Bi Kidude, Sri Lankan Baila and Traditional Drums

Recently saw a music video by Bi Kidude (Little Granny) from Zanzibar.  I was struck by the similarities to Sri Lankan Kaffiringha or Manja music and old traditional music as in Panama Vannam and Yak Thovil.

Bi Kidude (Little Granny)
Fatma Baraka Khamis was Taarab singer from Zanzibar who was born around 1910. Bi Kidude won several awards including a WOMEX
Award for her role in the culture of the Zanzibar Island.  The iconic artist sadly passed away on April 17^th, 2013.   She very well might have been a century old. (see more here and video documentary“As old as my tongue – The Myth and Life of Bi Kidude” by director Andy Jones). In Bi Kidude's words, I smoke, drink and sing.  Not bad for a life to a hundred years.

So here is one music video by Bi Kidude. A few other links, Dancing,  Traditional Drums, and her Voice range (Alminadura)



Manja Music of Sri Lanka
Its the music of the Kaffirs (not a derogatory word in Sri Lanka). They were brought mainly by the Portuguese from Angola and Mozambique. The Tabbowa/Sirambiadi community in the west coast is a mix of African descendants and Sinhalese.  Their music is now very much part of the Sri Lankan tradition.  Below the group Ceylon African Manja performing in their village.  This is youtube clip of the same group in a more formal setting.


Portuguese Burgers (Creoles) of Batticoloa (East Coast)
The Portuguese Burgers too sing and dance Kaffiringha music.  Its is unknown if they have African roots.



Sri Lankan Traditional Music
A gravel voice and rhythms (as against melody) define traditional music. Immediate below women playing the rabane,  a instrument played by women at village events, specially Sinhalese New Year.  This particular video is from a five star hotel !!.  

Second below the traditional Gajaba Wannama (dance of the King’s Tuske) with a modern dance ensemble.  More Wannamas here.

Unheard of a couple of decades back, upper middle class girls/women playing the drums, or for that matter a traditional instruments.  Now we have and all girl/women traditional drumming (watch it is good, their website http://www.thuryaa.lk/). The times are a changing. 





Also see
http://sbarrkum.blogspot.com/2013/03/music-papare-video-angola-or-brasil.html
http://sbarrkum.blogspot.com/2011/01/galle-heliwela-exorcism-and-yak-natum.html

Thanks Mohamed Rizwan for linking the Bi Kidude video, Anton James for identifying Bi Kidude.

YaliniDream: Marian Yalini Thambynayagam

This was from 2009 which I saw via SepiaMutiny.  Looked it up again.
Comment on SepiaMutiny

what I appreciate about her is her refusal to be categorized. So much of the polarization of politics in Sri Lanka and the diaspora hinges on the desire to categorize. One is either considered pro-Tamil or a patriot. One either loves Sri Lanka or is considered a traitor. By refusing to be categorized, she reminds us that such political tactics silence most experiences and therefore need to be destabilized and questioned.

Based on the website http://www.yalinidream.com/ looks like not around since 2011.

Malini's Hip Hop Kitchen (my choice)

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Abi Sampa (Gnanasampanthan): Great Performance at Voice of UK

Abi Sampa (Gnanasampanthan), grand daughter of a 70's Jaffna MP, Thiagar  .
Practicing dentist, graduated from Barts and The Royal London University in 2010.
More info as I find out.  (tip from Chanaka Atukorale)

Peter Sellers: The Party: Oh To be in Yingland sung by Ceylonese Bill Forbes.

All these years watched Peter Sellers "The Party" and never knew it was a Ceylonese (He left long before it was Sri Lanka) Bill Forbes who sang "Oh to be in England".

On the seaside bordering Adamaly place, along Galle Road, is a gas station that dispenses, petrol, diesel, cooking gas, vehicle servicing and washing, very popular with local residents. It was here where the famous Sri Lankan crooner Bill Forbes once worked as an attendant. The pump still stands and serves its citizens valiantly until today.

