Meet Itinerante, a gaggle reviving Colombia’s Andean music : NPR

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Colombia’s Andean music goes by way of a renaissance. Performed on three string devices, this music was the nation’s soundtrack from the flip of the twentieth century to the Forties. And it is rising in popularity once more because of a brand new technology of musicians. Betto Arcos brings us the story of one in all these teams, Bogota’s Itinerante.

(SOUNDBITE OF INSTRUMENTS TUNING)

BETTO ARCOS, BYLINE: On a latest late afternoon on the thirteenth ground of a high-rise residence constructing close to downtown Bogota, the three members of Itinerante are replicating a ritual they began seven years in the past. After tuning their devices, they play a basic piece of Colombian Andean music from the early 1900s known as “Juguete,” or toy.

(SOUNDBITE OF ITINERANTE’S “JUGUETE”)

ARCOS: Colombian Andean music is a confluence of many conventional rhythms, reminiscent of Bambuco, Pasillo and Torbellino. It is performed throughout Colombia’s Andean mountain vary from the north to the south of the nation. On the middle of this music are three string devices, two of them native to Colombia – the tiple, a 12 steel-string guitar-like instrument organized in 4 programs of three strings, the bandola, a 12-string mandolin-like instrument, and the six-string Spanish guitar.

(SOUNDBITE OF ITINERANTE’S “TARTARIN”)

ARCOS: The members of Itinerante are 38-year-old guitarist Sebastian Martinez, 24-year-old bandola participant Mateo Patino and 33-year-old tiple participant Diego Bahamon. Mateo Patino says he began enjoying guitar, then tiple, however the melodic high quality of the bandola captivated him essentially the most.

MATEO PATINO: (By interpreter) It is the brightness, the actual shade that is so distinctive. Although the bandola belongs to the household of devices performed with a plectrum, I feel it is very totally different from all of them. I actually just like the bandola’s presence and its singular sound.

(SOUNDBITE OF ITINERANTE’S “GUATAVITA”)

ARCOS: Guitarist Sebastian Martinez grew up listening to rock bands reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Queen. The music he composes for the trio has these influences, together with the piece he wrote for his or her debut album.

SEBASTIAN MARTINEZ: (By interpreter) And, in fact, the entire components of the normal fashion known as bambuco. You may discover the blues scales I take advantage of in it. It was born throughout an evening of insomnia. That is why it is known as “Noctambulo” – night time owl.

(SOUNDBITE OF ITINERANTE’S “NOCTAMBULO”)

ARCOS: Tiple participant Diego Bahamon says he met Patino when he was 16 on the famend Colombian Andean music pageant Mono Núñez in 2014 and launched him to Martinez the next yr.

DIEGO BAHAMON: They usually met within the first rehearsal. In order that was the primary rehearsal of Itinerante. It was in 2015. So it has been greater than seven years to date.

ARCOS: In these seven years, they’ve gained the respect of a few of the prime musicians of the fashion. For his or her debut album, Itinerante counted on the mentorship and steerage of Fernando Leon. Bahamon says Leon is among the most revered figures of Colombian Andean music.

BAHAMON: He has a number of info of this music as a result of he has been finding out these music, enjoying this music since nearly greater than 50 years, I might say. He assist us within the creation of the repertoire, and he made some preparations for this album.

(SOUNDBITE OF INTINERANTE’S “FLOR DE CAFE”)

ARCOS: Leon says it is an invigorating time for Colombian Andean music.

FERNANDO LEON: (By interpreter) There’s an thrilling renaissance that is encouraging musicians to play the types of the Andean area, reminiscent of bambuco, pasillo, guabina, torbellino and the fusion of all these genres, and most significantly with younger musicians.

ARCOS: Paulo Sanchez is a director of Bogota’s Teatro ColSubsidio, one of the crucial necessary venues in Colombia that presents this music year-round. He says, within the Nineteen Nineties, throughout the most effective intervals of Colombian Andean music, there have been some outstanding music trios. However then there was a lull.

PAULO SANCHEZ: (By interpreter) I feel with Itinerante, there is a breakthrough, and we start to see the emergence of trios once more. Itinerante is the trio of the second, of right this moment. They’re bringing again the trio format to a superlative stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF ITINERANTE’S “EL ZAGA”)

ARCOS: Bahamon says he speaks for the opposite musicians within the group. They have been meant to play Colombian Andean music.

BAHAMON: Every little thing was deliberate for me to be a tiple participant and play this music, in fact. This music is the one which makes my blood join with every thing that I’ve.

ARCOS: Itinerante simply completed a tour of western Colombia and is at present getting ready for a collection of concert events at a chamber music corridor in Bogota. For NPR Information, I am Betto Arcos.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its last kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might differ. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.