IRRESISTIBLY FUNKY

Remembering Joe Arroyo, Colombia’s biggest music star

Colombia’s Disco Fuentes label is probably one of the most well-known record companies in South America. From the 1960s, the label pumped out funky cumbias, porro and such irresistible salsa that Cubans often said that they felt at home in Colombia; if I spin a Colombian track when I am manning the DJ decks, a dancer will come up and ask me which Cuban band I’m playing.

Disco Fuentes raised the international profile of Colombian music with compilations that nearly always featured a “cheesy” cover of a young woman in skimpy clothes. It was from one of these compilations that I first heard cumbia, which along with the accordion-driven vallenato, is one of Colombia’s most popular genres.

In 2007, Soundway produced several compilations based on Disco Fuentes’ back catalogue, led by the essential Colombia! The Golden Age Of Disco Fuentes and these releases have piqued interest in the country’s popular music.

I was recently handed the follow-up album to Vampi Soul’s 2010 release The Afrosound Of Colombia (reviewed earlier this year), which was released in 2014, and it is a blast. This compilation features 24 killer dance floor fillers from not just Disco Fuentes but also sub-labels like Tropical and Machuca. The term “Afrosound” was created by Disco Fuentes to highlight the African musical heritage of Colombia’s coastal regions and grasslands. From the 1950s to the 1980s, musicians mixed the many sounds of Colombia and the Caribbean basin to create catchy new styles. These new styles travelled first to neighbouring countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean before conquering the world.

As a result, Colombia developed many kinds of hybrid music as Volume 2 of the Afrosound compilation shows. The volume kicks off with Pachanga Miramar from Sexteto Miramar, a brass- and percussion-driven porro, but which is also showcased by an even better porro track, Juana Rosa Manzano. Juventud Flaca Y Loca by accordion player Lisandro Meza somehow manages to bring together cumbia, salsa and porro in one breathtaking track, while Michi Sarmiento Y Su Combo Bravo blends seamlessly cumbia and a Latin jazz style descarga on Calenita.

Wganda Kenya, the most African-sounding of all the Colombian bands of the period, oblige with a track, Fayab Fayab, that would not be out of place on a West African compilation, while Rosalba by Banda 20 De Julio de Repelon has a distinctly Arabic/North African feel to it.

All in all, this fine compilation, with excellent liner notes, is yet another example of the diversity of Colombian popular music and is well worth checking out.

But what is missing from all these compilations, and this may be due to contractual issues, is the legendary singer/bandleader Joe Arroyo, who would have been 62 this month; sadly he passed away at the age of 55 in 2011. His presence hovers over all these releases.

Arroyo was Colombia’s biggest music star. He rose from poverty to become one of the region’s biggest names — when he died Colombian TV was in the middle of broadcasting a “tele-novella” on his tempestuous life, which included, at Arroyo’s insistence, his struggles with his health and drug addiction. He started his career in a brothel, at the age of 13, and by 17 he was fronting Fruko y su Tesos as the lead singer (he had been “discovered” by the band’s bass player Julio Ernesto Estrada), a key band within the Disco Fuentes family.

He stayed with Fruko’s band for 10 years and from his first release, La Promiscua, he struck a chord with audiences across Colombia. In 1981, he left to form his own band, La Verdad (“Truth”) and his popularity soared as he released hybrid music that mixed salsa, cumbia and porro, with Caribbean rhythms like soca, zouk and compass. He called his hybrid music “Caribeno”, while locals dubbed it “Joeson”. He released hits like Rebellion, La Noche, Tania, El Ausente and En Barranquilla Me Quedo, which made him into the country’s biggest musical star. Rebellion has become something of an informal national anthem; Colombians will jump up to dance it to it whenever it is performed or played.

So if you do get some of the Colombian compilations, many of which are essential to a decent music collection, remember to do a little digging for Joe Arroyo songs — there are plenty of clips on YouTube — and his albums on Sony Tropical, such as Fuego En Mi Mente and Mi Libertad are worth tracking down, as are the compilations like Rebellion on World Circuit.

This columnist can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.

MUSICIANS MIXED THE MANY SOUNDS OF COLOMBIA AND THE CARIBBEAN BASIN TO CREATE CATCHY NEW STYLES