Bill Forbes was born on 17th December 1938 in Sri Lanka. He came to Britain in 1955 at the age of 17 doing menial clerical work by day and renting a flat in Victoria, Central London. During 1958 Bill lived out his dreams of being a famous singer by appearing regularly at the "Bread Basket" coffee bar in Tottenham Court Road. It was while he was performing one night in September 1958 that two talent scouts representing Jack Good approached him and asked if he wanted to audition for the "Oh Boy!" show. The series had just blasted onto the nation's television screens a few weeks earlier and Bill was already a big fan of the show. The show was a groundbreaking British pop music event from 1958-1959, in London with Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Bill Fury and others. He released 12 hits for EMI Columbia among them 'Too Young/It's Not the End of the World,' Sri Lankans still sing his baila hit: 'Aacha England,' recorded under the name of Kal Khan. 'Oh to be in England!' is still a favorite of many vintage Sri Lankans.

via  http://colombofort.com/bambalapitiya.htm

Music: Papare Video Angola (or Brasil ?)

This is a video for MS Fernando's Kekiri (kakiri) Pelena Hinawa.  The music just jives with the dance.  The dance moves look so Sri Lankan, specially when they clasp hands together and lay it against their faces. The other move is when they raise both hand upwardon the left and appear to drag down the hands to the right.
The videos are from Angola (or is it originally from Brasil/Brazil).  Angola (and Brazil) and the largest ex colonies of Portugal. Our Kafiringha music came via Angola. Did some of our popular dance moves too originate from Angola ?
Video of  KUDURO ZOUK to the Papare music of M.S. Fernando





And the original video (?)

Another video of  KUDURO ZOUK no HUAMBO Angola (Group dances KANDIMBA)

Music: The Bauls of Bengals

The Original Rock Musicians:
Embryo's Christian Burchard narrates the following: "The Baul musicians live outside the caste system which governs Indian culture. Like the Saddus, the Bauls reject possessions on religious grounds. They travel throughout India on foot carrying only their musical instrument. The Bauls create their songs spontaneously in front of their audience. They want to transport their public into another world."


 Maki Kazumi and Binod Das Baul and friends

And I like this the best of all.
Sandhay Das Baul in Paris


Also see http://sbarrkum.blogspot.com/2011/01/latcho-drom-banjaras-indian-rajasthan.html

Reminisces of the 70's: Science Fiction and the Colombo Libraries

Read a lot of SciFi between the ages of 10 onwards. Started with the W. E. Johns (the author of Biggles)  Science Fiction series writtten in the 50's. I didnt own a single book of the series and read pretty much the whole series from the British Council.  Then graduated to authors like John Wyndham.

At that time (late 60's and early 70's) the British Council was at the house/building adjoining the Colombo Swimming Club in Colpetty.  The British Council allowed 3 books and once one became teenager, two magazines/periodicals as well.

The US Embassy and the now abandoned British High Commission were non existent. The site of the current US Embassy was a school, mixed but may not have been Govt.  I think it was like Althea, catering to an English medium school population. I used to travel by train from Koralawella, Moratuwa get off at Colpetty,  walk through the school to the Galle Road and then to British Council.  The site of the old British High Commission was walled around, and the wall facing the Galle Road had a pavement second hand bookshop, quite similar to the ones still around at McCallums Road, Maradana.  Bambalapitya and Wellawatte also had similar second hand pavement bookshops. I still remember the name of one of the bookshops in Wellawatte, Chinthaka which was the owners name.

Alexandre Dumas

My father who had made me a member of the British Council was also an avid browser at the second hand bookshops.  I recall he bought  Wilkie Collins (contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens)  Woman in White and  Moonstone  (considered to be one of the first English detective novels)from these second hand bookshops for himself and which I read as well a few years later.  Some of the other books I recall my father bought me was the Alexandare Dumas's Three Musketeers and the Man In the Iron Mask .  Eventually got the complete D'Artagnan series. At one point I got a brand new Black Tulip for one of my birthdays and my father already had The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Alexandre Dumas was one of the many personalities of fame whom many were unaware of their Black/African heritage.  Alexandre Dumas's grand mother was a slave in Haiti. 

Another famous personality was Paul Robeson of Swing Low Sweet Chariot fame, a favorite singer that my mother and father liked. Unhappily many African Americans are completely unaware of of the pioneering achievements  of Paul Robeson.  Varsity and NFL Football Player (Rutgers and NFL's Milwaukee Badgers) , Lawyer,  Actor and Social Activist.
  

Paul Robeson

The American Center at that time was at the Galle Face center.  Walked from the British Council and asked to be a member. Apparently I was still not of age (early 70's).  Maybe that day or another visit was able to  listen to records.  Does not seem a big deal this day and age. We did not have a record player at home, and even those who had did not have the latest and greatest (or at least the people we knew).   

