Multi-layered percussion, singing, and a blaring horn section. The music of Puerto Rico hits a listener with an energy abounding with the same intensity of the struggle of the community from which it came.
You're listening to Off the Record with Steven Philip Harvey, where we sit down and talk to a variety of musicians on today's music scene.
Today we're sitting down with Maurice Sanabria and Tito Sanabria; father and son, co-leaders of Kadencia Orchestra. They're a Richmond based music group that plays the music of their Native island, Puerto Rico. I sat down with them and received a rich history of the two main styles they performed
Tito: Bomba and Plena! So, they are two separate and distinct Afro Puerto Rican genres of music. So Bomba is, um. African in nature, and it's an ancestral form of music developed in Puerto Rico by the African, you know, population that of enslaved human beings that came to the island. Plana is the, is the younger of the Afro Puerto Rican genres that we play dating back to late 18 hundreds, beginning of the 1900's.
So somewhere around that timeframe, generally recognized as developed and created in the. Southern part of Puerto Rico in the town of which is the largest city on the southern coast by sugar cane workers and people that worked in mills and factories and workshops along that southern coast.
Through their study performance and education of these styles, they've made a lot of parallel comparisons to other music.
In fact, the history of Afro Puerto Rican music and African American music share close ties.
Maurice: Well, one of the things that I, I, we want to showcase is that, uh, out of something that was very, you know, very bad, like, uh, slavery, this sound came, you know, from that. And it's really great, a great sound. You know, you saw one of the, one of the things that, that happened in, in the, in the states, they took the, the, the drums away from the slaves.
So basically in, in the Caribbean it was, they let them use them like for, like Tito mentioned, the harvest. So basically that's why our music is so rich in percussive instruments while in, in the south of America, the, the vocals where the, you know, you guys develop the vocals in the gospel.
Next week, Kadencia Orchestra brings Bomba and Plena to the Delmarva community at the Maryland Folk Festival. When asked what they hope to pass on to audiences, this is what they had to say:
Maurice: Teamwork. Basically, each player is playing something different. And the whole thing is, is something beautiful.
Tito: And what we want to the Delmarva community to, to take away is that these traditions are alive. We are doing our part to keep them alive and thriving, right, and prospering in this region.
That was Maurice Sanabria and Tito Sanabria; father and son, co-leader of Kadencia Orchestra. Kadencia Orchestra performs September 19th and 20th at the Maryland Folk Festival. More information can be found at mdfolkfest.com.
This was off the record, hosted by me, Stephen Philip Harvey, a Delmarva Public Media production. Thanks for listening to our interview with Maurice Sanabria and Tito Sanabria; father and son, and co-leaders of Kadencia Orchestra. To hear more off the record interviews or to listen to other original segments like this, visit delmarvapublicmedia.org.
