On Friday night, we told you about the international impact that Andy Palacio’s Watina album had. But even before it went big worldwide – it wa smade clear locally how much a big deal this album would be. For context on that, we take you back to March of 2007 when the album was launched at the House of Culture.
[March, 2007]
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Looks like a thatch house on a Hopkins beach but this unlikely location was the makeshift recording studio on the water's edge for what critics say is the finest recording in Belize's modern history. It was here in Hopkins, soaked in culture that Andy and the Garifuna Collective found their inspiration. Andy Palacio and producer Ivan Duran are the creative forces behind the album Watina and this morning at a press launch at the reception hall in the House of Culture, they told guests that Watina is a product of 5 years of recording and re-hashing - actually make that 8 years, and it all started in this very room.
Ivan Duran, Stone Tree Records
"We were here rehearsing for the first European performance of what we later called the Garifuna All Star Band. We were here practicing for that show and Joshua and Adrian were over there in that room and they started singing 'Baba' and I just had to get up and go and sit right on the bed and listen to that song. I almost wanted to cry. I told Adrian that one day I will record this song. So I have to turn the clock back to 1999 because that is when Watina started and Adrian I thank you for that because that song to me is what I call Garifuna soul and that just was the first stone of Watina."
And that first stone, is a corner stone. Baba's beauty is incantatory and transcendent. The band gave this morning's guests a sampling of it.
[Clip of Performance]
And Adrian Martinez is just one of the featured artists. There's also Aurelio Martinez and of course Paul Nabor. Andy Palacio says he kept it close to home, testing the songs and arrangements in many late night sessions like this one to make what is old in the Garifuna culture new again.
Andy Palacio, Artist
"We made sure that every song was built on a roots Garifuna rhythm to it. We have hugu hugu influence to music on it, we have gunjay influenced, we have paranda influenced music on it. It is firmly rooted in the community. I felt that it was time to reach back into that bag of tricks and bring something different in such a way that we don't come out as imitators, that we develop a reputation for being innovators and if there are people who want to follow us, come along."
And those who do go along will be richly rewarded with an album which the cultural czars says is unparalleled. Joe Palacio says it represents a new approach in Garifuna music.
Joe Palacio,
"The popularity of paranda and punta rock in Belize and the region reflects these two forces, giving respect to tradition while placing the music in today's genre. The Watina CD is now infused a third quality into Garifuna music. It has taken Garifuna music to the next level, mainly at the world music level."
And already, the album is at number eight on the world music charts. Producer Duran says that its success is due in part to an indefinable quality that transcends, language culture and nationality. Culture king Yasser Musa agrees.
Ivan Duran,
"The most beautiful thing of Watina is that to enjoy it, you didn't need to know anything about Garifuna, anything about where the music came from. But ultimately we want to reach the people with the music straight to the heart and Watina is starting to do that."
Andy Palacio,
"The appeal stems from the CD's unparallel ability to touch the primeval in all of us with highly textured fusion of melody and rhythm. You cannot help but dance along with the music on the CD even though you don't understand the language."
Yasser Musa, NICH President
"Watina is not an academic exercise. As U2's Bono would say, the goal is soul and this album transmits soul."
And in this morning's performances, even in a small room with poor acoustics, and a quickly assembled band the magic, allure, and yes, the joy came across resonantly.
[Clip of Performance]
And his comfort behind the mic and at the front of the band isn't an act, this is who Andy Palacio is. And after twenty years of doing this, Andy Palacio to stop now would be like stopping breathing.
Andy Palacio,
"For us within the Garifuna culture, when you compose and you sing, we actually refer to it as breathing. I have to continue to breathe to live."
Tomorrow – we’ll look deeper into the internaitonal side of the Watina phenomenon.
