Aurelio – Darandi (Real World Records, 2017)
Honduran singer-songwriter Aurelio Martinez’s fourth album celebrates his thirty years as a performer and defender of Garifuna culture with this new album titled Darandi. The recording was made at Real World Records while Aurelio and his band were on tour in the UK. The idea was to capture the live feel of the band.
The song selection includes Aurelio’s best known and most popular songs from throughout his career, a mix of originals and new versions of traditional Garifuna songs sung in the Garifuna language.
Although Aurelio has played various forms of music throughout the past decades, including punta rock, this album focuses on a more traditional form called parranda (the English language writers call it paranda). Parranda is a Spanish word that has several meanings, but it’s always connected to musicians and partying at night. The Garifuna form of parranda is characterized by vocals, acoustic percussion and guitars.
Aurelio’s style features a unique electric guitar sound that has African, Latin American, blues, and surf influences. It’s played by Guayo Cedeño, one of Honduras’ best guitarists.
One of Aurelio’s main goals is to reach Garifuna youth. “I want young Garifuna people to hear the problems they are living with reflected in my songs, and dance with those same problems.” In his songs, he references subjects such as safe sex and migration to the United States. He passionately hopes that the children who aren’t learning to speak the Garifuna language will be inspired by his music to sing in their traditional language.
The album comes packaged in a beautiful hard cover book with an extensive biography, photographs, illustrations and details about Garifuna culture. There is also a history of the Garifuna people and how they ended up in various countries in Central America. The booklet includes a map that shows the migration progress starting from African slave ship wrecks. Although the map indicates that it was two Spanish slave ships, this is not settled fact and other sources point to a Dutch slave ship expedition or even Portuguese slave ships.
Currently, the Garifuna live in about 50 towns on Central America’s Caribbean coast, extending from Belize down through Guatemala and Honduras all the way to Nicaragua. Although the Garifuna still share a common culture, the Garifuna language is disappearing. And the culture is under threat by religious missionaries and commercial interests connected to the tourism industry.
The lineup on the album includes Aurelio Martinez on lead vocals, acoustic guitar, maracas; Guayo Cedeño on lead electric guitar; Emilio Alvarez on bass; Onan Castillo on Garifuna drum (primero); Joel Martinez on Garifuna drum (segundo); Desiree Diego on backing vocals; Chela Torres on backing vocals; and Sheldon Petillo on backing vocals.
Darandi is a beautiful-crafted set of songs by the leading Garifuna artist at this time.
Buy Darandi in the Americas
Buy Darandi in Europe
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
