This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
To Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, playing at Salt Lake City's Living Traditions festival feels like a no-brainer.
"Life without traditions is like a boat with no sails and no rudder," he said. "This is what I think my music is — a living tradition. For traditions to live, they must be practiced and also they must evolve. I am trying to create music that looks both backwards and forwards."
That kind of mashup also describes the music of Bomba Estéreo, a Colombian dance-music-fusion group that blends the underground dub and hip-hop music bubbling in its country with traditional Colombian rhythms from cumbia and champeta styles.
"From a Colombian perspective, I would say that [living traditions] would mean living musicians who are maintaining the traditions of folk music, which are tending to disappear," said Simon Mejia, leader of the band.
The two international acts are joined by Haitian mizik-rasin band Boukman Eksperyans as the special guest artists at this weekend's 26th annual Living Traditions Festival, presented by the Salt Lake City Arts Council.
The festival aims to illustrate the common threads tying together Utah's increasingly multicultural community, with acts such as the Chris Dokos Band, which plays Greek music; Chile Una Postal, Chilean music and dance; Desert Wind, Israeli music; Lac Viet Band, Vietnamese music; and Wesleyan Tongan Brass Band.
Touré and Mejia spoke to The Tribune about their musical inspirations.
Vieux Farka Touré • Son of the late, great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, Touré aims to make West African music accessible to international audiences. His third studio album, "The Secret," to be released on May 24, features Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield, Ivan Neville and Vieux's final collaboration with his father.
That duet sparked strong emotions. "Listening to that, my heart fills with pride and nostalgia," said Touré, who is considered a virtuoso of Saharan blues. "It means so much to me that I was able to put this piece on the record. I know that where he is, he is listening and smiling."
It's at festivals such as Living Traditions that the Malian musician meets other artists, such as Matthews and Trucks. "Since I live in Mali, I do not get the chance often to see other people's shows, except for when I am at a festival. These are the best places for artists to meet and become friends."
Touré received the opportunity of a lifetime when he performed for an estimated global audience of 1 billion during the 2010 World Cup. "Mostly people will ask me what it was like," he said, and then laughed. "I tell them it was the most exciting 10 minutes of my life."
Besides the World Cup exposure, African music is beginning to become more popular in North America, thanks to the music of bands such as Vampire Weekend and Broadway shows such as "Fela!"
"Good music is good music," Touré said. " If people like my music, I think it is because they feel the energy of it — the spirit — and they understand it, no matter where they are from."
Bomba Estéreo • While the music Bomba Estéreo creates is complex and intoxicating, the approach is simple, Mejia said. "We fuse the [traditional Colombian] sounds with modern styles like electronica and hip-hop."
The group has been gaining exposure in North America and first saw success in the United States when it was invited to be on a compilation album produced by Levi's last year. "They chose a bunch of American bands to be on it, and they asked us to be part of it," Mejia said. "We were the only band on it from Latin America. We chose [to cover Technotronic's 'Pump Up the Jam'] because it was a very powerful song in Colombia in the 1980s. For me, it was really the first electronic music I ever heard. So we gave it the 'Bomba' treatment by transforming the rhythm to a traditional style called champeta and changing the lyrics to a Spanglish interpretation."
The cover of the famous single attracted attention, and Mejia attributes the hit's popularity to a boom in interest in cumbia rhythms, plus the band's work to put on exciting concerts. In addition, social media platforms and DJs are spreading the sound. "It's a more global world," he said.
If nothing else, Bomba Estéreo wants Utahns to dance with what it calls Electro Vacilón or Electro Tropical. Mejia said those terms refer to electronic music made in Colombia, "a mix between two worlds which seem to be very different but at the end get to the same place: dancing."
Facebook.com/tribremix and Facebook.com/sltribmusic
Twitter: @davidburger —
Living Traditions Festival
What • An annual celebration of Salt Lake's folk and ethnic arts
When • Friday, May 20 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, May 21 from noon to 10 p.m.; Sunday, May 22 from noon to 7 p.m.
Where • Salt Lake City & County Building, 451 S. State St., Salt Lake City
Tickets • Free admission
Complete schedule • http://www.livingtraditionsfestival.com
Schedule of guest artists on North Stage
Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m. • Bomba Estéreo
Friday, May 20 at 8:30 p.m. • Vieux Farka Touré
Saturday, May 21 at 8:30 p.m. • Boukman Eksperyans