Join SFCC and bring your friends to a fun evening of listening and dancing to Baracutanga this Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. at SWAN Park, 5300 Jaguar Drive in Santa Fe. Doors open at 6 p.m. This show is sponsored by SFCC and is being produced by AMP Concerts. Although the event is free, AMP asks everyone to register in advance at https://www.ampconcerts.org/event/375883/baracutanga-.
Feel free to bring chairs to the concert. There will be food vendors and water filling stations. Parking is limited. AMP encourages everyone to ride their bikes or walk in if possible.
Baracutanga is a seven-piece band representing four different countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, USA), that blends South American ancestral traditions with a modern sensibility, whose exciting and distinct Latin flavor keeps crowds dancing and always wanting more. Baracutanga creates songs that cross linguistic and cultural barriers, building bridges between the south and the north, overcoming the barriers of discrimination and promoting intercultural experiences that empower Latinos and all people with a positive message of self-affirmation.
Be sure to stop by the SFCC tent and say hi. Bring your friends and family.
Check out the band’s awesome video.
Photo: Courtesy of Baracutanga, photo credit: Q.Q. Jade Photography
2021 Biography
Baracutanga’s joyful music is a fusion, but it’s an organic one, the product of the members’ combined musical backgrounds and interests. Kilko Paz, who most often plays the charango, from Bolivia, bass player Carlos Noboa is from Ecuador, and powerhouse vocalist Jackie Zamora hails from Peru, while drummer and percussionist Nick Baker, guitarist/accordion player Casey Mraz, and Micah Hood, who plays trombone and flutes, are from the US. Some members are university trained, others are self-taught musicians.
The members of the band met in Albuquerque in 2009 and connected over their love of Brazilian music. Their first sessions together were drum jams in the raucous samba style known as batucada. Though they soon began exploring more rhythms, you can still hear plenty of Brazil in their sound. Today, they are as much a borderless musical community as they are a band. Some shows will see as many as nine musicians on stage, plus Afro-Latin dancers.
The collective’s spirit of openness and community extends to their audience and tends to be infectious. Their live shows always bring the party to whatever venue they are in. “Our main characteristic is that, wherever we go and play, people dance,” Kilko says. As people across South America well know, huayno, cumbia, and samba are easy to dance to and hard not to dance to. Mix them together and you’ve got quite the recipe on your hands. Nick promises, “Whether you have learned to dance a cumbia or samba, you’re going to dance anyway.” Still, this band isn’t taking any chances, and often hold workshops with dance instructors as part of their events.
Making people dance is about more than a good time for Baracutanga, it’s part of their message. As Kilko puts it, “A dance floor is a representation of an ideal world, because people of different ages, cultures, political views, religious backgrounds are together dancing and having fun.” Their wildly danceable music is therefore an excellent vehicle for opening minds. “When you are moving your body and you hear something, it goes in deeper than if you were just sitting still,” observes Nick. Once everyone is moving, the audience is halfway to absorbing Baracutanga’s message of community, pride and cross-cultural unity. .
Baracutanga is touring soon. At every stop they will be leaving behind sweaty audiences and, hopefully, the world a little closer to their harmonious ideal.
Music
Volver Atrás (coming in fall 2021): Mixed by Grammy-nominated, triple platinum engineer Frank “El Medico” Rodriquez(Kinky, Juan Luis Guerra, Daddy Yankee) and features collaborations with Colombian singer, Alejo Garcia, Colombian accordionist Beto Jamaica (winner of the 2006 Vallenato Legend Festival Competition), Spanish percussionist Ktumba, and mixing engineer, Alfonzo Perez (Estudio Madre Selva, Inti Illimani). “Cuida tus Espaldas”, the first single from Volver Atrás, was released along with an award-winning music video in January 2019.
Volver Atrás finds the seven-member Albuquerque band returning to the raw, rhythmic South American sounds that have brought them a reputation for leaving audiences delighted, but exhausted from dancing. On this outing they are digging even deeper into the deeply rooted musical genres that insire pthem. Baracutanga interpret and mingle folkloric genres such as Brazilian samba and forro, cumbia, Andean huayno, and Colombian chande to create the perfect sonic blend for an album about where we all come from and where we are going.
