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Lila Downs

Lila Downs

Lila Downs is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. She has one of the world’s most singular voices, and is known for her charismatic performances. Her own compositions often combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia, and North American folk music. Her music often focuses on social justice, immigration, and women’s issues.

She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca Mexico, her mother is from the Mixtec indigenous group, and her father was Scottish-American. Lila sings in Spanish, English, and varios Native American languages as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Maya, and Purepecha.

She has recorded duets with artists as diverse as Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Nora Jones, Juan Gabriel, Santana, The Chieftains, Diego La Cigala, Celso Piña and Toto La Momposina. Chavela Vargas “named” Lila her “sucessor”.

Lila has graced the stages of many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. She was invited by Barack Obama to sing at the White House, and has performed at the Oscars for her participation in the film Frida.

Lila has recorded 15 studio albums and 2 lives. She has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has won six.

Lila Downs in numbers
Facebook: 1.500.000 fans
Spotify: 2.007.447 monthly listeners
Chaine Youtube: 303.879.650 views
Grammy Awards: 6 (9 nominations)

The Mexican American singer has a stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots. Los Angeles Times

Ms. Downs has multiple voices, from an airborne near-falsetto down to a forthright alto and a sultry, emotive contralto. New York Times

Few alternative artists have the dynamic power and range of this bilingual warrior-woman, who has recorded nine albums, earning a Grammy and four Latin Grammys along the way. NPR

SON ROMPE PERA

Son Rompe Pera

Born and raised in the deep outskirts of Mexico City, the Gama brothers are keeping alive the rich legacy of marimba music running through their family with their latest project, Son Rompe Pera.

While firmly rooted in the tradition of this historic instrument, their fresh take on this folk icon challenges its limits as never before, moving it into the garage/punk world of urban misfits and firmly planting it in the 21st century.

Originally performing alongside their father at local events since they were kids, they now find themselves at the forefront of the contemporary international cumbia scene with their sonic explorations of the classic marimba. Their absolute unique blend comes from a typical youthful rebellion, when as teenagers they left behind their upbringing on the marimba and began to play in various punk, rockabilly and ska bands.

Now they’ve gone full circle with the marimba back leading the way, and mixing all of their influences together with their energetic take on the popular instrument, giving it a new twist never before seen in Mexican folk music.

Their live shows are a sweaty mess of dancing fans, and this garage-cumbia-marimba-punk band (the only band of its kind in the world) never disappoints on stage. Their authenticity shines through as they give their modern interpretation of Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian classics, as well as their own original material and some surprise covers. The contrast of the traditional marimba with their youthful attitude and street sense connects the audience to the past while they dance into the future.

Their first album, Batuco, due out on the ZZK label imprint, AYA Records, in 2020, is named after their recently deceased father, and is a representation of everything he taught them growing up, plus their first steps into a new, international career.

UNESCO inscribed the marimba on the 2015 list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

OFFICIAL SHOWCASE WOMEX 2022

KUMBIA BORUKA

Kumbia Boruka

Exciting cumbia from Mexico and beyond

The roots of Kumbia Boruka are to be found in Monterrey, the cumbia capital of Mexico and the place where Hernan Cortés, the accordion player and band leader, grew up in the eighties. He didn’t only learn to play the accordion from the living legend of Mexican cumbia, Celso Piña, but he was also the percussionist in the band of Celso Piña during long international tours.

Besides their own contemporary and festive compositions, the band knows how to bring new flavours to classic cumbias from the sixties, mixing it with influences from reggae, dub, African music and rock, psychedelic electric guitar melodies, an extensive rhythm section and powerful and exciting brass arrangements. The Peruvian cumbia, called chicha, is not forgotten either. The result is a hybrid cumbia, nueva cumbia, with fierce Latin energy that will blow your mind! It’s party time!

With three albums and more than 400 shows, Kumbia Boruka has fulfilled his challenge by making the Old Continent vibrate at the emblematic rhythm of Latin America, the Cumbia.

In addition, the band’s music appears with 5 songs in the soundtrack of the excellent documentary series Maradona in Mexico launched on Netflix last year.

The “Remedio” that Kumbia Boruka offers is an authentic and compelling cure against the evils of our time. To be enjoyed without moderation !

Line up

Hernán Cortés – Lead Voice & accordion
Christian Briseño – Lead Voice
Tadeo Cortés – Congas & guacharaca
Jonathan Cortez Castillo – Bass
Miguel Mino – Guitar
Cyril Gelly – Drums
Clément Buisson – Trumpet
Tristan Darphin – Trombone

Cumbia Mexico

Sonido Gallo Negro

Sonido Gallo Negro (Black Rooster Sound) is a stunning 9-piece, instrumental combo from east Mexico City that channels both the mystique and mysticism of 1960’s Peruvian cumbia. The band integrates styles like Amazonian cumbia, huayno, cumbia sonidera, boogaloo and chicha (Peruvian cumbia) with electric guitars, Farfisa organ, theremin, flute and of course fluid Latin percussion. Spaghetti western soundtracks, psychedelia and surf music also echo in their compositions.

Sonido Gallo Negro’s music proposal enrichens and cultivates this musical genre with its exotic sui generis version that integrates outstanding visuals performed live by designer Dr. Alderete, who illustrates in real time.

WOMEX 2017 official showcase

Nortec Collective

Nortec Collective

BOSTICH + FUSSIBLE emerged from the burgeoning electronic scene in Tijuana. In 1999 they invented a new style of music called Nortec – a fusion of Norteño (“from the North”) and Techno, founding as well the Nortec Collective.

Documenting the collision between electronic music characterized by heavy dance beats and traditional forms of Mexican music performed with live instrumentation, Nortec Collective paved the way for a new generation of producers and DJs that have reinvented electronic music from a global perspective.

Their last album “Motel Baja” was released in 2014 closing their Nortec trilogy with the Grammy nominees “Bulevar 2000” and “Tijuana Sound Machine”.

The duo has toured for the last 15 years around the globe from Europe to Australia, from South America to Japan and China, also performed in the most important festivals such as Bonnaroo and Coachella – all while still managing to find the time to become iconic artists in their home country of Mexico.

Since 1999, the Nortec Collective musicians have toured throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Latin America. They have played at Central Park’s SummerStage and Irving Plaza in New York, as well as the Winter Music Conference in Miami, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and shows at the Royal Festival Hall in London and Elysée Montmartre in Paris.

They have done remixes for Beck, Calexico, Ennio Morricone, Kronos Quartet, Leigh Nash, Lenny Kravitz among others…

The song “Tijuana Makes Me Happy” was on the soundtrack of 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, the video game by EA Sports, and is the title song of the feature film by the same name.

In 2016, Nortec collaborated on the production for the music for Cirque Du Soleil’s show, Luzia.