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free. That’s why we have devised a structure for our music that
allows the different musicians involved to express themselves in
improvised solos. We have fixed parts that capture our spirit when
we all play together, then parts to express ourselves. Some people
say it is like a jazz tradition but for me it is more following our
African heritage which gave space for that. It’s taking a musical
phrase and developing it and passing it on, that way I do versions
of classic traditional pieces for Cimarrón and also compose pieces
in tradition.”
S
o how did Carlos begin playing harp? Well I am 54 now
and I began when I was at the local school in San
Martín. My father played música llanera on bandola ori-
ental which has eight or twelve strings and is not played
that much any more. It’s been replaced by the four-
string bandola llanera. I began to practise with friends and when
I was 11 I had a harp made in my village. I learnt by watching
Manuel an old musician from my neighbourhood who loved to
play harp and drink beer in a bar after work near my house. I met
other harpists in villages near mine and that’s how it all came to
be in my head. I’d practise until late at night until I could repro-
duce their playing.”
“Later in 1971 I travelled from San Martin to Bogotá to study
architecture. It’s a seven-hour journey on the local bus and I took
my harp and at that time I did not have a cover for it so people sat
on it, leant on it with suitcases, it even had hens sitting on it!
There were lots more harpists in Bogotá at the time but not many
playing my particular llano style and people loved it, especially the
llaneras who lived there. I went to live at the house of a cousin of
my mother, then I moved to live independently because the life of
a musician does not fit well with a family really: you make noise
late at night! I studied at the National University Of Colombia but
after a time dropped it as my life was taken over by music.”
“I played for ten years at Los Centauros, a bar where they sold
food from the llano region in the centre of the city and also at Los
Esteros. They were typical restaurants that have disappeared: they
served lots of barbecued meat roasted over charcoal with fried plan-
tain and rice, with music played while people ate and drank.”
“I loved to listen to other people playing gregarious Caribbean
música tropical dance music, and more introspective Andean music
as there are a lot of Peruvian, Bolivian and Ecuadorian groups who
live in Bogotá who play pan pipes and quena flutes. I also like
Andean-Colombian music played on the tiple; and the genre called
vallenato which Carlos Vives made popular. I never studied formally
in a music school, I just learnt by listening and watching. Gradually I
acquired knowledge of the basics of western music theory, of scale
construction and chord structures and principles of harmony. I learnt
to play most styles.”
“I use a 32-string harp, just about possible to transport by hand.
It’s important that it has a good solid caja de resonacia [resonating
chamber] for when you need to play without amplification so it can
fill the whole room. My harp is made out of cedar: most harps are
made out of cedar or caro caro wood or camoruco wood. That’s an
important name used for the harp in our region: people often say,
‘Bring the camoruca’, rather than bring the harp. The harp I have
here with me is special as it has holes at the back, because I like the
type of sound it produces. There are harps with holes in front in the
llanos and I have different styles of harp back home.”
“Joropo music gets played at fiestas where people dance,
sing, eat and drink aguadiente. I was a pioneer in taking this music
to people who wanted just to listen. I wanted it to be heard in its
own right as an independent musical tradition. So we gave con-
certs to students first in places like the National University. From
around 1974 onwards there was a new vision in the country
among young people and students as to what Colombia was. At
the time our culture felt as if it was penetrated by commercial
music, like international rock and pop from the USA as well as
Caribbean and Puerto Rican salsa. So we achieved an enthusiastic
audience for our música llanera. This idea of instrumental concert
music meant developing aspects of the melody, playing instrumen-
tal solos on maracas, harp, cuatro, bandola and bass and taking
care with performance detail. People paid attention to timbre.
The maracas and cuatro play in 6/8 time while the bandola, harp
and bass play in 3/4 time. It’s a music with a swing that constantly
switches rhythms from 3/4 to 6/8 which we call sesquialtera [often
referred to as hemiola in Europe].”
“It’s a real mestizo music that has mixed African, Spanish and
indigenous elements together. There are three types of music
under the joropo umbrella which sometimes just get called dances
although they are not all dances! The golpes are the fastest; the
tonadas are slower and more contemplative and usually sung unac-
companied, although we do instrumental versions; and then there
are the pasajes. We try and play them with timbric colour to reflect
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