Importados (2015): Recorded in Albuquerque, NM, Santa Fe, NM and Cadiz, Spain, their debut full-length studio album, Importados was released in September 2015. With multiple regional awards and recognition, performances across the Southwest, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, and California, with stops in Calgary, NOLA, Austin, and México, and an ever-growing fan base, New Mexico-based Baracutanga is ready to spread their fresh mix of South American flavors to national and international audiences.
Press:
- NPR Alt Latino: The Many Shades of Latinx Culture – 2019 (https://n.pr/2SaPeG5)
- Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities – 2019 (Arvada CO), Opening for the Orqesta Akokan from Cuba
- The Krannert Center 50th-Anniversary Opening Night Party 2018 (https://goo.gl/d6i64M) at the University of Illinois (Urbana IL)
- Marina Peters-Newell, Ph.D., Dept. of Foreign Languages, University of New Mexico – “A riveting performance and presentation by BARACUTANGA at the 20th anniversary celebration of UNM’s World Language Expo! An explosion of rhythms and sounds from all over this globe, showing the rich diversity and compelling interconnectedness of the world we live in. Add to that, the crazy talent of the Baracutanga musicians. And WOW”
- Christine Rancier, Executive Assistant and Media Relations, New Mexico Philharmonic – “The New Mexico Philharmonic loved having Baracutanga perform at our Mardi Gras themed Gala. Many guests made comments about the amazing musicianship of the band. Baracutanga provided a wonderful variety of lively Latin inspired songs including a collaboration with the NMPhil String Quartet. Truly an accomplished band that produces a vibrant, high energy performance. If they cannot get the audience on their feet, no one can!”
- Calgary Folk Festival 2017: Calgary Sun (2017) – “ … the seven-piece band easily won over the crowd with blazing brass, danceable rhythms and the charisma of vocalist Jackie Zamora”. Kerry Clark (artistic director), Calgary Herald (2017) – “They really brought it. They did everything I could have wanted them to do, both for the party and the main stage. Just the right attitude”
- Santa Fe Band Stand: Michael Dellheim (Director) – “Huge Peruvian rhythms, reinforced by a massive horn section and Jackie Zamora’s radiant presence combined to make Baracutanga’s Bandstand appearance a season highlight party”
Awards and recognitions
- Cuida tus Espaldas Music Video -Semi-finalist: 2021 Osaka International Film Festival; Finalist: 2020 Aladerri International Film Festival; Official selections: 2020 Santa Fe Film Festival, 2020 International social Shorts, 2021The Continental Film Festival
- 2020 Abq the Magazine Readers poll – 1st place, Best Local Band
- 2019 Abq the Magazine Readers poll – 2nd place, Best Local Band
- 2019 Alibi Best of Burque Poll – Best of the Best, Best Latin, Best World Music, Best Video and Best Party Band
- 2019 New Mexico Music Awards – Best Musical Production – Latin
- 2018 Alibi Best of Burque Poll – Best Latin and Best World Music Band
- 2017 Albuquerque the Magazine – 2nd Place Best Band
- 2016 N.M.M.A. – Best World Music song – “Paixao”
- 2015 N.M.M.A. – Best Original arrangement with “Deja de Matar”
- 2014 N.M.M.A. – 1st place, Albuquerque Song Competition with “Rumba de Burque”
Notable Concerts:
- Opening for Orquesta Akokan (Havana, Cuba) at the Arvada Center in Denver, CO in June 2019. Baracutanga received a standing ovation and sold out their merch.
- Opening up for Barenaked Ladies at the Calgary Folk Fest 2017. Baracutanga had the whole crowd on their feet dancing and later received kind words from the mayor of Calgary on social media.
- Shared the stage with acts like Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (Colombia), Palenke Soul Tribe, the Family Stone, Mexican Institute of Sound, Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers, Tanya Tagaq, Birds of Chicago, Like Chouk Bwa Libéte, among others
Notable Concerts:
- Opening for Orquesta Akokan (Havana, Cuba) at the Arvada Center in Denver, CO in June 2019. Baracutanga received a standing ovation and sold out their merch.
- Opening up for Barenaked Ladies at the Calgary Folk Fest 2017. Baracutanga had the whole crowd on their feet dancing and later received kind words from the mayor of Calgary on social media.
- Shared the stage with acts like Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (Colombia), Palenke Soul Tribe, the Family Stone, Mexican Institute of Sound, Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers, Tanya Tagaq, Birds of Chicago, Like Chouk Bwa Libéte, among others
