Monday, May 03, 2010

Bubbling Cause Trouble


Cola Y Su Grupo Di Tambu - Mi Moreno (from Musica Crioyo di Corsow)

The first Afro-Curacaoan song and dance is of as much importance to bubbling's creation as turntables and raggamuffin. DJs such as Moortje cite tambu as the backbone of the rhythm, though it differs from reggaeton's Dem Bow. The music can be both secular or religious, and went on to become a huge part of the island's culture after the abolition of Dutch slavery. Much like the fuss going on in the Netherlands in the 90s, its sound was influenced by other Caribbean music and there are actually other forms of tambu elsewhere in places where "Marooned" communities existed (or still exist). I have documents from Jamaica, Trinidad, and the other ABC Islands that prove this, but your are most likely to still hear tambu to this day at celebrations in Willemstad. I didn't immediately hear the connection between the two, but upon matching the tempos you can clearly tell how embedded it is. Unfortunately the recording industry isn't really pressed to document this stuff, and there isn't even much in the grant money pimpin' libraries of Smithsonian Folkways, Ocora ect. Luckily there are some nice record collectors out there that like to share their finds with us, one of which was nice enough to rip these amazing Cola y Su Grupo tracks. There is actually a fair amount of videos on Youtube as well.

A very in depth article on tambu can be found here, with all the information you might ever need.

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