Thursday, September 11, 2008

LUCÍA PULIDO WANING MOON


In This video: Stomu Takeishi on bass and Lucía pulido on cuatro and voice. They where playing Tonada de Luna Llena, at the Encuentro de Música Colombiana in NYC, Nov. 2007.

In November last year I heard Lucía Pulido for the first time and she made me cry. Lucía is a Colombian singer that stands out not only for her special approach to music, but also for being an authentic folclore interpreter. Basically, she's the REAL THING and not a folclore thief.
I'll explain the term folclore thief: I've found, as a Colombian musician, that many Colombians exit my country and come to NY or go somewhere else to study music. Meanwhile,they discover what real and authentic folclore lovers have known for centuries; Colombian music is aesthetic, unique, beautiful, and good, so, what these thiefs do is sell our ethnic and folk music by learning some songs while being in another country. They exploit our songs playing them with no respect, or spirit, or tradition, or even accuracy. Meanwhile they take the opportunity to make money and allege to be unique, rare, and even special, but the truth is they're only a cheap fake.
Being that said, Lucía's music is the opposite of that definition. Lucía is a complete and true musician that brings the listener to the essence of Colombian music from an intimate and modern approach. Lucía works with outstanding musicians like bassist Stomu Takeishi, drummer Ted Poor, and clarinetist and flutist Adam Holker all under guitarrist Sebastián Cruz's gudance.
I really recommend Lucía Pulido's most recent recording "Waning moon"/"Luna menguante" which will be released September 16th and you can find under the label Adventure Music (www.adventure-music.com).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with you more about Lucía Pulido's voice and music--I have just started to play Luna Menguante on my weekly Colombian music radio show, La Pipa de la Paz (www.wesufm.org on Tuesday evening's) and I love it!

I'm wondering, however, who you are specifically referring to when you say "folklor thieves" in your blog? I have been working with many of the Colombian musicians in NYC and find that most are quite sincere in their efforts to honor Colombian music traditions and "folclor." Although some are clearly more "traditional" than others, while others are clearly trying to experiment new proposals, including Lucía Pulido.

Also, I just returned from Colombia, where I attended the gaita festival in San Jacinto, and also heard a lot of the so-called "fusion" music movement in Bogotá. Would you say then that the Bogotá musician are (by default) more "authentic" or folkloric"?

I hope we can have a great conversation.

todo lo mejor,
JAM

andrea said...

JAM,
I'll be looking forward to listen to your show on Tuesday. I'm glad you program Lucía's music on your show, and I'm happy for you because you've been to San Jacinto!!!.
I agree with you, most of the musicians try to do their best, and that's very important, and I think we're getting somewhere. About the thiefs, it's a very personal opinion and I don't want to give names here on my blog because I think that's not the point and it's just not constructive...as we say in spanish, and I really hope you understand: "Al que le caiga el guante que se lo chante". It's just a common saying that if you translate won't say anything in english.
see you around,
Andrea