Even with all the reading, I was still a "Godaya" who had no knowledge of what to listen. The Library Assistant an older gent (he was there in the Flower Road Center too) just had this supercilious attitude when I didnt even know what to records to request. He picked out two record to play which I still remember Osi Bisa  and Chicago . Every week I went to listen to records.  Listened to The Temptations

OsiBisa Album Cover of Woyaya

I was hooked, still recall the "Criss Cross Rythms" of Osi Bisa's.  Here is a link to the Survival track and you can hear the similarity of of the horn section (trumpet section) to Chicago exemplified in the 25 or 6 to 4 track or the Tower of Power track with Santana in 1977.  Dance the Body Music (1976) was much later and I probably listened to it at the Flower Road, American Center (no video).

OsiBisa had great Psychedelic album covers too.  The first two albums had artwork (and logo) by famed rock artist Roger Dean (before he became famous for his artwork), depicting flying elephants which became the symbol for the band.

Update: Looks like Osibisa is quite the PC musical group, playing Raghupati Ragava Raja Ram ( Ishvar Allah tero naam)

Bob Marleys father

Norval Sinclair Marley was Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley's father. Norval Marley was born in Jamaica to Albert Thomas Marley, an English man from Sussex, and Ellen Broomfield a coloured Jamaican. The Marleys considered themselves as descendants of Syrian Jews who had emigrated to England and from there to Jamaica.

Norval Marley in his later life was an overseer in Jamaican plantations. One of his lovers was 18-year-old gospel singer Cedella Booker. Their son, Robert Nesta Marley, was born in 1945 and spent his formative years living in considerable poverty in the slums of Jamaica. Norval Marley did not stay long after Bob Marley but gave some financial support. When Bob Marley was 28 and his mother 28 Norval Marley died. Mother and son then moved to Kingston and settled in a corrugated-iron shack in a street with open sewers in the Trenchtown area, one of the roughest parts of the capital.

Excerpts from the Daily Mail Article

In the Kingston slums, Marley was confronted in the starkest terms with the reality of his mixed parentage.
He was taunted mercilessly by his peers for standing out from the crowd. Indeed, he longed so much to fit in that, as his 65-year-old widow Rita has recently revealed, he used to black his face with boot polish. She says he even married her when he was 21 and she 19 —because, unlike him, she was completely black.
But family and friends, speaking out for the first time in the new film, reveal that because Bob was so single-minded about his career those close to him were often neglected.
His daughter Cedella, named after Bob’s mother, seems during conversations in the film to be quite bewildered at having to share her father with so many fans across the globe — not to mention his ten other children, many of them  illegitimate and the result of the many affairs he conducted during his marriage.
Marley had at least seven mistresses, including 1976 Jamaican Miss World Cindy Breakspeare.
The women themselves say he was so shy that they made all the  running. Several even fell pregnant by him at the same time: this year, three of his sons by different women will all turn 40.
His daughter Cedella is 44, a successful businesswoman with three children who lives in Miami.

Jazzfied Carnatic Music: from Shankar Tucker

I think I got introduced to this from Brown Pundits, maybe a Nandalal Rasiah post.

So whats with Carnatic Music. I remember my Uncle (Periappa) listening to this kind of music, while my cousin Robin was listening to Deep Purples Fireball (my Intro to rock, and still a great favorite). I too am starting to get what my Uncle Periappa heard. Deep music, just like the Blues of America. Then to sing the Blues you have to hurt and we dont have that in Sri Lanka.

So in Sri Lanka we will have the rhythm, beat and happiness (think papare), but never the depth and sadness of song as in the Blues. So what I am trying to say is maybe its really hard to be to be really sad, down and out and sing the blues in Sri Lanka.

Anyways here is the Jazzfied Carnatic Music from Shankar Tucker

MIA with Maddona at Superbowl

MIA is to sing with Maddona at the 2012 Superbowl. MIA (Maya Arulpragasm) has come a long way since her days at Summerstage NYC and the Mermaid Festival.

MIA at Mermaid Siren Festival Brooklyn

It looks like has MIA has quietly dropped her misplaced political activism and has become more and more part of the establishment. Even though her music is good and hits the right note for the now generation (in my opinion) her politics has always seemed fake and just a vehicle for popularity. A quote from a previous blog of mine seems truer than ever

contrasted to Sinéad O'Connor's heartfelt songs about the the oppression of the Irish by the English, M.I.A seems sadly lacking. To the contrary of what little political message she sings, she has sold out and joined the establishment. i.e. she

"speaks about terrorism and Sri Lankan politics and all the while lives in a fancy house in a tony neighborhood with her billionaire husband

Bottom line, M.I.A. cant articulate what if any oppression the Tamils have had, just a lot of "Agitprop Pop" music. The music is good, but M.I.A. is probably a milquetoast messenger advocating war for moral fags.

