Today’s topic: “The Queen of Tourism” (Today’s meta-topic: the fervor of the converted.)

Polibio Mayorga, the Ecuadorian genius who was my gateway drug into cumbia, also covers this song. The oldest version I have is from Venezuelan organist-superstar Tulio Enrique Leon “El Artista del Teclado” – who Sonido Martines first wrote up here. Below, Chucho Ponce of Los Daddys comes with a sweet synthed-up version called ‘The Queen of Tourism’. Mayorga goes in hard for the organs, forming a direct lineage with Leon’s “La Cumbia de los Monjes” (which has nothing to do with “La Cumbia de los Monjes” by Los Deakino, although we’ll get to that one during Week 14: Bells).

Los Daddys – La Reyna de Turismo

“La Cumbia de los Monjes/La Reyna [sic] de Turismo” is an example of a song – like “El Llanto de la Tortuga” – whose construction lends itself to interesting synthesizer work. En “El Llanto” for example, the horn arrangments do lots of octave leaps (also common in grime/dubstep production). In other songs the melody will be passed around on various instruments. In cumbia sonidera, these elements often translate into great synth patch weirdness.

It’s a beautiful quality – this ability of songs recorded in the 1960s, say, to inspire studio experimentation forty years on; they contain within their DNA the urge to f%ck up form.

Chucho’s “La Reyna de Turismo” is fairly restrained (the pleasures of version culture are many, restraint among them), and the bassline suggests reggae…

You’ll hear shoutouts for Chinantla, Puebla” in all of Ponce’s riddims. I was in Puebla last month and asked about Chinantla. Nobody had heard of it. “It must be a tiny village” they said.

And here is Tulio Enrique Leon’s take on things:

Tulio Enrique Leon – La Cumbia de Los Monjes

Cumbia on NYC’s NPR show ‘Morning Edition’! A few days ago I stopped by to talk Cumbia 101 with WNYC, results can be streamed or downloaded here at the WNYC Culture blog. You’ll notice the radio audio is tucked away inside a post of mine on the Sonido Martines D’Antigua party in Queens… and if you haven’t seen it yet, my 1st post for WNYC Culture is about thongs and world music.

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my intention is to post 1 cumbia a day here in 2010. I’m off to a slow start. Blame CPT.

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Over at Dutty Artz, check out PM Jawn’s latest post — on cumbia stores in Passiac, New Jersey! USEFUL INFORMATION FOR THE DEVOTED.

[interior of La Conga in Passaic, PM Jawn]

Bad Santa cumbia villera from the one and only Damas Gratis. Pablo Lescano is the most famous person I know who semi-regularly sends me insane emails. Some, like this recent one, contain amazing music. Hilarious lyrics thick with double entrendres.

Damas Gratis – Papa Cruel

[Pablo Lescano of Damas Gratis]

“Give music this holiday season. Pablito Lescano warmly wishes you a merry Christimas and this song is my gift.“

[Mungo's Hi-Fi flickr photo of Mictlan Dub Festi audience @ Salon Calavera, DF.]

The last couple years have given rise to countless cumbia remixes, which often function like a machine-translated extension of cumbia’s endless infatuation with the cover version. (I admit a fascination with badly sung covers, and have a special folder on some hard drive dedicated to precisely that: people who take a song and make it much, much worse, with all the soulfulness of a voice waaay outta tune.)

New York City’s Cumbiagra just released their first CD, a collection of versions entitled (Under) Covers. Musicians, they are playing many gigs this month. The first track on their CD is “Al Calor de la Cumbia.” Cumbiagra stretch this tune out to seven minutes (!) and the best part is that it’s great the whole time- provided you can deal with guitar solos in yr cumbia. Musicians!

Cumbiagra – Al Calor de la Cumbia

(Regarding cumbia musicality, you are immediately directed to this excellent interview with Mario Galeano Toro of Frente Cumbiero in Bomb. More on this in a bit.)

For Thanksgiving I was on 3-city tour in Mexico with dub master Adrian Sherwood, and the amazing Mungo’s Hi-Fi; on the road to Puebla we stopped at a place to eat (across the highway from the one pictured below) and I picked up a CD-r because it contained a much older version of “Al Calor de la Cumbia”. (Doug from Mungo’s has a nice photo slideshow from the tour here.)

