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For the 2005 edition, a very special lady will be coming with Colombian bullerengue music. The lady is PETRONA MARTINEZ. She is sixty-six years old and dynamite on stage. Petrona has been hailed as one of the most authentic Afro-American voices of the Caribbean. She comes from a long line of female ancestors who have whipped up the joy in the celebration of life, and the celebration of being alive. Bullerengue is an Afro-Colombian dance rhythm that comes under the more generic term cumbia for rhythm in the coastal regions of Colombia. It originated from small towns and villages dotted around the Bolivar and Cardoba counties. Cumbia stands as the national identity of Colombia and it encompasses a lot of different rhythms. They all have a distinct beat that originated with the indigenous gaita (duct flute) and African drums. This is a heady mixture of African and Indian that melded together on the Atlantic coast. But traditional cumbia was mostly instrumental with no lyrics. Bullerengue started as songs to be sung by pregnant women who were confined to their homes and forbidden to attend the village dances to protect their delicate condition. While their husbands went off to communal parties, these women then met in secret to sing and dance. They dance with their hands at their sides and big dresses or gowns that would suit their pregnant bodies. In fact, the word ‘bullerengue’ means ‘a maternity dress’. These are ancient rhythms whose origins can be traced back to African slaves fighting for their freedom. On top of the melodies that Petrona learnt from her great-grandmother downwards, she will also be singing about personal experiences and pain from her own life. One of her sons was killed trying to protect someone else during a holdup. This grief made her stop performing on stage for a while. So it has not been an easy life - but it has been a rich and full one. She also sings about popular folklore, incantations to send the spirits of the dead onwards, ritual prayers of the shamans, songs midwives sing to welcome the newborn, and more. Petrona’s daughters and son are now in the band with her together with a few other percussionists on the tambor, llamador and the bombo. They have toured Europe and North America, bringing their fresh and uninhibited songs, dance rhythms and powerful insistent drumming with them. In Colombia, she is regarded as the queen and a national treasure. Now, for the first time in Asia, they will be performing at the Rainforest World Music Festival. The festival will run three days from the 8th to the 10th of July 2005. It will be held in its usual home at the scenic and beautiful Sarawak Cultural Village, 40 minutes drive outside of Kuching, Sarawak. PETRONA MARTINEZ will not be the only group at the festival. The organizers have tried to bring together as many different groups from almost every continent and to encompass as many facets of “world music” as possible. The hope of the organizers is to take everyone on an adventure – to breathe in all the different essences that they try to gather into one place for a few days, and to go away from the festival not being quite the same ever again. To come and laugh and cry with friends and strangers and be touched with some of the magic that Santubong Mountain seems to exude. The main stage shows will be on every evening from 7.30 pm, just as dusk has deepened into the night. Daily workshops over the three afternoons will be held all around the Sarawak Cultural Village at various locations.
Definitely a heady potion for the Rainforest World Music Festival’s
brew this year. |
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