With a big concert in Miami on 21 August, the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra will celebrate the Bicentennial of Independence
The OFB, under the baton of Ricardo Jaramillo, wii give a major show in Miami, along with Andrés Cepeda, Janio Coronado, Toto La Momposina, Monica Giraldo, Choc Quib Town and Juancho Fernández, artists who participated in ‘Mestizajes‘, the latest album of the OFB.
Con un gran concierto en Miami el próximo 21 de agosto, la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá celebrará el Bicentenario de la Independencia
La OFB, bajo la dirección del maestro Ricardo Jaramillo, ofrecerá un gran concierto en el
Adrienne Arsht Center de Miami, junto a Andrés Cepeda, Janio Coronado, Totó la Momposina, Mónica Giraldo,Choc Quib Town y Juancho Fernández, artistas que participaron en ‘Mestizajes’, la más reciente producción discográfica de la OFB.
Con este proyecto cultural la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá se suma a los actos de celebración del Bicentenario de la Independencia de Colombia, junto a la comunidad colombiana y latina residente en esa ciudad y, a la vez, amplía su impacto internacional.
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago at 3:29 pm. Add a comment
![1236806208_premiosnuestratierraeditado[1]](http://www.totolamomposina.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/1236806208_premiosnuestratierraeditado1.jpg "1236806208_premiosnuestratierraeditado[1]")
Bogotá, 23 de Mayo de 2010.
En la categoría a Mejor interpretación folclórica del año, la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá recibió el premio Nuestra Tierra 2010 por la interpretación del tema “El Pescador” junto con Totó la Momposina, una de las artistas más reconocidas que participó en “Mestizajes”, la más reciente producción discográfica de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá.
Este premio, sin duda, contribuye al reconocimiento del trabajo de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá que durante sus 42 años de existencia se ha caracterizado por registrar, para la memoria musical del país, la música popular en versiones sinfónicas. Además de varias producciones discográficas realizadas en años pasados, la OFB obtuvo en el 2008 el premio Grammy Latino por su álbum La OFB es Colombia.
A los discos producidos por la OFB se suma la grabación de Mestizajes, una importante producción que incluyó las voces de Andrés Cepeda, Andrés Cabas, Totó la Momposina, Choq Quib Town, Andrea Echeverry, Puerto Candelaria, Bahía y el grupo Seresta, entre otros, en una selección de 14 temas de música colombiana con arreglos de consagrados músicos y nuevas generaciones de compositores.
La Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá agradece al público colombiano que apoyó su nominación, así como a todos los arreglistas e intérpretes y especialmente a los 97 músicos de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, quienes con su talento, trabajo, esfuerzo y compromiso hicieron posible este sueño.
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago at 1:57 pm. Add a comment
This summer Verité Films Producers René Veilleux and Donald Roman Lopez will begin production of a feature-length documentary on the life and works of renowned World-Music Colombian singer Totó La Momposina. “We are honored to be collaborating with an artist of such world-renowned caliber and such cultural importance as Totó La Momposina.” Says Producer René Veilleux.
Totó embodies that fertile ground where Colombia’s African, Indigenous Indian and Spanish cultures mingle to create a unique musical tradition. Her entire life she has dedicated to preserving and representing Colombia’s Caribbean coastline traditional music. Nonetheless, Sonia Bazanta, the woman, the daughter, the mother, and Colombia’s musical ambassador, has a compelling past marked by countless sacrifices and critical moments of survival. Retracing her steps, she embarks on a journey filled with memories of being displaced by civil war as a child, singing in the Paris Metro as a struggling musician, and becoming the renowned world artist she is today. Parallel to her ancestral and personal journey, Totó will travel on her first European tour in 5 years and will engage on a succession of artistic collaborations as a “Cantandora del mundo” during an important creative transition in her life. And it is here, in this key moment of her international career, in the midst of challenges and triumphs, and with this documentary film that Totó is willing to open her heart and soul to reaffirm that her fundamental need is to preserve her culture and to continue being the woman that lives to sing and that sings to live.
“Exploring in depth the circumstances that have come together to create someone like Totó, is in part a search I’ve been in my whole life trying to understand my own cultural identity.” Says Producer and Director, Donald Roman Lopez. “Totó is an exceptional story of identity preservation within the context of globalization that not only concern Colombians or Latinos but any citizen of the world,” he adds.
Verité Films is pleased to be working on the film with the full co-operation of Totó and her management and production company Astar Artes and Artistic Director John Hollis. Other producers collaborating on the project include, award-winning documentary producer Lori Cheatle (51 Birch Street, The Kids Grow Up, The Age of Dreaming), and Sarah Anthony executive producer of Last Play at Shea, the story of Billy Joel’s final concert at historic Shea Stadium, and the Untitled George Harrison project, directed by Martin Scorsese and due to be released in 2011.
