The power of Colombia at the New Orleans Jazz Festival

The festival will take place between April 25 and May 5. Cimarrón, Grupo Niche, Bomba Estéreo, Los Cumbia Stars de Medellín, Lucio Feuillet, among others, are part of the list of Colombians at the festival in which Colombia is the guest country of honor.

In the cradle where Louis Armstrong was born, there will be an unprecedented cultural festival for Colombian musicians. The Cumbia Stars from Medellín, Lucio Feuillet from Pasto, Enkelé from Bucaramanga, Matachindé from Buenaventura, Cimarrón del Orinoco, among other groups, will represent the country at the event.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival pays tribute to musical heritages and Colombia is a cultural meeting point for the African diaspora. It should be remembered that the city of New Orleans is a melting pot where Spanish and French culture converge. It is said that it is a European city within the United States and that in its essence it also includes a bit of Latin America.

Mark Twain, in his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” has as its central character the majestic Mississippi River that originates in Minnesota and extends 153 kilometers south to New Orleans, where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

That is why it is so relevant to bring Colombian cumbia, because from river to river the music will be connected. Representing the genre will be “Los Cumbia Stars” from Medellín: “We are honored and filled with happiness that the sounds of our cumbia come to fill the streets of New Orleans with joy and cadence in this edition of its Jazz Festival, it is a dream that we are building; make history in Cumbia and Colombian tropical music, that all the countries of our continent vibrate and feel in their blood the rhythm of a cumbia that unites us as Latin Americans and that identifies us throughout the world," says Cristina Escamilla, leading voice. of this group that is about to release the album “La cumbia une a Latinoamérica”.

Another river present is the Orinoco (Venezuela) and from the immense plain, Cimarrón will reaffirm why it is the most international Colombian group of its kind. “For Cimarrón, this festival represents the continuation of the Joropo World Tour, which has already visited eight countries since last summer and will end in December, adding 20 cities in Japan. It is one of the great stages in the United States that was already on our route. We recently went through the North Carolina Folk Festival, to name one, and we already had the New Orleans one on the agenda. The festival's team of curators knows our show, as well as our career, and they told us that they fell in love with the band. It will be a very special opportunity, because Cimarrón not only talks about Colombia in terms of celebration and joy, we are also interested in showing what is heartbreaking,” says Ana Veydó, leader of the group.

Regarding the curation or selection of artists, it is worth mentioning that it is thanks to the management and results of music markets such as Circulart and the Bogota Music Market (Bomm). The programmers of the New Orleans Jazz Festival Christine Baer White and Valérie Guillet were able to get closer to Colombian music and propose us as the guest country for the 2024 edition that brings a download of salsa, champeta, shawm, bagpipes and tons of flavor like those of Jacobo Vélez and La Mambanegra.

“Coming to the festival since independence and with the popular Cali narrative squeezed between the souls of each of the people that make up La Mamba is a wonderful dream, it is the opportunity to be able to tell our story from the Latin shearing that makes us up, it is giving free rein to two neighborhoods with African heritage that had a long conversation, a huge rumba that had to happen, Cali and New Orleans are the same party, but with different rivers,” says Vélez.

About 175 national artists will be performing on the festival's fourteen stages. The extensive program also includes daily parades in honor of Colombia, the presence of Afro and indigenous artisans and stoves that will be lit with traditional cuisine.

Added to the list of names present are Grupo Niche, Bomba Estéreo, Kombilesa Mi, Agrupación Changó and Lucio Feuillet, a son of the galeras volcano and a great reference for southern music. “Being at the New Orleans Jazz Fest is an immense gift for us. Let's go with all the murga, with Dayra Benavides and with all that inspiration that the little land, the south, Nariño, Carnival, Colombia, Latin America has given us and all these sound and experiential explorations that we have been doing for so many years in music. Getting here is a celebration, a commemoration and we are going to give everything so that Guaneña sounds beautiful and strong from one of the most important festivals in the world.”

It will undoubtedly be a great exchange of knowledge that has the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Colombian Embassy in the United States.

Viva The Latin Jazz!!

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