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// Anibal Velasquez
© Analog Africa
Mambo Loco
Barranquilla’s accordion legend Anibal Velasquez plays fast and furious Música Tropical. This collection celebrates a remarkable career which is still going strong.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing a DJ set by the Analog Africa crew you’ll immediately recognize the tuff, up-tempo, drum ‘n’ percussion driven sound of master accordionist and Baranquilla legend, Anibal Velasquez. Analog Africa’s crate digging label boss Samy Ben Redjeb has long been rinsing out the vinyl outlets along Colombia’s Caribbean coastline and Mambo Loco is the result. Anibal Velazquez made his first recording in 1952. He was 16 years old and since then he is reputed to have recorded around 300 albums! In the 1960s he forged a new craze - the ‘Guaracha de Anibal Velasquez’. At the root of his sound was la caja – a Colombian drum modified by adding x-ray film over the drum head to give a harder, drier sound. Old rhythms got reinvented and both Cuban and Puerto Rican ones were added to the conjunto's repertoire. The rhythms were twisted to fit with his beloved accordion – an instrument that Anibal popularized thereby removing the stigma that it was a second class instrument used only by peasants (campesinos). His music is unrepentantly up-tempo and driven by rolling cumbia style bass lines and crisp percussion. The tunes on Mambo Loco are fired up by punchy call and response vocals, blistering piano montunos and his own astonishing accordion solos and it’s easy to see why his reputation spread like wild fire, attracting both admirers and contenders alike including fellow musicians Lizandro Meza and Fruko. During the 1060s the demand for marijuana in the States sparked off a major shift in the Colombian economy. The Cartels arrived and Anibal’s accordion provided a soundtrack for the drug barons feverish life styles. However, Velasquez regarded the lyrical content of the then popular and slower Vallenato style as decadent and too associated with violence. It was the same violent madness of the 1970s that drove the musician to flee his hometown and take up residence in Caracas, Venezuela where his music continued to flourish. No surprises there! Welcome to the crazy heart of Musica Tropical.
Anibal Velasquez - Mambo Loco
Anibal Velasquez y Su Conjunto - Mambo Loco
is out now on Analog Africa
Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser
(3 votes)
// ALSO
- Legends of Benin - Afro-Beat, Cavacha, Agbadja, Afro-Funk 1969-1981
- Pernett
- Palenque Palenque : Champeta roots
- Quantic chart, Colombian visions
- Samy Ben Redjeb, Analog adventures
- Quantic and his Combo Barbaro album launch tour starts Friday 5 June at the ICA
- Joe Bataan & James Pants live at Cargo 11 June plus dates in Leeds and Birmingham
- Andrés 'El Jíbaro' Jiménez, Andrés 'El Jíbaro' Jiménez - Puerto Rico's folk music icon
- Call for entrants: RFI Discoveries Award 2010
// ALL ANIBAL VELASQUEZ'S REVIEWS
Mambo Loco
28/04/2010
// DISCOGRAPHY
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Mambo Loco (Compilation)// LINKS
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