La Melodia
The Melody transcends the border of musical genres and transforms into the concept with which we express our originality, feelings, thoughts, and most importantly: how we cope with everyday life.
La Melodia (The Melody) is what Cali’s fusion music & visual collective Zalama Crew call their sounds. Sounds right up my alley doesn’t it? It is. The live Zalama Crew show I found in Medellin was fantastic. I discovered their new EP Everyday Fight is equally as great.
DJ Cronic was generous enough to fill me in more on Zalama Crew’s history & different musical projects. Here’s what he shared with me…
In the beginning
Q: Zalama Crew is a musical and visual collective of 10 artists in your 6th year together. How did a collective of 9 chicos and 1 chica come together in Cali to make fusion music?
A: Everything started with VJ Paul Dub, DJ Cloon and DJ Cronic founding a space with a rehearsal room and recording studio for alternative and folklore bands in Cali called Zalama Producciones. In this time singers and musicians came to record and hang out in our space so we started to make jams sessions and suddenly we put together what’s called Zalama Crew.
Frank (Guitar) and Ana (Flute/Sax) come from jazz and folklore. Billy (Bass) comes from punk. Alvaro (Drums) comes from reggae and the 4 MC’s from hip hop and reggae/dancehall.
The Evolution
Q: Tell me about the about the musical evolution of Zalama Crew over the years.
A: Well, we started as a sound system group with the DJ and MCs and then we added the band. We’ve experimented with how to blend those elements to make a strong and powerful sound that we called La Melodia Music. We’ve learned to live and know each other personally, so we are more connected now and our music reflects that with a more mature and clear sound – knowing that we have to improve even more every time we rehearse and perform.
Urban World Music Lovers
Q: Zalama Crew describes yourself as ‘urban world music lovers’. Which artists inside and outside of Colombia have inspired and influenced you?
A: We’ve been influenced by The Roots, Thievery Corporation, Bob Marley, Massive Attack, Gorillaz, Sidestepper, Pink floyd, Asilo 38, Orishas, James Brown, The Commodores, Ruben Blades, Ismael Rivera and many others.
The Live Experience
Q: What experience are Zalama Crew and the people at your live shows likely to have?
A: It’s pretty nice and that’s what we like the most, because we get in touch with the people and their feelings so close, through dancing moves and visuals, trying to show and exchange our identity making the people part of it. [it’s pretty nice…Beaver]
Visual Arts
Q: VJ Paul Dub is a part of the Zalama Crew collective. What do you think having visual art adds to the live Zalama Crew experience?
A: The VJ and the visuals complement and step up the concept of Zalama Crew, driving the people to assimilate and picture what the music says, showing some context of where we are inspired from.
Zalama Producciones
Q: Zalama Producciones is the Papa Bear of Zalama Crew. I’ve heard positive things about the support its given to other independent artists in Cali. Tell me about Zalama Producciones and its mission?
A: We try to support other artists with music production and videos, events, workshops and practical tips. We created an event called ‘Escucha y Rota’ where we invite other artists from a zone or part of the city to make music and video workshops, finishing with a concert with musicians from the zone.
Q: Any interesting Zalama Producciones projects you want to share?
A: We’ve worked with MC Rimas, Aeropirata, Colombian Gangsters and Rio Burning.
Fusion Music in Cali & Colombia
Q: Tell me about what’s happening in the contemporary music scene in Cali, especially in fusion music?
A: The scene is in a very important moment. It’s like a new revival of culture and the appropriation of identity of our country and city. There are many bands creating music with the influences and research of our Colombian roots mashed up with contemporary sounds coming from different latitudes of the world. It’s the desire of making our traditional music more universal and letting other artists resigning the music with different styles.
Q: Is there a growing receptiveness of Colombians in Cali & elsewhere to urban world music Caleno with its mix of mostly non-traditional Colombian genres like hip-hop, reggae, soul & drum & bass?
A: Yes, this is the moment that people are tired of listening to the same rhythms and music, and want to hear something different. Thanks to social networks and the internet it’s easy to listen to different bands and artists from all over. At the same time it’s important to create a stamp to differentiate from each other and people also have many options depending on the taste.
Sergent Garcia
Q: Sergent Garcia is probably my favorite male artist creating Latin fusion music. How was it that Zalama Crew came to record the song Calentura Mi Son with him?
A: We played at a showcase in the Medellin music market ‘Circulart’ in 2011. Sergent was the artist to close the event and he watched us play. After it he came to us and met the band. Later in February of 2012 he got in touch with us to say he wanted to do an artistic residence with us. We didn’t know what it was and then he came to Cali and hung out with us for 15 days. In that time we learned tricks and advices, recorded 2 songs and made a videoclip here in our Cali streets. We were so excited for all that we learned from him.
Photo courtesy of www.cumbancha.com
Q: What did you take from your experience of working with Sergent Garcia?
A: He taught us some practical tricks and professional techniques to get a better show and performance, interaction with the audience and about humbleness and professionalism.
The result of this was the recording of 2 tracks and the videoclip of the song Calentura Mi Son. Thanks to him for the vibe and for being so humble and professional. We are still talking and keeping in touch with him when he comes to visit Colombia.
Que Mas?
Q: The EP Everyday Fight has just been released. You’ve toured it a bit in Colombian cities recently. What’s next for Zalama Crew?
A: We are working on going to Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Chile in 2014.
We also just published our work with legendary masters of San Andres Orange Hill, a traditional calypso and soca group from the Colombian Caribbean islands. We recorded 1 song called Jumping to Jumping where we mixed the traditional calypso with the Zalama Style. Here is the link where you can watch it and download it for free. I hope everybody likes it.