I lost the CD packaging and don’t know who this is…. but Toy does!

Grupo Marina Perla – Al Calor de la Cumbia

This song contains a verse I love:

Yo veía el tiempo pasar
Más tú nunca viniste a mí
Cumbia, Cumbia, a orilla del mar.
Que por ella te conocí.

[Mungo's Hi-Fi flickr]

Head over to RCRDLBL to get an exclusive tune from the new cumbia / cumbia digital compilation, put together by the deepest digger we know, Sonido Martines!

Los Destellos – Elsa (Sonido Martines remix feat Fefe)

the jam in question is Sonido himself remixing legendary Peruvian chicha cumbia band, Los Destellos de Enrique Delgado, with remix assistance by Fefe, a Brazilian firecracker on the mic. In one example of how Sonido Martines works, he tracked down Los Destellos, explained to them what was going on in the slippery world of ‘new cumbia’, and with their blessings got permission to flip this remix. Now-thing realness with respect for the foundational musicans!

the comp esta muy wapo… Sonido Martines presents: Nueva Cumbia Argentina! fresh heat from nu-skoolers like El Hijo de la Cumbia, Fauna, and Chancha Via Circuito, and visionary early material from DJ Taz and Damas Gratis, and more! 12″ and digital out now: iTunes / Amazon / Boomkat, etc. K VIVA LA KUMBIA!!

Yes, he’ll be playing the incredible ‘One Step Beyond’ party at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan on November 13th, with DJ /rupture, Maluca, Matt Shadetek & Jahdan Blakkamoore (more on this soon). That happens on Friday. The following day the cumbia will be concentrated:

if you are reading this blog, you know who they are. Lescano delivers madness guaranteed. If you don’t know, check my article on cumbia for The Fader.

it goes down today, Wednesday Sept. 16 – I’ll be spinning an all-cumbia set at the Treehouse party. Free! It’s a gentle evening for the 9-5 set; I start around 10:30pm, so show up early… It goes down at Littlefield in Gowanus, alongside Treeboy, Gamall, and Raspberry Jones.

When I say all-cumbia, I mean it! Material you can find in many many places, such as Mexican shops in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or via online stateside shops from Discos El Papi & Barba Azul. The point is, cumbia is close. So this set will contain no crunk cumbia, no ‘cumbia digital’, no bloggy remixes.

Expect current Mexican cumbia sonidera, with an emphasis on tracks that shout out Nueva York, like…

Formula 5 – La Cumbia Maestra (a re-post but hey)

…alongside more classic material from the 60s 70s & 80s, like:

Andres Landero – Canto a Cartagena (written by Betty Ochoa de Anillo)

And be prepared for potentially cheesy sad love songs, like:

Los Star Boys – La Culpa (“we had problems, the blame goes to both of us”)

…and, darker still, songs about death:

Lucy Gonzales y su Combo Orence – La Ley Poderosa

Great lyrics on this one, “The Powerful Law”. I have cumbia songs about Satan, but I don’t play those in public. On a tangentially related note, Spanish uses the same word for eschatology and scatology!

In closing – come through, come early, and enjoy this last one, an instrumental about the Lone Ranger’s guacharaca (in which we hear the sounds of his horse), from a DJ presumably named after Keanu Reeves’ character in The Matrix:

DJ Neo – Guacharaca del Llanero Solitario

Black Mandingo is back!

My friend Black sent to me a month ago the latest compilation of his remix and mashup.  I’m a bit late on this one and I want to apologize for this!  I had, just like dj/Rupture, computer problems and my available time just shrink to the minimum available!

By chance I had this compilation to listen to it.  I’m really happy to share this one.  I really like the flavor of his remix and mashups.  I was already with the Alto mixtape (download here) that he release  a year ago.  He also got his Fauna remix on zizek here!

Listen to Eazy e cumbia mashup, reggaeton modulado and the heavybass!

Download BLACK IS BACK here

El Hijo de la Cumbia is running things! Check above for his 10-day Mexico tour, starting tomorrow with el jefe, Celso Pina @ the Auditorio Nacional!!!!!! needless to say, this party will be crazy.

and his debut album, Freestyle de Ritmos, is available in the usual spots, like Boomkat, eMusic, Turntable Lab, and iTunes everywhere…