Accion Latina presents
33rd Encuentro del Canto Popular
2 day Concert & Festival!
November 21 & 22
Friday, November 21, 2014 7pm
Rupa and the April Fishes
Alejandro y Maria Laura
Tito Auger
Saturday, November 22, 2014 7pm
LoCura
David Aguilar
Irene Diaz
Estrellas de Esperanza Youth Group
The Encuentro del Canto Popular, now in its 33rd installment, presents a 2 day celebration that intersects contemporary Latin American sounds with local, SF Mission-based culture. Founded in 1982, volunteers from El Tecolote, New College of California and Bay Area musicians combined to produce a two-day music festival featuring local interpreters of the “New Song Movement,” a music tradition associated with the progressive cultural and political movements of the 1960′s and 1970′s which generated a rich legacy of songs expressing the joys, aspirations, and struggles of the peoples of the Caribbean and Latin America. The Encuentro has served to promote a musical expression that speaks to our hopes for social, economic and political justice, as well as our deep-rooted cultural traditions.
Now recognized as a San Francisco tradition, Encuentro del Canto Popular continues to preserve and promote local and international Latino music and performance art that represents non-commercial, humanitarian values and highlights issues of social justice. Adapting to the ebb and flow of the Nueva Canción movement, the Encuentro del Canto Popular has kept its finger on the pulse of Latin American music.
ARTISTS:
Rupa and the April Fishes: A sound that is as difficult to define as life is to confine, the music of Rupa & the April Fishes pulls from eight years of street parties, festivals and symphonic concerts on three continents, three studio albums, one live album and one string quartet recording in the making, several languages from English to Tzotzil to French, many musical traditions, countless moments of joy, sorrow, loss, and transformation and a fierce independent spirit.
The musicians—Aaron Kierbel, JHNO, Michael Shiono, Misha Khalikulov and Mario Alberto Silva—came from all over the world and converged in San Francisco to become the April Fishes with ringleader Rupa. In their work together, musical languages converge; from punk to indie rock, from reggae to raga to rockabolly, chanson to cumbia, from Malian guitar patterns to mournful duduk melodies. In other times and places musical traditions have met to forge a sound that is more insistence than resistance; this band and their music belong to that long tradition of rebel music.
“The April Fishes' sound is ecstatic and powerfully evocative." – LA Times
“Soulful and Sensous” – Relix Magazine
LoCura: Direct from San Francisco’s fertile music scene, LoCura taps into the diverse sounds that have a rich history in the Bay Area, weaving them together in an uncanny way to reveal their common roots. Mixing Flamenco with Reggae and Cumbia with Ska through contagious rhythms and multiple languages, their music takes you on a ride through a day in the emerging globalized experience where the movement of people and ideas are in constant flux. Moved by the music that crosses borders and takes root in different lands, LoCura draws from this creative 'rebelde' spirit to cultivate the cures passed on from our ancestors.
Irene Diaz: Irene Diaz is Los Angeles’ modern-day torch singer-songwriter. Within only a short amount of time, Irene has gained national acclaim. NPR’s Don Gonyea says, “Anyone who hears your voice will wonder where you have been all this time.” On July 31, 2013, the release date of I Love You Madly, Irene celebrated her CD release party at the classic noir downtown venue, The Edison, in front of a packed crowd. In August 2013, Irene caught the attention of NPR’s All Things Considered host Don Gonyea, and the interview was aired nationally and presented on radio station websites across the United States. In September of 2013, the EP was reviewed by Patrick O’ Heffernan for Vents Magazine. “She brings back classical American soul and blues and elevates it to a whole new level for today’s audience…quite possibly, someday, (Irene) could join Ella and Nina and Billie and Rosemary as a queen of torch.”
Alejandro y Maria Laura: Peruvian singer/songwriters Alejandro Rivas and María Laura Bustamante released their first LP “Paracaídas” in 2011, which was produced by Matías Cella (who has produced records by academy award winner Jorge Drexler and Kevin Johansen). In 2012, they earned the “Canteras” award for the song “Jaula” and the Innovation award in the “V Festival Claro” in Lima, Perú. In 2013 they released their second LP, which includes guest vocals by Susana Baca, Kevin Johansen and Javier Barría. Alejandro y Maria Laura were invited earlier this year to participate in the acclaimed HBO special “Encuentros en Brasil”. They performed Brazil-themed songs along international artists like Jorge Drexler, Natalia Lafourcade, Andrea Echeverri, and others. They are currently touring South America and plan a U.S. West Coast tour in the fall of 2014.
David Aguilar: David Aguilar is one of the most versatile, creative and groundbreaking contemporary singer-songwriter to come out of Mexico’s independent scene. This playful genre-bender masterfully blends contemporary acoustic tunes with complex lyrical experimentations and catchy yet multi-layered melodies. David’s eclectic sound emerges from the intersection between Latin-American folk, Brazilian bossa, flamenco, pop, norteño, traditional Mexican songs, bolero, among others. It is this unique convergence of rhythms and the highly poetic writings in his songs what make David Aguilar one of the most promising voices of contemporary Latin American song.
Tito Auger: Alfonso "Tito" Auger Vega (born March 3, 1968 in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican musician most known for being the lead singer of the Rock en Español band Fiel a la Vega. The band quickly achieved great success in the island releasing several radio hits and winning several awards. As of 2007, the band has released four studio albums. Recently, Auger has collaborated with popular Puerto Rican folk singer, Roy Brown, and American folk musician Tao Rodríguez-Seeger (from The Mammals), in an album called Que Vaya Bien. The group toured the island together promoting a song called "El Banquete de los Sánchez" written by Brown, and based on a poem by Luis Rafael Sánchez. He released the solo acoustic album “Versiones Acústicas” early 2014.