "multi-culti" fawny packaging it comes in. Hopefully some of us will still keep in mind that it really doesn't matter who's president. It matters infinitely more who we are who are being presided over, and what choices we're making, how we're living...that defines a nation. Not easy to cover via 24 hr. a day "news" spinneratti (no matter what "side" they're supposedly on...), but like most things that are true...it happens while you're looking for "real progress" to happen...thus the most untried." Ah well...enough of me. Thanks for the info on this CLASSIC!

Previous posts
Check new "backstory" section on the left bar for ...
JUST FOR THE RECORD Because the hate continues to...
YEAR-END LISTS DON'T HAVE TO SUCK... Cuz Michaela...
Best whatthefuck moment of New Year's Eve: Bonecru...
Last quote of the year, unearthed from a 1986 Voic...
STICK A BUSH Hey it's almost 2004. Time for some ...
John Nichols on Joe Strummer. Has Strummer become ...
SMELLS LIKE A READING LIST, L-Z Below, the long-p...
FYI...here's a story in the Chronicle about the tr...
IT'S ON THE WAY, I PROMISE! Steve Oney's pain is ...

select * from pages where handle = "BlogLinks" #content#

Archives
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009