The Caribbean: scattered islands, surrounded by sea that is at times green, at times grey, and at times blue. The nations that make up the Caribbean are all products of large slave populations, sometimes 90 per cent to 10 per cent plantation owners, the genocides of native tribes such as...
Tag Archives: caribbean
12 hours of enriching music, engaging dances and diverse traditions. Next Sunday, from noon to midnight, Open the Gate and Rich Mix will give life to a music marathon hosting musicians coming from Japan to Trinidad, India to Brazil and playing all sorts of styles from reggae to enka, hip-hop...
Calypso Rose is a calypsonian in the true sense of the word. Actually, if that word still has a sense, part of the credit goes to her. She started composing and playing calypso when she was 15, when calypso was arguably at its popularity peak and spreading its messages all...
In 1970s New York salsa emerged, conquering the world in just a few decades. Caribbean migrants (mainly Puerto Rican, Dominican and Cuban) were at the heart of the Latin community, bringing musical styles such as cha cha chá, son, guaracha, mambo, bolero, plena, bomba and even Latin jazz. This breeding...
![Album Review: La Máquina Insular – Somos La Plena [Vampisoul, 8th April 2016]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/artworks-000158856838-v6sl04-t500x500-335x335.jpg)
It is undeniable that the 2016 single by La Máquina Insular pays tribute to Rafael Cortijo, the Puerto Rican orchestra leader and composer, who was renowned (and remains renowned) as an advocate of the plena. In 7-minutes, this Vampisoul’s Saoco series single lifts the spirit and tradition of Puerto Rican...
How does one successfully blend the sounds and instruments of several cultures in order to produce something new? It’s a question that has puzzled many great musicians from Gilberto Gil to the Rolling Stones. What we do know is that it includes putting together a great band and the art...
![Album Review: Family Atlantica – Cosmic Unity [Soundway, 13th May 2016]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160301102836-35e07520-3b01-4cb6-8bfd-f5309380c774-335x332.jpg)
Family Atlantica is ‘London’s musical melting pot at it’s very best’ according to reviews from The Guardian. The band, which consists of London-born multi-instrumentalist Jack Yglesias, Venezuelan vocalist Luzmira Zerpa, and half-Nigerian, half-Ghanian percussionist Kwame Crentsil, started out in an abandoned vicarage in Hackney, East London, before winning fans over with...
Usually it would be rude to reveal a woman’s age, but there are always exceptions. Especially when it comes to an impressive young musician, composer, arranger and choir director who, at the age of 24, has already released two albums, toured the world, signed for Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings,...
With just two songs and their videos, an unprecedented level of hype was created among Caribbean, African and also Latin music enthusiasts. That’s because ÌFÉ are one of the most surprising and promising new acts coming from the Puerto Rican music scene. As their Yoruba name reflects, they are all...
To compile a playlist about calypso music is also to delve into Trinidad and Tobago’s history. When the first kaisonians or storytellers/griots were deported from West Africa (in particular Nigeria) in the late 17th century, they started to spread a new music repertoire on the islands referring to their Ibibio...
