Totó la Momposina

Black Colombia to the World
By DAVID CÁZARES
Miami | 08.20.2009
I used to listen to a lot to Miami’s Spanish-language pop and tropical music stations. But increasingly I find it all sounds the same, as programmers aim for the lowest common denominator.

Instead of celebrating Latin America’s rich and varied genres, the Latin music industry and its purveyors on the radio opt for the formulas and pretty faces. But great music still arrives, often in the person of stellar performers who are determined to present their local grooves to the world stage. That’s the mission that brings Colombia’s Totó la Momposina to Miami on Friday.

When she takes the stage at Knight Center, Totó will celebrate Afro-Colombian culture with a repertoire that explores its African, indigenous and Spanish influences. Hers is a music that sprang from the songs of African slaves, who hid their drums to preserve their culture – and essence she and her ensemble bring to the stage with African drums, flutes called gaitas and Spanish guitar.

Mixing cumbias with traditional rhythms such as porro, the energetic and powerful singer is a contemporary interpreter of a continuing tradition. She’ll testify that the lively regional genres that many pop performers only touch on in their music aren’t folklore but living art forms.

Even if you don't hear them on the radio. |♫|

When: p.m. Friday
Where: James L. Knight Center, 400 SE Second Ave., Miami
Tickets: $43-$68 through the center's box office, 305-416-5978

PHOTO – TMG