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| Tuesday, August 01, 2006 |
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Ozomatli--Dancing in the Temple to the Soundtrack of the Promised Land
By Image Mag Staff @ 12:00 AM :: 174 Views ::
0 Comments :: Music: Artist Spotlight, Music: Concerts
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wordplay by Scott Mastro
images by Soren McCarty/MusicImagery.com
Born on the border from the ashes of post-riot LA, Afro-Latino groove ensemble Ozomatli’s members met at the Peace and Justice Center of Los Angeles, and their first performance was for striking picketers in 1995.
Their name is the Aztec astrological monkey symbol for the god of dance, new harvest, fire, and music, and they first caught fire in 1999 when Carlos Santana plucked them from the barrios and back alleys and placed them center-stage for his Supernatural Tour. Tireless in their commitment to democracy for everyone, in 2000 they played for the thousands of Staples Center protestors that inflamed the Los Angeles Democratic National Convention.
Cookin’ cumbia, meringue, dub, hip hop, raga, funk, salsa, and r&b, Ozomatli’s created a cultural gumbo heated by the legacy of social and political musical activism. Mixing funky beats with Latino flare, they spice up the mix by adding in a plethora of instruments. Violins, pianos, turn tables, and even hands are used to create their hot sound. They switch between rapping to smooth Latino balladry, all the while expressing their message to the world.
In 2001, as planets, prophecies, and evil ‘oil’ men lined up to scare the buh-Jesus out of the natives, Ozomatli's second album, Embrace the Chaos, hit the airwaves and streets of the nation on September 11th. As many bands and baseball teams cancelled concerts and games, Ozo marched through the fray like “The Spirit of ’76-With-Several-Extra- Members,” fifing, drumming, and waving the flag for social justice, progressive politics, and anti-war sentiment. While half of America quickly and mindlessly started calling for killing and hatred, the band committed its artistry to embracing North African and Arab musical styles practicing inclusion and not state-sanctioned discrimination.
From the Hollywood Bowl and the Orange Country Fairgrounds of Los Angeles to Fort Marcy Ballpark in Santa Fe and Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, Ozomatli, missionary of new world music, is what pot-smokin’-slave bangin’ Thomas Jefferson envisioned for America. They are the culture of freedom, hope, and prosperity that hoisted our foundation up out of British domination, what we should be today, a multi-racial blend of the best of all of this weary world’s vibrant cultures torn at by vicious governments, still rejoicing in their unique spirits and vitalities, because when it gets down to the buzz and grit of survival and celebration, all Peoples gots ta’ hav’ dere music, and Ozomatli lets us have it all because it’s “their all” to give!
The magnet-ingredient of Ozomatli’s moral compass instructs us in Ronald-Reagan fashion to tear down the walls, stop all this hating, and let the music be our guide, leading the tired and hungry masses in one damn fine-of-a-time multi-racial, world-neighborhood-expanding celebration. Lady Liberty raises her torch to them, and with their 2005 Ozomatli - Live at The Fillmore she’s rump-shakin’ enough leg to get the dudes on Mount Rushmore harder than the rock they’re carved on.
As a further sign of intelligence, Ozomatli was one of the select artists to record with Santana for his blockbuster Shaman album when many managers and record companies were portraying Carlos as ‘over the hill’. They laid it down with Herb Alpert on the fortieth anniversary re-mix of the classic Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream album that brought us the theme song for “The Dating Game” and no doubt if Desi Arnaz was alive and touring today he’d enlist Ozomatli for back-up as sure as Bob Dylan and the Band criss-crossed Americana with dictionary definitions of itself, ingesting and hallucinating a musical spirit of our darknesses and elations, fleeting, ephemeral, mystical, and sanctimonious.
With Ozomatli, we dance and rejoice in the neighborhoods we’ve come from, in the tradition of great horn bands like Tower of Power, Chicago, War, Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
Socially adept, musically committed, Ozo’ puts its meringue where its mambo is lyrically also, mixing mentions of Japanese crime syndicates with Morrocan healing trance music, enlisting the French world-octet, Les Yeux Noirs, the Prague Symphony, Los Lobos, Kumbia Kings, Sublime, and the salsa pioneer, Eddie Palmieri, to etch their mark upon Ozomatli’s musical canvas, snagging 2002’s and 2005’s Best Latin Rock/Alternative Grammy. This is the kind of music to get a granola girl naked to.
Hot foot up that volcano, ‘Embrace the Chaos’, and kiss the sky ‘cause when Ozomatli comes to Red Rocks, they’ll bring bass, marimbula, guitar, saxophone, tabla, cajon, drums, trombone, turntables, rap vocals, and an aural oyster of this world’s diverse sounds and sensations. They play the "Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival" with Bunny Wailer and Ziggy and Stephen Marley among others on August 19th.
August 19th @ Red Rocks
Ozomatli.com
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