Lucía Pulido is a prominent Colombian singer with a career that includes jazz and traditional music from her country. For some years now, she has lived in Mexico, where she met violinist Ulises Martínez, with whom she formed the ensemble that recorded the album Colombia México: Dos Pueblos Una Raíz.
The group is completed by Colombian (based in New York) Sebastián Cruz on electric guitar; Mexican multi-instrumentalist Gustavo Nandayapa, able to play tuba or euphonium, as well as percussion and marimba, among other instruments; and Misha Marks, an unclassifiable New Zealand musician based in Mexico, who contributes drums and percussion to this album, although he also masters the horn, guitar, and latarra, an electric guitar constructed from a medicine cabinet. A far from traditional lineup.
They are musicians from different cultures playing together songs that come largely from traditional music, each contributing instrumental practices and sounds perhaps far removed from the Colombian coast, yet they work perfectly together. Of course, there is great merit in the production work, the arrangements, and the care put into the recording. But none of this would work without a solid idea from the beginning: to respect and highlight the rhythmic feet.
There is a core theme in this collection of songs that gives the album unity: the arrangements were conceived from the rearguard of any music group, which is percussion. On that basis, the following are added: the guitar, eventually the bass, and finally the voice by Lucía Pulido and the violin melodies of Ulises Martínez, which in some cases truly function as riffs. A violin that sings with language of Mexican music, a lot of tuning and refined technique.
Like many works of art, this album allows for more than one possible reading (or listening). For connoisseurs of Colombian and Mexican folklore, it will be very interesting to discover the closeness and even brotherhood of certain rhythms.
For those who follow Lucía Pulido's career it will be a find to see her in these more traditional clothes.
And for those encountering these performers and repertoire for the first time, the album will be a highly interesting and challenging journey.
Related artists: Lucía Pulido