Part of La Linea 19 - The London Latin Music Festival.
Accordionist-singer and composer extraordinaire Celso Piña, is the King of Cumbia – the loping four/four rhythm that soundtracks Latin America from Mexico to Argentina. Celso pioneered the mixing of cumbia with other tropical sounds and the Mexican flavours of norteña and sonidero. His huge hit Cumbia Sobre el Rio(originally recorded with Control Machete) introduced a generation raised on urban music to the rolling delight of the cumbia sound and led to other hits such as Cumbia Poder, Cumbia En Mi Tierra,and Cumbia de Cualquiera.
Celso Piña bought his first accordion in 1980 and taught himself to play; he and his brothers started playing regional music in their beloved Independencia neighborhood, south of the city of Monterrey, Mexico. His love of music and curiosity for new sounds led him to start to explore Colombian cumbia. In the mid 80s, Celso was playing mostly cumbia tropical, but after listening to the Colombian cumbia pioneers, Aníbal Velasquez and Alfredo Gutierrez during a popular local dance, he decided to enter fully into the vallenato music world, forming his own band with brothers and friends: Celso Piña y Su Ronda Bogotá.
He has recorded and performed with artists such as Café Tacvba, Control Machete, Bacilos, El Gran Silencio, Julieta Venegas, Ely Guerra, Benny Ibarra, Lila Downs, Alex Lora, Lupe Esparza, Eugenia León, Aleks Syntek, Gloria Trevi, Laura León, Natalia Lafourcade, Nicho Hinojosa, Flaco Jiménez, Alejandro Markovich and Sargento García. Celso has recorded over 30 studio albums, and performed in more than 30 countries over his career of 39 years.
DJs Russ Jones & Carlitos Niño from London’s longest running night Arriba La Cumbia play an opening set of cumbia classics.
Tropicália Fest began at an impromptu bus stop for yours truly, as it did for most other attendees. I parked and then boarded a free shuttle bus to one’s desire. The shuttle bus was a classic yellow school bus in my case. Sitting behind a starry-eyed couple, with whom I…
Artists: Café Tacvba , Celso Piña , Chicano Batman , Cuco , Kali Uchis , Los Tigres Del Norte , Os Mutantes
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