Sneak Preview: ¡Parranda! Venezuelan Carnival Music
Smithsonian Folkways will release ¡Parranda! Venezuelan Carnival Music by the group La Sardina de Naiguata (The Sardine of Naiguatá) on June 19. The collection, part of the Tradiciones/Traditions series, is the definitive statement from this pioneering 13-piece band led by visionary Ricardo Diaz. Diaz has pursued a 27-year quest to fuse traditional Venezuelan parranda music with more diverse and progressive instrumentation and has revolutionized and reinvigorated the genre.
Listen to a sneak preview of ¡Parranda! Venezuelan Carnival Music
Watch a mini-documentary on La Sardina de Naiguata
Venezuela’s Caribbean coastal town of Naiguata is home to one of that country’s most celebrated Carnival musical traditions. In the 1970’s, Diaz augmented the local legacy of Afro-Caribbean drumming traditions with brass, electric bass, keyboard, and women’s chorus to create La Sardina de Naiguata, the musical group that drives the town’s annual cycle of public celebrations, including Carnival, Corpus Christi, and St. John the Baptist. ¡Parranda! brings us the contemporary, joyous sounds of the pre-Christian rite of “burying the sardine” to promote an abundant harvest of fish and crops.
More info http://www.folkways.si.edu/
La Sardina de Naiguata will perform a free concert June 29 at 6:30pm in the Smithsonian Folkloric Festival in Washington, DC’s National Assembly. The Concert will also feature Quetzal (roca latina de Los Angeles del Este).
tour schedule:
6/29 Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Folklife Festival
7/01 Houston, TX, Miller Outdoor Theater
7/5 Washington, D.C., Embassy of Venezuela
7/8 San Francisco, CA, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
7/11 Chicago, IL, Old Town School of Folk Music
7/13 Chicago, IL, Old Town School of Folk Music
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