7:30 pm

Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, a traditional folkloric cumbia group from Colombia’s Caribbean region, has been active since 1940. Their music preserves the traditional rhythms and sounds that are the product of a mixture of Indigenous, Spanish, and Afro-Colombian heritage. Dating back at least to the time of Bolivar, gaitero music is played on two flutes (gaitas) and a maraca, both of Indigenous origin, and drums of African origin, through the descendants of the many African slaves who passed through the country’s Caribbean coast. The group’s founder, Antonio “Toño” Fernández, is credited with paving the way for modern cumbia’s enormous popularity throughout the Americas by being the first to successfully put words to gaitero music. The group is currently headed by four of the original members, who perform with a new generation of gaiteros. Thanks in large part to them, gaitero music has become one of the most influential traditional styles in Colombian popular music today.

Baracutanga, a New Mexico-based seven-piece band representing four different countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and the U.S.), prides itself on arranging traditional South American rhythms in new and interesting ways, such as mixing huayño and cumbia with Middle Eastern darbuka, or Afro-Cuban batá and Afro-Peruvian festejo with Andean zampoñas, among other combinations. This kind of experimentation, blending ancestral traditions with a modern sensibility, results in an exciting, distinctive Latin flavor that is all its own. Lyrically and musically, Baracutanga proposes to build bridges between the south and north, finding common ground in creating songs that cross linguistic and cultural barriers and promoting cultural experiences that empower Latinos with a message of self-affirmation. Baracutanga will be celebrating the release of their latest single and video “Cuida Tus Espaldas.
$22, $27 w/ $2 off for NHCC Members