Cumbia!: Scenes of a Migrant Latin American Music Genre

Chapter 1. Cumbia Music in Colombia: Origins, Transformations, and Evolution of a Coastal Music Genre

1. Cumbia Music in Colombia Origins, Transformations, and Evolution of a Coastal Music Genre Costeño Music and Its Sociocultural Context The Caribbean coastal region of Colombia is called the Costa, and its inhabitants are referred to as costeños.1 The música costeña (coastal music) is a product of tri-­ ethnic syncretic cultural traditions including Amerindian, Spanish , and African elements (List 1980b, 1983), a merging that begins with the colonial period and continues into the republican period on the Caribbean Coast.2 Traditional music from the Colombian Caribbean coast expresses its tri-­ ethnic costeño identity in various vocal styles and musical forms and through its type of instruments and the way they are played.3 In this chapter I describe the aspects and circumstances under which cumbia, a coastal musical genre and dance form of peasant origins characterized byan African-­ derived style, has spread from its local origins in the valley of the Magdalena River to acquire a Colombian national identity, becoming in a few years a transnational musical phenomenon. Through its heterogeneity, coastal ethno-­ organology reflects the different ethnic and cultural contributions that shape costeño culture. Instrumental ensembles are the product of this process of hybridization.They usually combine instruments of indigenous origin, such as the gaita (vertical duct flute) and the maraca (rattle); African origin, such as the tambor alegre and the llamador, single-­headed drums ofdifferent sizes, the tambora (double-­headed drum), the cañademillo(amillet-­canetransverseclarinet),themarímbula(alargewooden-­ box lamellaphone), and the marimba de napa (musical bow); and European origin , such as the accordion and the wind instruments of the brass bands. Most of the ritmos (as the musical genres for dancing are called) of ColomLeonardo D’Amico 30 Leonardo D’Amico bia’s Atlantic coastal region—such as tambora, bullerengue, chandé, mapalé, cumbia, porro, puya, fandango—show some “Africanisms” present in their musical structure: The basic concept operative in most cases is the underlying reiterated cycle of pulses or time-­ span. . . . African influence is therefore to be found in the complex framework built above this foundation, involving pervasive off-­ beat phrasing, overlapping of call and response patterns, specific uses of the hemiola, and the employment of both disjunct and irregular cycles in the realization of the underlying time-­ span. These traits plus the density of rhythmic structure displayed in the performances of percussion ensembles relate coste ño music to that of sub-­ Saharan Africa. (List 1980a: 16–17) There are various occasions during the year when music is traditionally performed : during Catholic festivities,4 such as Christmas and Easter, on patron saints days, and at carnivals and folk festivals (e.g., Festival Nacional de la Cumbia at El Banco, Festival de Gaita in San Jacinto, Festival de la Tambora in Tamalameque, Festival del Porro in San Pelayo, and Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata in Valledupar). On the Caribbean coast, musical groups, or conjuntos (small instrumental sets with four to five elements), represent a further metamorphosis or evolution of the earlier tambora,5 which, spread among the black communities along the Magdalena River, stands as an archetype. The tambora ensemble consists of percussion and vocals only, including a conical drum with a single head (currulao),6 a cylindrical drum with a double head (tambora), and chant in the form of a call-­and-­response pattern performed by a male or female solo singer alternating with a chorus of women (cantadoras) and accompanied by the palmoteo (hand-­ clapping) or beating of the tablitas or palmetas (wooden paddles) of a chorus of women singing the refrain (Carbó Ronderos 2003). Its repertoire includes the bailes cantados (sung dances)—such as bullerengue, tambora, chandé, berroche, guacherna—and songs in call-­ and-­ response form (with a solo singer and chorus), accompanied by drums and handclap.7 As an expression of Afro-­ Colombian music culture, tamboras are quite common in the region considered the birthplace of cumbia, the Mompox area. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, many palenques, villages formed by fugitive slaves (cimarrones) during the colonial period, sprang up in this area.8 In fact, from the organological point of view, the line-­ up of coastal conjuntos consists of drums that make up the tambora, to which the transverse clarinet, the caña de millo (cane of millet), or two vertical flutes Cumbia Music in Colombia 31 (gaitas) were added, giving birth, respectively, to the conjuntos of cañamilleros and gaiteros. Throughout this...