Liner Notes: Carlos Vives, “Cumbiana”
I wrote the liner notes for Carlos Vives’ six-time Latin Grammy-nominated album “Cumbiana,” the result of his long investigation into the origin of the cumbia and an homage to Colombia’s indigenous people from the swampy lands bordering the Magdalena River. I am proud to contribute to the revival of the art of liner notes, this time for a vinyl edition of an album from a Latin superstar and major label (Sony Music Latin).
CUMBIANA
Cumbiana opens upon arrival at Colombia’s Magdalena River, where Carlos Vives began his exploration into the origins of the cumbia, which he defines not as a particular rhythm, as many people around the world may think of it, or even as the musical genre most synonymous with his native country, but as “everything that we are, especially what brings us together.”
Connecting native Colombian, Caribbean, African, American and European cultures, ancestral traditions, pop melodies, street music, rock-and-roll, urban beats loops and electronic landscapes, Cumbiana embodies the spirit of innovation and collaboration that has marked cumbia’s continuous journey around the world, and, in surprising ways, takes it further, celebrating its reciprocal nature with performances by singers Alejandro Sanz, Jessie Reyez, Rubén Blades, Ziggy Marley and Elkin Robinson.
As in the songs on Cumbiana, the past is present on the album’s cover, which shows Vives standing on a wooden board with a long pole in his hand in the stance of an ancient fisherman, floating on the Ciénaga Grande, the imposing lagoon on the marshy delta that stands between the great river and the Caribbean Sea, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, near Vives’ birthplace, the port city of Santa Marta.
Vives found the roots of the cumbia in the mangrove swamps of the territory once known as the land of the Pocabuy tribe. The ancient legacy of the indigenous wetland realm rich in natural resources has been all but washed away, save for its monumental musical contribution.
“I discovered a world that we forgot,” Vives says. “I discovered that behind our cumbias are a people who lived on the water from whom we inherited very distinctive musical traits.”
The unique landscape where Vives found Cumbiana also inspired Gabriel García Márquez, who named the town Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude for the trees native to the river banks. With Cumbiana, Vives calls for the revitalization of that magical environment, whose ecosystem is now severely threatened after years of mismanagement and neglect.
Vives followed a trail to the birthplace of cumbia that was marked by the late Colombian musician José Barros, a master of folkloric styles who unequivocally pinpointed cumbia’s origin as indigenous, de-emphasizing the music’s more widely acknowledged African and Spanish elements.
Vives, whose ground-breaking Clásicos de la Provincia first took the sound of Colombia’s vallenato to the world, has created a current album rooted in music’s timeless reciprocal connections, made together with a diverse cast of foremost international musical and production talents.
Cumbiana was recorded in Colombia, the U.S., England, San Andrés and Providencia islands, Spain, Panama, Argentina, Mexico and Canada, with Carlos Vives, Martín Velilla and guitarist Andrés Leal as principal producers. Pianist Glen Scott and drummer Steve Jordan join Teto Ocampo, Mayte Montero, Tato Marenco, Luis Ángel “El Papa” Pastor, Einar Escaff, Pablo Bernal, Egidio Cuadrado, Delay Magdaniel, Amilkar Ariza, Wilmar Guzmán, Chris Hierro, Roberto Delgado and Spanish pianist Alfonso Pérez, among other on the album. The production talent includes acclaimed mixer Manny Marroquín and engineers Dave Rowland, Andy Borda and Harbey Marín, as well as Vives’ son, Carlos Enrique Vives. The album was produced in consort with Rafa Arcaute, heading Sony Music Latin’s A&R team; Carlos Vives’ Gaira Música and Sony.
“I’ve always felt that folklore should not be put in a straight-jacket,” notes Vives. “Cumbiana is about rescuing the memory of cumbia for new generations with modern sounds.”
TRACK NOTES
Hechicera feat. Jessie Reyez
A powerful goddess emerging from the mythical waters between the Magdalena River and the Caribbean Sea casts her spell on the dance floor: Jessie Reyez gives voice to the mysterious woman who makes flowers bloom with just a glance, inspired by the Andean mother spirit Bachué. Building on the flirtatious heart of the fast-paced cumbión with drums, gaitas, guitar, cane flute, accordion and synths, “Hechicera” takes the rhythm from fishing village to urban metropolis, celebrating a modern woman’s magic.
