Alvaro Salas | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Alvaro Salas Gularte |
Born | Montevideo, Uruguay | 25 May 1953
Genres | Candombe, Latin jazz, world music |
Occupation(s) | percussionist and educator |
Instrument(s) | tamboriles , Drums, bongos, congas and timbales |
Alvaro Salas (born May 25, 1953 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Uruguayan Master Candombe drummer and percussion teacher. [1]
Salas was born in Ansina, a neighbourhood in Palermo, Montevideo.
Salas has worked, both live and on records, with a number of musicians, including Eduardo Mateo, Jorginho Gularte, Roberto Galletti, Federico Britos, and Urbano Moraes. He has also worked as a percussionist, arranger, and director with several award-winning Carnival groups including Marabunta, Sueno del Buceo, Vendaval, and others. [2] He is the current Director of the Afro-Uruguayan social organization Mundo Afro. [3] As well, he runs the musical school in this institution, which has international prestige. [4] In 2018, he worked with Kamba Kuá in celebrating afro-Paraguayan identity at the "Agustin Pio Barrios" music school at the new Municipal Art Institute (IMA, in Spanish). He demonstrates the interaction between the typical percussive family of candombe, consisting of what are known as the piano, chico and repique drum.
The most distinctive music of Uruguay is to be found in the tango and candombe; both genres have been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Uruguayan music includes a number of local musical forms such as murga, a form of musical theatre, and milonga, a folk guitar and song form deriving from Spanish and italian traditions and related to similar forms found in many American countries.
The quijada, charrasca, or jawbone is an idiophone percussion instrument made from the jawbone of a donkey, horse, mule, or cattle, producing a powerful buzzing sound. The jawbone is cleaned of tissue and dried to make the teeth loose and act as a rattle. It is used in music in most of Latin America, including Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Cuba. It was also historically used in the early American minstrel show.
Candombe is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed candombe in its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Murga is a form of popular musical theatre performed in Argentina, Panama, Spain and Uruguay during the Carnival season. Murga groups also operate in the Buenos Aires Carnival, though to a lesser extent than in Montevideo; the Argentinian murga is more centred on dancing and less on vocals than the Uruguayan one. Uruguayan murga has a counterpart in Cadiz, Spain from which it is derived, the chirigota, but over time the two have diverged into distinct forms.
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Gabino Ezeiza, nicknamed Negro, was an Argentine musician. Ezeiza was one of the greatest performers in the art of the payada. He became renowned, both in his native land and in Uruguay, after a memorable encounter with Oriental payador Juan de Nava, who carried at the time a certain halo of invincibility. This celebrated contest was held in the city of Paysandú on July 23, 1884, in front of one of the largest crowds ever to gather for a payada duel.
Afro-Uruguayans are Uruguayans of predominantly African descent. The majority of Afro-Uruguayans are in Montevideo.
The tambores de candombe or tamboriles are drums used in the playing of Candombe music of Uruguay. They are single skin headed and there are three sizes: piano, repique, and the chico. The drums are made of wood and have a curved barrel shape with its base very narrow.
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Carnival in Uruguay is a festival that takes place every year in Uruguay from mid January to late February. It is considered to be the longest carnival in the world. The Carnival draws root from candombe, Murga and tablados, which are forms of expression of Uruguayan culture through dance and music. From its conception, the Uruguayan Carnival has evolved into a dance parade in which different comparsas, groups of street performers in Latin American festivals, play the drums and dance at the "Desfile Inaugural del Carnaval" and "Desfile de Llamadas" parade. The biggest carnival celebrations are in the capital Montevideo and can last up to 40 days. They involve a series of cultural events such as dance parades in the streets, street stages called "tablados" and an artistic contest in the "Teatro de Verano" in Montevideo.
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Beatriz Santos Arrascaeta is a Uruguayan writer, educator, singer and activist of African descent.
Lágrima Ríos was the stage name of Lida Melba Benavídez Tabárez, a prominent candombe and tango singer of Afro-Uruguayan descent. Her voice was powerful and she is also known as the "Black Pearl of the Tango" and the "Lady of Candombe". Her rendition of Vieja viola was listed in the book 1001 Songs you must hear before you die.
Eduardo Pedro Lombardo, nicknamed Edú and Pitufo (Smurf), is a Uruguayan musician, composer, and singer. He stood out as a teenager as a member of several murgas in his country, in addition to accompanying renowned artists as a percussionist. Since 2007 he has developed a distinguished career as a soloist.
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