For more information on the project go to www.indiegogo.com/TotoLaMomposina.
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago at 11:24 am. Add a comment
Toto and Calle 13 have been recording a song together with Susana Baca and Maria Rita
CaracolTV.com reported it on their site:
‘Calle 13’ estuvo en Bogotá para grabar con Totó la Momposina
Residente y Visitante estuvieron intempestivamente en Bogota para unir sus voces con la de la artista colombiana. “Vamos a terminar de grabar un supertema, en serio lo digo. Después de este tema se puede caer mi avión”, aseguró el líder de la agrupación boricua. El nuevo disco se tiene planeado para septiembre y, además de Totó, participan Susana Baca y María Rita.
A tweet from Calle 13 said: “Aca grabando con las diosas desde bogota.Toto la momposina,Susana Baca,Maria Rita”
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago at 12:30 pm. Add a comment
Who is Toto La Momposina?
Who is Toto? She is a woman here on earth who is evolving through music.
How did Sonia Bazanta take up the name of Toto?
I didn’t pick the name, my dad started to call me that when I was little. I didn’t choose it as a
stage name; my dad gave it to me.
And La Momposina?
Because I am, we are from the region of Mompos Island. It’s an island here in Colombia near the
river Magdalena, (deleted repetition) one of the biggest rivers in Latin America. It crosses over
the whole of Colombia and it’s through this river that the conquerors arrived and left us their
culture and influence.
On this note, the influences of conquerors, which influences does your music incorporate?
What type of interculturality? Could you tell us a little about that?
Well, (deleted repetition) what we got first was ancestral music. Ancestral music is the music of
our natives. I’ll tell you …here in Colombia we have 360 ethnic groups, 60 indigenous languages
and the rest are dialects. When you have such a diverse range of influences, that is the first thing
that you have to pick up – you have to promote indigenous music through indigenous people.
Then there is the other ethnic influence that came with slaves who arrived from Africa, the fantú
tribe, the ones from Congo and all the other influences that came. Because they came with the
slave trade, with the ships that arrived from different regions in Africa.
You talked about Congolese and African influences, what is the role of drums in your
music?
I think that African music influenced the Caribbean area generally a lot, as well as just us, or at
least Cartagena. Colombia has two oceans, Pacific and Atlantic, so it was through the Pacific and
Atlantic that African influences came in. In fact, it was there that the conquerors arrived and that
means that we have had a strong influence from ancestral African cultures.
And how do you preserve that culture, that tradition?
Well, that tradition is preserved because…well…that culture was fused together through love. In
fact, when the Spanish arrived, there were two slave races; the Africans and the indigenous
people that became slaves. So the two races stuck together. That is why our music is a fresh
music, because it was born out of those two influences and other influences that we received
from white people. But white people are not white because of the colour of the skin, but the
whites are those who have money and for them it is still the same, and for us too. The whites are
the ones with the money and not the ones whose skin is white, I want to clarify that.
Why did your music go beyond Colombian borders, why is it so popular in Europe and
why have your tours been really successful?
It must be because, first of all I do my music with love, honesty and because I think that when
one puts all her/his personal interests first, the music shines. Because music is the real queen, the
conductor. Music was not made by man, but it was created by god, and in turn man created
sounds imitating Mother Nature, who (deleted repetition) belongs to the universe. In other words,
music belongs to the universe, and out of the universe, we were given a special tonality because
we are based in the Equator and we have all types of climate. I, on my side, am showing music
of identity with as much honesty as I can in order to recognise a country through its music, it
identity, its raison d’etre.
Do you consider yourself the “Queen of Cumbia”, as you’ve been called by many people?
No, there are several queens; the queen is surely the rhythm of Cumbia, that can be the queen,
because it’s the blend of two cultures. I don’t consider myself the queen, the queen is the music,
the star and the sun.
You have influenced a lot of artists, such as Manu Chao. What do you think of them? How
do you see the new generation of artists and musicians?
Well, they are looking for their own sound. Music has evolved, surely African drums used to
sound different before, or at least the ‘bombos de doble parche’ in my village were much bigger
than the ones we are using now, so the bigger the size the lower the sound.
With time music has mobilised, it moved. I believe I have to move around these suggestions for
the new instruments that emerged, but still preserve our identity. What is our identity? Well, the
sounds of Mother Nature, the gaitas, the drums. Because one cannot take her/his heart out and
say that it is simply the eggshell, because eggshells break easily and the heart remains.
In this sense, is the fact that members of your family are part of your band a way to
preserve tradition trough your family?