No Te Vayas
Starting like the promise of a sunny spring morning and ending in front of a fireplace in a house in Bogota, “No Te Vayas” is, in Vives’ words, “A story of love, the kind I like most.” The mood-enhancing pop ballad powered by vallenato melodies and grounded in the heat of a beat rooted in Cartagena’s Afro-Colombian zambapalo dance rhythm embraces the greatness of life’s little moments.
For Sale Feat. Alejandro Sanz
Carlos Vives and Alejandro Sanz continue the tradition of music’s infinite round-trip journey between Latin America and Spain with a song about another never-ending story: love and loss. Vives was introduced by Sanz to colombianas, a flamenco style that infuses elements of rumba, tango and Cuban acoustic ballads in songs so emotional that they should come with a warning for the weak of heart. Vives describes “For Sale” as a fusion of “a corazón partio” with “the pick of a gaita.” His 21st Century ida y vuelta song with Sanz is a transatlantic collaboration chronicling a once in a life-time love story, with an often repeated but more often unheeded moral: Money doesn’t buy love.
El Hilo Feat. Ziggy Marley & Elkin Robinson
The music of two Caribbean islands is woven together by Carlos Vives, Ziggy Marley and Elkin Robinson in “El Hilo” (“The Thread”), inspired by the indigenous cultures of Colombia: “I wanted to use magic Arhuaca and Kogui words to write a song about love, about brotherhood, about supporting one another and taking care of each other.” The ancient Tayrona people’s tradition of welcoming visitors by tying a simple bracelet to their wrists as a symbol of connection inspired Vives to write a song uniting the music of Jamaica and Providencia, the Colombian Caribbean island that is Robinson’s home.
Canción Para Rubén Feat. Rubén Blades
Vives pays tribute to Rubén Blades with a song that showcases their shared legacy and salutes salsa fans around the world. “Canción Para Rubén” is a love letter to Panama and its connection with Colombia, that Vives describes as “not only a musical one, but one of affection.” Accordion and congas, clarinet and cowbells, salsa, cumbia and Panama’s national song and dance, tamborito, come together with two of the most original and influential voices of contemporary Latin music, who in turn honor the songs that taught them the lessons of life, reverberating with music’s one biggest truth: What’s really good never goes out of style.
Vitamina en Rama
“Vitamina en Rama” is a carnivalesque feel-good celebration of street music, from Carribean porro and champeta to second lines and New York City doo wop. A sensuous nod to the natural world inspired by Vives eating vegan, and his concern for the endangered environment, it’s a song about self-care and environmental awareness wrapped in tropical sabrosura.
Los Consejos del Difunto
“The rhythm that breaks the water with many oars” is how Vives describes the ancestral drum patterns that form the foundation of “Los Consejos del Difunto,” echoing from the territory of the aboriginal Pocabuyes, a grand culture that rose from the swampy land on the Magdalena river: the cradle of the cumbia. For Vives, those drums recall the sounds of fishing villages on the river he visited with his father, a doctor, and also of soccer games in his native Santa Marta, where drummers beat out cheers for the players on the side lines. “ Los Consejos del Difunto” is an offering of respect and solidarity: “It’s that canoe where I share with people messages, life lessons, what I’ve learned; and we talk about the mysteries of life.”
Rapsodia en la Mayor (Para Elena)
Vives’ affectionate song dedicated to his daughter Elena makes a poetic reflection about innocence and the fleeting shelter of childhood. Inspired by Colombian romantic poet Rafael Pombo, a lifelong reference, Vives rhapsodizes about the blessed state of being oblivious to war and pain, and the reverie of afternoons spent outside, “dancing among the stones.” In the song, a girl picks up a guitar, breaking from the confines of classical piano lessons, and the beat intensifies as the lyrical “Rapsodia en la Mayor” blossoms into a rock song ripe with teenage anticipation.
Cumbiana
In a song about resilience and the power of possibility, Vives sings to Cumbiana, who embodies the legendary land where the cumbia was born. Vives’ desire to restore the history of Colombia’s coastal wetlands culture to the collective memory, and his ambition to reverse the neglect to the region’s natural wonders resound universally in our endangered world. “Y será si tu lo quieres y lo sueñas,” he sings. “And if you want it and you dream it, it will be.”
Zhigonezhi
A multi-layered electronic meditation that follows the patterns of native Colombian music, “Zhigonezhi,” is a call and response with the spirits, built on the hypnotic sound of the indigenous millo, or reed flute. A gathering of bird calls and galloping beats crescendos into an urgent warning from beyond, a dark night that breaks into the peaceful dawn.