While working as a professor of jazz at Universidad Javeriana in Bogota (Colombia) in 1998, Pablo Mayor began his personal search, a process of first becoming acquainted with his own Colombian identity and subsequently with the native music of his country. He now resides in New York City where his concept of Folkore Urbano was born.
Having been intellectually drawn to jazz but all his life connected spiritually to the musical language of Colombia, Mayor has been seeking a form of expression that combines both musical worlds.
Folklore Urbano combines Afro-Colombian rhythms of Mayor’s home country with sophisticated jazz harmonies and form.
Pablo Mayor an accomplished jazz pianist and composer originally from Palmira, a town near Cali, Colombia has turned his talents towards harnessing the joyful and complex rhythms of his country’s dance music and the result was the band’s second CD Baile/Dance! The album features the vocals of Ronald Polo and a first-rate group of musicians. The rhythms come from the diverse regions of Colombia – the Caribbean and Pacific coasts and the Andes.
In 2020, Pablo Mayor launched El Barrio Project-Salsa, the fourth album of his band, the Folklore Urbano Orchestra, a compendium of twelve original songs in which Pablo presented a portrait of East Harlem (known as El Barrio), the place where one of the most popular genres in the world, salsa, was born. Pablo Mayor transformed his everyday experience in this iconic neighborhood through a musical collaboration with rediscovered talents including composer Cruz “Chino” Melao; composer and co-executive producer, Nick Chavarría; along with legendary stars like bassist Rubén Rodríguez, prominent musicians of the New York scene such as percussionist Oreste Abrantes, singers Deborah Resto and Jainardo Batista, the traditional group Los Pleneros de la 21, and Beninese singer Laurent Hounsavi.
Discography:
Aviso (2003)
Baile/Dance! (Chonta Records, 2005)
Corazón (2009)
El Barrio Project-Salsa ( Folklore Urbano NYC, 2020)
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.