Below is a preview of the Maddona MIA song to be sung at the Superbowl 2012

Sinéad O'Connor versus MIA

I really dont know how to start, Oppressed peoples, historically or in recent times. Two songs from Sinéad O'Connor and one from M.I.A.

As this is a blog catering to Sri Lankan (hopefully) lets start with the Irish context, hopefully educational. (I am used to doing point form so let me go with that). To start with I love Sinéad O'Connor's music, and f**k you attitude heard here in her version of I don't know how to love him (re Judas) from Jesus Christ Superstar)

• Sinéad O'Connor sings about the Vikings who invaded around 800 -1200 (approximately Parakramabahu 1123-1186 times).
• Then she sings about Cromwell who invaded and occupied Ireland in 1649. By this time the Portuguese had conquered Jaffna and occupied coastal Sri Lanka.
• Finally Sinéad O'Connor sings about the Irish Famine, consequence of real English jack boot laws that in the 17th and 18th centuries prohibited Irish Catholics with penal laws from owning land, from leasing land; from voting, from holding political office; from living in a corporate town or within 5 mi (8.0 km) of a corporate town, from obtaining education, from entering a profession, and from doing many other things that are necessary in order to succeed and prosper in life. Thats around the time the England occupied the whole of Sri Lanka, i.e. 1800's.

For summary do we Sri Lankans really think, or even have music that really makes us sad about the past, even as late as the British occupation in the early 1850's. My friend thinks British colonialism was the best for Ceylon.

Now next to M.I.A. In 2005 couple of NYC Williamsburg hipster room mates mentioned that I should see this Sri Lankan woman who was going to perform at Summerstage NYC. Managed to sneak in and it was crowded. The next time M.I.A. was around at the Mermaid Festival. Do have a photo (see here). I love seeing a real representative south south Asian woman, such as M.I.A. i.e. skinny black/brown woman hitting the charts. Doesn't hurt thats the kind of looks I like.

Back to Politics and M.I.A. Does she have a video or one that even articulates her Sri Lankan /Eelam ideas. Compared and contrasted to Sinéad O'Connor's heartfelt songs about the the oppression of the Irish by the English, M.I.A seems sadly lacking. To the contrary of what little political message she sings, she has sold out and joined the establishment. i.e. she

"speaks about terrorism and Sri Lankan politics and all the while lives in a fancy house in a tony neighborhood with her billionaire husband."

Bottom line, M.I.A. cant articulate what if any oppression the Tamils have had, just a lot of "Agitprop Pop" music. The music is good, but M.I.A. is probably a milquetoast messenger advocating war for moralfags.

Millie Jackson: and email to friends

email : to friends
I used to listen to Millie Jackson as a teenager (1975) and this particular song, If Lovin you is Wrong (1974). There was this DJ Eric Fernando (Fernando is the most common last name in SL) who played this song often on the radio. I just loved the smooth rhythm and never listened to the words.
So after 30 odd years listened and still love it. The words make sense too.


Sonia Arango-Rivera's opinion/reply

Regarding Millie Jackson, I saw her for the first (and last) time at the Apollo Theater many years ago. I had purchased tickets with some friends to see Isaac Hayes who was very popular when his recording of "Shaft" became a big hit with both blacks and whites. On the bill with Isaac was Millie Jackson who was unknown to me and was I ever surprised when she began to sing and with each song her gestures and language got dirtier and dirtier. Not surprisingly, the audience loved her - the dirtier she got the more they clapped and screamed. When she finished her act, the audience kept asking for more and more. While I am not a prude by any means, she was too raunchy for me. I stayed only because I had paid premium for the ticket and wanted so much to see and hear Isaac Hayes.

I don't know if Millie Jackson is still performing or, for that matter, if she is still alive but, if she is, she knows how to drive the audience wild.

I don't think I've ever heard this song before it's a good blues song and I like it.

What Eric Fernando used to play: If Lovin is you is Wrong (1975)


Maybe the so so stuff. (1983 Slow Tongue )


Millie Jacksons version of Classical Music: London, 1984 (You have to listen)

Libiya and the Tuareg: Featuring Tinariwen with Santana and Robert Plant

Looks like Libya is in the news and the Tuareg are back to fighting the establishment. So a two second background.

