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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