Catalina Maria Johnson

International radio broadcaster, bilingual cultural journalist, music curator

Last night, the concert at Old Town by Etran Finitawa (Star of the Desert) made my top ten concert EVER list. Kudos to my friend and colleague Mateo Mulcahy for bringing them to Old Town. Their awesome vocals, incredible desert-blues guitar and divinely deep percussion on the water calabash, shimmered and wove a textured tapestry of sound that took us elsewhere, and got the audience on its feet, waving and clapping along …. beautiful music, and a wonderful discovery. Anoche el concierto del grupo del Niger llamado “La estrella del desierto” tejió una increible textura musical alrededor del público…definitivamente uno de los mejores conciertos a los que he asistido en mi vida. Musica mágica, entre los cantos intensos, una percusión divinamente resonante y profunda en instrumento de calabaza en agua, la guitarra tocando
blues nomádicos… A ratos en la percusión y la llamada-respuesta, me recordó nuestros propios beats afrolatinos, y aquí pongo la música de Etran Finitawa y algunos ejemplos de nuestros ritmos que seguramente llegaron a nosotros de esas partes: afrocolombianos (Petrona), afrovenezolanos (Huracán de Fuego), guaguancó (Cuba, Los Papines). At times in the more percussive, call and response moments it reminded me of other afrolatin beats, as of course it should, being Western African music which is of course, one of the primary sources of of ours. So here´s a sampler of a song by Etran Finitawe and the other beats it reminded me at times: afrocolombian (Petrona), afrovenezuelan (Huracán de Fuego), guaguancó (Cuba, Los Papines). Enjoy!



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