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This CD pays homage to the rain forest in Ecuador and to the people who live there, on the banks of the rivers Cayapas and Santiago, the "great waters" that carry the strange produce of the forest to the Pacific Ocean - thousands and thousands of timber logs of various precious woods.

This produce is not intended for the black people living in this area, but for the white people on the other side of the globe. Over there they live in the land of plenty, whereas the local black people die of hunger. Yet I have never seen people who were more friendly and joyous and who would quite happily give up their only hammock to you.
I want to thank Papa Roncon, Rosa and Catalina for their friendship and for showing me the path to the lost black part of my heritage, the way to the roots we share, to our mother earth, to nature that gives without restraint and dies with us if we fail to show her respect and love.

Astrid Pape

Tracks:

1. AGUA LARGA (trad) 4:50
2. OYEYA (Guillermo Ayovi Erazo) 4:28
Prelistening:

3. CARAMBA (trad) 2:58
4. BAMBUCO (trad) 3:10
5. AMIGO - MI AMIGO (Catalina Quintero) 2:20
6. ABUELA SANTANA (trad) 1:39
Prelistening:

7. FAFIREÑA (trad) 3:39
8. CADERONA (trad) 3:42
9. SAN JUANITO NEGRO (trad) 4:27
10. TORBELLINO (trad) 3:02
11. FLOR DE VERANO (Catalina Quintero) 2:09
Prelistening:

12. ESE GOLPECITO NO SE OYE (trad) 4:18
13. ANDARELE (trad) 3:51
14. PAPÁ RONCÓN Y SU MARIMBA (trad) 3:36

 

Total playing time: 48'21

 

16-page booklet in Spanish, German, English

Arranged by Guillermo Ayovi Erazo and Astrid Pape
Produced by Astrid Pape

 

Recorded January - July 2000 at Amarc-Estudios, Quito, by Paul Konz & Adrian Steinsleger
Mixed and mastered by Rudolfo Böhmwald / Postdata Producciones
Athmo recordings on DAT TCD-D100: Astrid Pape

 

ENSEMBLE KATANGA:
Papá Roncón: Marimba, Kununu, Bombo, Bongo & Voice
Catalina Mina Quintero: Bombo, Kununu & Voice
Rosa Huila Valencia: Guasa & Voice
Guest musician: Astrid Pape, Bongo y Bordon Marimba en "Oyeya" & "Torbellino"

Published 10.9.2003

 

www.folkworld.de

Papa Roncon & Katanga "Marimba Magia"

Often was written about the African roots of the Afro-American music, and the focus was mostly on North America. Here we have music from South America, and the listening experience is stunning. You hear authentic African music from nowhere else than from the rain forests of Ecuador! The beginnings of the black community living here are adventurous: in the sixteenth century shipwrecked slaves on the way to Panama fled and reached the Ecuadorian coast where they founded the first free republic of Esmeraldas. Naturally the words are in Spanish - a strange listening experience. Papa Roncon is Guillermo Ayovi Erazo, who comes from the village of Borbon in the North of Ecuador, a place where they have electricity since five years and where still no aphalt street is to be found. Invited by the UNESCO he visited Paris and was a guest at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover, but not at the Marimba special at Rudolstadt 2003. He not only plays (his instruments are the marimba and the guitar), sings and dances but also is a crafter of instruments. The small ensemble Katanga is Papa Roncon plus Catalina Mina Quintero and Rosa Huila Valencia on percussion and vocals, the former sometimes taking the lead. The album was recorded in Quito with nature sounds added later, recorded on Dat by producer and annotator Astrid Pape, but everything sounds natural, like a local celebration. The whole album seems more than a labour of love than a release to earn money. The notes not only talk about the music but also about the situation in the region. Curious friends of percussion music or authentic traditions will be delighted by this publication.

Ansgar Hillner