Currulao
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Currulao is the marimba music of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Pacific rainforest coast, driven by the marimba de chonta — a xylophone of hard palm-wood keys over graduated bamboo resonators, played by two musicians at once, one hammering a fast ostinato at the treble end (the tiplero) while the other lays down the bass figure (the bordonero) — against two conical cununo hand drums, a deep double-headed bombo struck on head and rim, and the guasá, a bamboo tube shaker whose dry rattle is the music's heartbeat; over that, women singers trade responsorial verses in a high, nasal, insistently repeated chorus. The rhythm is a fast compound 6/8 with the marimba, drums and voices deliberately pulling against each other, so the groove shimmers and blurs rather than snapping; the effect is dense, wet and hypnotic, and the same ensemble covers everything from the flirtatious dance currulao to bundes, jugas, arrullos for the saints and the chigualo wake songs sung over a dead child.
History
Currulao is an African-descended tradition of the Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño coasts and Ecuador's Esmeraldas province, built around an instrument whose Congo-region ancestry was rebuilt from local chonta palm and guadua bamboo, and it survived for centuries in isolated river towns — Guapi, Timbiquí, Buenaventura, Tumaco — as ceremonial and festive music rather than commercial repertoire; the founding of Cali's Festival de Música del Pacífico Petronio Álvarez in 1997 changed that, giving village ensembles a national stage and turning marimba masters into recognised figures. José Antonio Torres "Gualajo" (1930s–2018), the "pianist of the jungle," and the wider Torres family of Guapi became the tradition's reference point; Socavón de Timbiquí, formed in 1974, and Grupo Naidy from Buenaventura carried the strict traditional format, the latter documented internationally on Smithsonian Folkways' ¡Arriba Suena Marimba! (SFW CD 40514, 2005). Hugo Candelario González's Grupo Bahía opened the fusion path with Con el Corazón… Cerca de las Raíces (1998), setting currulao against orchestral and jazz arrangements; Herencia de Timbiquí took it into funk, timba and rock on Tambó (2011); and Nidia Góngora's Canalón de Timbiquí, on Llorona Records' De mar y río (2019) and in her collaborations with British producer Quantic, made the Pacific coast's music a fixture on international stages. UNESCO inscribed the marimba music and traditional chants of Colombia's South Pacific in 2010, expanded in 2015 to include Ecuador's Esmeraldas province.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- El Botellón(2005) — Grupo NaidySpotifyYouTube
- La Maravilla(2005) — Grupo NaidySpotifyYouTube
- Con el Corazón(1998) — Grupo BahíaSpotifyYouTube
- Berejú(2008) — José Antonio Torres "Gualajo" / Grupo GualajoSpotifyYouTube
- De mar y río(2019) — Canalón de TimbiquíSpotifyYouTube
- Malvada(2019) — Canalón de TimbiquíSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, "¡Arriba Suena Marimba! Currulao Marimba Music from Colombia by Grupo Naidy" (Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 40514, 2005), https://folkways.si.edu/grupo-naidy/arriba-suena-marimba-currulao-music-from-colombia/latin/album/smithsonian
- UNESCO, "Marimba music, traditional chants and dances from the Colombia South Pacific region and Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador" (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2015), https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/marimba-music-traditional-chants-and-dances-from-the-colombia-south-pacific-region-and-esmeraldas-province-of-ecuador-01099
- Llorona Records, "De mar y río — Canalón de Timbiquí" (Llorona Records, 2019), https://lloronarecords.bandcamp.com/album/de-mar-y-r-o-canal-n-de-timbiqu
- Palenque Records, "Dinastía Torres — Los Duendes de la Marimba" (Palenque Records, 2020), https://palenquerecords.bandcamp.com/album/dinastia-torres-los-duendes-de-la-marimba-afrocolombia