Libya: I used to remember this as the same country as the historical Carthage. Apparently the wiki says otherwise, it was based in neighboring Tunisia. For those who dont want to bother reading the links/wikis, Carthage was the country of Hannibal 182 BC (around the time of Dutugemunu 161 BC-137 BC) who took elephants across the Alps to fight the Romans. For the Christians reading, apparently Hannibal was a name based on the God Baal. The basis of the name is no different from Buddadasa or Shivaprakasam (could have used ShivaLingam as an example too, but then could have confusion as to which part of the name is god). Apparently Hannibal could mean Grace of (the god) Baal.

Tuareg: Really dont know much about them. Vaguely remember reading that there might be connections with the Roma and Indian gypsies. Their dances could be our Southern, Thovil dances but thats true of most of the dance and music around the region Mali etc. First wave out of Africa ? What I know about the Tuareg is the group Tinariwen. Been around since 1979 apparently.

Santana and Tinariwen (not included the Robert Plant thing)


One of the latest Tinariwen Videos


Traditional Tuareg Dance: Could be Southern Sri Lanka, Thovil dance

Celia Cruz : Oye Como Va and Cuban/Puerto Rican Attitudes to Color

I started this post as about Cuban/Puerto Rican Attitudes to Color and sort of got into the comparisons with the Lankan attitude to a persons of color.

Oye Como Va, made very popular by Santana from his Abraxas Album. If you are into Latin jazz and mambo Tito Puente made this song famous in 1963. The version below is from Celia Cruz who also sang Guntanamera in 1940 (The girl from Guantanamo Bay), (did a post on that a few weeks back). In 2002 she won the Grammy for Best Salsa Album La Negra Tiene Tumbao (please watch the video, its great).

I am kind of digressing. The Celia Cruz's Grammy title song makes a good intro to what I see as the Cuban/Puerto Rican thinking of race/color, i.e. what you see is what it is.

La Negra: The Black girl
Tiene Tumbao: Has Rythm attitude

In the words from Oye Como Va, uses Mulatto to refer to probably a light skinned girl.

Oye como va : Listen how it goes
mi ritmo : my rhythm
Bueno pa' gozar, mulata : Good to enjoy, mulatto
Oye como va : Listen how it goes
mi ritmo : my rhythm

Bueno pa' gozar mulata : Good to enjoy, mulatto

I guess the average Sri Lankans dont realize there are are other parts of the world who are about comfortable with color as the average Sri Lankan. The average means, those who are minimally westernized and call their sister Kalu Nangi, not their third cousin removed whom they meet once in three years at the wedding or funeral. We (to be realistic not me) use words like Kalu Nangi/Kalu Aiya (Black Sister/ Black Brother). Equally well Sudu Nangi/Sudu Aiya (White Sister/ White Brother). There is no comparison with our Northern neighbor, where black is just not cool. You just would not want to have a name like Kaluwitharana or Dharmadasa either as whatever up thousand miles up North. Maybe even 150 miles up north a two or three decades back.

So what do I attribute this kind of open mind. I really think its one word, ISLAND.

For those who think differently, I would suggest visiting the south which I know well. Every other family has a relative who is married out. Can be a female or male and often not even met while in Sri Lanka. In other words tourism was not the biggest factor. So could (really should) also write about the European guy who walks his daughter to school in Pathana (Hikkaduwa). Another day for that.

Finally a comment, I really dont wish to be anonymous. I am a Tamil whatever that is . I consider my home to be the south so what more can I say. Had my DNA tested too, I have no clue. Confused, yes and finding my way and its the journey, lost my way a few years back and think I know where I am going now.

So more Cuban music below Callejon de hamel , watch the woman in red at 1:45 mins

Ella Fitzgerald & Tom Jones

What more can I say, Ella FitzGerald. I doubt Americans know the meaning of FitzGerald. Its Norman fils de Gérald, or son of Gerald (Gerald meaning "rule of the spear"). Famous names who were FitzGeralds, John FitzGerald Kennedy (Yes JFK) and F Scott FitzGerald who wrote the Great Gatsby.


and the Girl from Ipanema (1964)

Osi Bisa: American Center at Galle Face Court

As a kid 10/11 year old I was a member of the British Council. Came by train from Moratuwa to the Kollupitiya train station. Walked across the school (Cant remember the name, its still there) and bare land that is now the US Embassy ( as I became older that was how we ran to movies at Liberty and Rio). The next property was the British Council.

