Global Notes: Palenque Records
In 1996, Lucas Silva, also known as DJ Champeta Man, began Palenque Records, named after the Colombian village of Palenque, which was formed by escaped slaves in the 16th century. The Afro-Colombians of Palenque have preserved their African roots for centuries. The village is also home for the band Son Palenque. The group has worked closely with Palenque Records, recording the sounds of the Afro-Colombian village and sharing it with the world.
In Colombia, there are around 10 to 11 million Afro-Colombians and almost 25 percent of Colombia’s population is Black. Champeta music is rooted in African and Afro-Colombian music and is the core of Palenque Records. For this Global Notes segment, Silva joins us to discuss the historical and cultural importance of Afro-Colombian music and the efforts to preserve and share this culture.
Jerome McDonnell: Why did you start Palenque Records? What was going on there in 1996 that you wanted to start promoting Afro-Colombian bands?
Lucas Silva: Well, it just came by coincidence because I was living in France and when I came back to Colombia I wanted to make a documentary movie on Cumbia music. Cumbia was not on top at this time in Cartagena. So, a friend of mine told me there was a new musical style, which was really a ghetto music. Everybody was kind of afraid of this because it was a bit dangerous to approach. So, I got in touch with these Champeta musicians, and I became completely fascinated by this movement. It was one of the most important moments in my life, the first time I met Champeta.
What is Champeta?
McDonnell: Explain what Champeta means and why it was so dangerous to be involved with this ghetto music. The music just sounds pretty fun.
Silva: Champeta is a new Afro-Colombian style that is about 30 years old. It’s a mix of Congolese Soukous, Nigerian Highlife, Afrobeat, South African modern pop music, mixed with Afro-Colombian rhythms. We can say it’s a fusion between African pop music and Afro-Colombian traditional musical styles. So, we started imitating African music and doing covers of African tunes, from Congo especially, and we invented our own language out of this inspiration. It was very dangerous to approach because at this time, in 1996, this music was only going on in very poor neighborhoods populated by Black people and well, Colombia is kind of a very racist country, in some ways, so people were afraid a bit of this kind of musical expression. That is why they called the movement “Champeta”. The meaning of Champeta in Spanish in Colombia, is a knife that a fisherman uses in the markets to cut fish, and things like that. All the people who danced to this music were selling fish or working in the streets. When they gathered together to dance to this African music, they always had that kind of knife on them; sometimes they started to fight, and things like that. So that is why everybody called this music Champeta.
The Reception of Champeta Music
McDonnell: How well has your music been received inside and outside of Colombia?
Silva: Well, in the beginning it was a hard fight because when I started talking about Champeta in 1996, everybody hated it. I mean, everybody thought it was music made by “criminals” and by “dangerous people” who were just talking nonsense. But, when I was living in France, everybody liked it because they didn’t have these prejudices, I didn’t see the kind of discrimination we have between ourselves in Colombia. I’m very happy that as time goes by, more people know about Champeta and about Afro-Colombian music, not only Cumbia and not only Salsa. People are learning about Champeta and other new musical rhythms, such as Currulao, and many others. Now, everyday it gets better and better, because people get more aware that Colombia is also Africa. It’s not only Narcos, it’s not only coffee or drugs, there are more cultural things.
The Village of Palenque (San Basilio de Palenque)
McDonnell: Now when we’re talking about Palenque, it’s a village, right? It’s a village that was founded by freed slaves?
Silva: Yeah, Palenque was founded in the 16th century. The slave who founded it was Benkos Biohó. He has become a legend today in the Afro-Colombian political movement because the legend says he [Benkos Biohó] was a king from Africa who came to Colombia as a slave, and he ran away with many other slaves.
He found a place very far away from Cartagena to hide between mountains and jungle where they hid from the Spanish. Then the Spanish sent lots of soldiers to kill them all, but the Spanish never could get over on them. So the king of Spain finally had to do a peace treaty and in the peace treaty it said that they [the former slaves] should remain in the Palenque village forever, but white people were forbidden to stay in this place. So this village stayed in complete isolation for about 3 centuries, because everybody was afraid of these Black rebels. That is why they preserved a lot of African heritage, and also preserved the Palenque language, which is very strong in their culture, even today. They even teach it in schools in Palenque. Anthropologists and linguists have done research about the origins and the roots of the Palenque language and traditions, and there is a very strong connection with Congo and Angola, especially.
On Serving and Representing Black Colombians
Silva: Well my work is really untypical, it’s very complicated work I do because I find some of my artists in very hard places. Some of them are very poor and some of them live very far away, in a jungle in some cases, and I have to make very long trips to find them. Colombia is a very big country, we have a lot of jungles, the Pacific coast, Caribbean coast, Amazon, we also have the Andes mountain system, among other things; it’s very diverse. I find my artists while doing research about Black culture in Colombia and asking elders about musicians, and, in some cases, looking for the people who have never recorded in the past. It’s not music for business, or for making money, my work is just to help people come back to music again, and bring it to the world. I would like to show worldwide that Colombia is a country with a very important African heritage. Nobody talks about Colombia in this way that much, but in Colombia we have about 10 million Afro-Colombian people, and I think this is very important.
McDonnell: And that’s that’s like a quarter of the population, and mostly is it along the Atlantic coast where most of Afro-Colombians are situated?
Silva: Well it used to be this way, but we had a war for about 50 years, now the Afro-Colombian population is everywhere in Colombia, not only on the Caribbean or Pacific coast. Musically talking, it’s very positive because Bogotá used to be a very white city, and now it’s a completely mixed city. For me, it’s good because people meet and do different kinds of mixes.