Of course it is. Well I hope. In England I have grandchildren and I taught them to sing a cappella
and I think that is what they are doing over there, so the tradition is not going to be lost.
Like oral tradition.
Yes, like oral tradition, what we call from mouth to mouth, that is what is passed from generation
to generation.
What does it mean to come back to London? And even more take part into a project like
Discovering Latinoamerica, where part of the proceeds will go to the NGO Progressio,
which helps women affected by AIDS in the Dominican Republic. What does this mean to
you?
Altruism has always been part of me, that is why I am here, there, everywhere, because for me
altruism is…well, people’s ideals should never be hidden; they should always flourish and
receive help. In fact, through music one can make people move. Besides, it’s a universal
language that does not have borders, it doesn’t have colour, it doesn’t have colours of skin, nor
money, or political colours. It is in fact an excellent tool to compensate for a lot of faults that the
human being and the entire world have at the moment. We are making music of identity; it’s
there where we have to be.
What do you think of the fact that Discovering Latinamerica is formed by a hundred
volunteers who have been working for free in the UK for a few years to raise funds to help
disadvantage people in Latin America through music, theatre, literature and cinema? How
do you see these hundred people?
All these young people – because we need young people – keep working and learning the
dynamics of living here on earth to develop and realise themselves as human beings. Of course,
the way things are these days, we need to have the necessary to be able to survive.
And would you like to take part on new projects? Would you be open to take part on new
projects with us?
Of course, of course I would be.
Would you tell us a little about your new album “La Bodega”, which will be released in
London on the 12th October.
Well, it’s the result of a lot of hard work, we fought for it, suffered, but here we have the result
of the work – a concept that like a musical fan shows the diversity that we have. The album has a
lot of diversity with the objective of making the entire world, including Colombia, understand
and see that each population has its identity. Identity transmits itself in many ways, one of which
is music. That’s why I did this work. It took a long time to finish but I know it’s an album that
will receive many reviews, because you know that in Europe there are critics who follow us and
hope they will like it and it’s surely the way to continue towards new things.
Is there any difference between the new album and the old ones?
No, it’s the continuation of the same concepts showing the different sounds that we have over
here and what we can do with them.
Regarding your audience, do you see any difference between the European and Latin
audience?
Of course there are differences. The European audience is much more knowledgeable and
selective and here in Colombia, and the rest of America, it’s much more ‘rumba’, more ready to
party, but it’s also selective.
Now, what can English, Latin and European audiences expect from your concert in
September?
Well, they can expect to listen to my new album and also the concept of development of the
music of identity, which characterises the music of Toto La Momposina and her group. Music
that is done with love, with great joy and more than anything with great spontaneity and
affection for all those who come to the concert. To all the French, English and Germans, because
you know that I have an audience there in Europe.
On a different note, what do you think about the evolution of women’s roles in Latin
America? Was there more social participation?
Well, I think women need to keep developing the role of the mother, because at the moment it’s
not very clear if it is really going how it should be. Mothers need to get out of the house and
work, because the government decided that men and women should work and now children don’t
have a point of reference. It’s usually the mother who used to stay at home, like Mother Earth so
I think although we are professional women, trained to work as lawyers, doctors, architects,
nannies, agronomists, dental surgeons, we need to reconsider how we are going to manage the
relationship with children within the family. Because, really, family is made by the union, family
isn’t made by one person only but by the men and the woman, they procreate and have a family,
whether large or not, whether it includes two, three or five children, there is a family group and
when there isn’t a group many marriages break up. I am a separated woman, I would have
preferred not to get a separation but I still tried to keep the family together for my children’s
sake, because when there is a family concept, the state works well, the republic is supported and
the country is supported as a result.
How was it to accompany Gabriel García Márquez to receive the Nobel prize?
It was an experience where we deserved to go in a time where no one believed in the music of
identity. But because Gabo talked about the identity of people and how we make music of the
people, that is why they asked us to go. And once he asked us, we had to go.
Do you keep in touch with Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
No, I don’t. But I do with his family, because he is very busy.
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:45 am. Add a comment
Totó has just completed her first European tour for 5 years with shows in Spain, Italy, England, Germany and Belgium. The tour was a resounding success, Totó showcased her new band to appreciative audiences presenting material from her new album La Bodega plus songs from previous albums and a sneak preview of new material. The band was on fire and Totó an inspiring spectacle. At Sfinks festival she was presented with a 70th birthday cake in front of thousands as she finished her performance. Click here to see a selection of photos so you can catch the vibe, we will be putting more up soon so watch this space!
Congratulations to Toto who has crashed into this month’s World Music Chart Europe (