My father taught me in many ways to do my own thing. He made me a member of the British Council and long before that made me a book addict. Brought me over to the BC Children's sections. Probably twice or thrice. And then I was on my own, the book addict, get on the train if I needed the fix. Ever so often he would meet me at the BC and then when we pass the the second hand bookshop in front of the now American Embassy he would buy a book. Wilkie Collins, Moonstone was one that comes to mind now, much much better than Sherlock Holmes. To be honest I cant remember the stories, just that they were better than Agatha Christie. I know thats no comparison to the Texas Chain Saw murders.

So what can I remember from the children section books. Juan Manuel Fangio (and I did not look up the whole name before I spelled the names or made a link) and Stirling Moss.

I am still not getting to the American Center. Somewhere had heard about the American Center. Cant recall if I walked to the American Center or took a bus. I was sweaty (not that it really mattered in that day and age) and walked into ice cool environment. The British Council was cool but not this cold. I really didnt know what to do. There was this gentleman who came and asked, " do you want to listen to music". I guess I agreed. I didnt know how to put headphones or plug them in either. Never seen a headphone or a sound system before in my life. I think I was pointed to Osi Bisa and Chicago albums. I listened and was hooked. Could not become a member of the American Center till I was 14 or 16.

Couple of year later my cousin Logai (Bernard Barr) brought 8 Track tapes of Temptations 1990, Ike and Tina Turner Nut Bush Limits.

Finally after all the yap, some of the first stuff I listened at American Center at Galle Face Court,

Gong Gong Song Osi Bisa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBcCl7i25M&feature=related


Chicago 95
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xqpIkCalzuk

Galle Heliwela: Thoil Thovil: Exorcism and Yak Natum

One of the few complete thovil videos I have seen online. This is old old music, pre Buddhist and I'd almost say before out of Africa. Ive shown these videos to Afro Cuban/Puerto Ricans and maybe then I can convince them I am out of Africa too. Its just the rhythms, so complex and for the uninitiated so out of tune. That said whats with the court jester head gear.

As crainsy1337 says

The yakun natima, or devil dance ritual of Sri Lanka, is nothing if not full of drama. Not just a charade or interval designed to entertain, the yakun natima is a carefully crafted ritual with a history reaching far back into Sri Lanka's pre-Buddhist past. It combines ancient Ayurvedic concepts of disease causation with deft psychological manipulation. Lasting up to twelve hours, it mixes raucous humour with deep-rooted fears to create a healing catharsis for both patient and community.

I just like the words in the first part. Is it about Seenigama Devol Kumaru.

Nondi Kumaru .......
Demala mau .....

Kawadi Somiya: Matara 2005

Assume this was a vow by someone in the forces. Watched this when I was nostalgic and out of SL about two three years ago. Still good and revives spirits, and reminds me why I continue to be a Sri Lankan. Like the part "Ranjan Aiya" around 7:10 mins. Cheers.

Peggy Lee (1969 ): Is That All There Is?

Pretty much sums up my philosophy of life, Is That All There Is. Maybe, might have thought different if I was tortured in some prison camp. Who knows, still got a couple of years to go.

Peggy Lee (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota. Beautiful woman, Beautiful music, wrote her own songs, what more can I say.

Babalu Aye: Deity and Dance : Cuba and Puerto Rico

Babalu Aye and dances for the other Orishas are the bases for Salsa, Mambo dances. Babalu Aye is also syncretized with Saint Lazarus

Paul Simon makes reference to Babalu Aye in his song "Rhythm of the Saints", which first appeared on the 1990 album of the same name. The lyrics enigmatically state: "Balalu-aye spins on his crutches/ Says leave if you want/ If you want to leave." Simon also used Saint Lazarus/Babalu Aye as a character in his Broadway show, "The Capeman"

Included a street (I think version) and a stage, Lionel Wendt version. For those who are thinking that the kids in the street version are being exploited (maybe they are, we working class are exploited all our lives) think of ballerinas. Ballerinas look more well off, they wear fancy clothes so look less exploited. Try wearing ballerina dresses in hot humid Cuba, that would be exploitation.



The Lionel Wendt version


This looks so much like a Gamini Fonseka filim in the 70's I had to linky it. This one is probably late 40's.