Artists Featured on Palenque Records
Son Palenque
McDonnell: One of the bands involved here that you’ve been working with for years is Son Palenque. Who are they? What’s up with them?
Silva: Yeah, Son Palenque is a very special band because they come from a Black Maroon village. This means a free village of Black people who ran away from slavery in colonial times. Son Palenque was founded in the beginning of the 1980’s by a singer named Justo Valdez Cáceres. He sings in the Palenque language. In the village of Palenque they have a creole of African Bantu languages mixed with Spanish words, it’s called Lengua Palenquera. So, they [Son Palenque] were very legendary in the 80’s and 90’s because they recorded a lot of vinyls. But after, everybody forgot about them. So, when I started my label Palenque Records I said “well, I’m a filmmaker”, but it was so urgent for me to rescue all these cultural expressions. I thought the only way was to make a label.
Abelardo Carbono
McDonnell: That is some fascinating history. Now let’s talk about Abelardo Carbono. His music is terrific and contemporary sounding. I can’t believe he’s 60-something-years-old, that’s amazing.
Silva: Yeah, he’s still doing very well. Abelardo was very eclectic and he did some psychedelia albums, Afrobeat oriented albums, and Champeta also. He’s my new artist, and we were on tour in Europe, in France, just about one month ago. He’s a very brilliant musician, that is why we’re working on a new album with him.
Sexteto Tabalá
McDonnell: You’ve also worked with a band called Sexteto Tabalá. Who are they?
Silva: Well, Sexteto Tabalá is a very special band. They were the first band that I ever recorded in my life. Their music is a mix of Cuban influences, Cumbia, and Palenque music. I fell in love with this band when I first found a recording of Sexteto Tabalá in a vinyl edited by some anthropological doctors in Colombia. So I went to Palenque looking for them. When I found them, they were all farmers, but they also play in funerals, in marriages, in rituals, and things like that, but they didn’t really care about recording. They were really countryside people. For me, this band is so special because their style is very unique. They use an instrument called a marímbula, which is a very special African instrument that Cubans brought to Colombia.
“Electro-roots”: Afro-Colombian Electronic Remixes
McDonnell: You’ve launched into something you call an “electro-roots series” of electronic remixes that you’ve been doing. They continue to update the music in a really cool way. You have a track called “Sambingo”, it’s a Geko Jones remix, tell us something about that.
Silva: Well, yes, “Sambingo” is a track from a very original band from Palenque called Estrellas del Caribe, which means Caribbean Stars. It’s a band of some old people in Palenque that I recorded. There is a New York DJ called Geko Jones, he did the remix. We did the record with Dutty Artz, a group of many DJ friends in New York. We did this record called “Palenque Records Remixed”. We call it “electro-roots” because you have electronic music put together with roots music, or traditional styles.
McDonnell: Tell us about Mama Africa (The Busy Twist Remix).
Silva: This is a very special tune we did with the Busy Twist, a couple of producers from London and we released this remix of a song we recorded with Colombiafrica the Mystic Orchestra & Louis Towers. We did this remix as a new version. We invited Zongo Abongo, a singer from Ghana, and we also invited Nyboma, a very famous singer from Congo. This song is kind of an homage to Africa. We got 4 countries together for this tune: the UK, Ghana, Congo and Colombia. As a producer, I feel it is my goal to make things happen, and make people meet, so it’s always a pleasure for me to connect people from different areas, who are actually already culturally linked.
McDonnell: These mixes are really amazing sounding, and they’ve got an amazing combination of modern and traditional, that’s terrific.
Silva: With these kind of releases that I do, we’ve already done 2 vinyls of a project called “AfroColombia Remix”, I wanted to create a new blend of electronic music; a different style, a different branch. I’m hoping that electronic musicians will meet traditional musicians, but not in a colonial way, not with the colonial mentality that some people use, but really an organic meeting where both of them have their place, and both of them respect each other. We don’t want to make garbage music, we want to take our time doing this, do research, and see how the traditional music fits with the electro-beats. I always dreamed that disco places, or dancehalls, could be a place where we learn a lot of new things about music in the world, and about cultural things, not just commercial nonsense. In these electro releases, we worked with many producers from the United States, from Africa, and from many different places.
On Preserving Musical Rhythms & Where Else to Find Palenque Records
McDonnell: Well it sounds like you’ve found a fulfilling line of work, and that you’re really doing something terrific bringing Afro-Colombian music to the world.
Silva: I’m really happy everyday of my life that I work on this purpose, because Colombia is very rich culturally. There are too many things to reveal, and I don’t have enough time to reveal them all, so I have to choose. But, for me, it’s also a historical time, because now you have old masters, who are around 70, 80 years old, and they are about to die, but before they die I want to preserve the art so the youngest people can take it again, and so that this music won’t die. I can make a list of the musical genres in the African world, in Afro-Colombia and Black South America, and many rhythms are about to die because of Reggaeton and other modern music. Nobody cares about the past traditions. So, for me, it’s very important to stop the sentiment that is killing these musical rhythms. A way of preserving this heritage is to record it and to also mix it; to just make it happen and bring bands together, and bring the bands on tour. We can preserve this music by making it “born again”. This is important because all of this heritage is really the deep identity of Colombia.
McDonnell: Absolutely. Thanks a lot for joining us Lucas.
Silva: Okay, thanks a lot to you, I’m very glad for this. Everybody interested in Afro-Colombian music can find our YouTube page, our Bandcamp page, and you can also check out our music on Spotify, Deezer, and all digital platforms. I hope that all of you will enjoy these. Thanks a lot!
