Colombian Afrobeat band to release third project

The 10-piece jazz group, with heavy influences from the Antilles islands in the Caribbean, has released two previous albums, including 2015’s Animal and 2017’s Volumen.  

As led by the bassist Daniel Michel, the band, which is based in Colombia’s capital city, Bogota, has attracted such fans as Latin musicians Mario Galeano and Pedro Ojeda. Other members of the band include percussionist David Cantoni, who spent 4 years in Cuba studying Afro-Cuban percussion, Diana Sanmiguel who studied traditional Colombian sounds and the vocalist Deimar 'Pio' Molina.

The band brings together Afrobeat, jazz and electronic music, its Afro-Colombian sound a reflection of Colombian history. Centuries ago, African slaves replaced native American workers at Colombian mines and plantations. Upon their freedom, these Africans settled in the country and became citizens, bringing elements of their culture with them.

Today, Colombia has one of the largest populations of Africans in the west, ensuring a cultural link between continent and country. For La Boa, which in full means La Bogota Orquestra Afrobeat or The Bogota Afrobeat Orchestra, the link is explicit musically, for example in its homage to Afrobeat creator, Fela Kuti.

Speaking about La Boa’s relationship to Kuti, Michel told Music In Africa that the Nigerian maestro “mixed traditional Nigerian sounds with funk and our music takes the traditional Afro-Colombian Caribbean sounds that have permeated Colombia and mixes it with funk. Like Fela our lyrics are socially conscious. We try to raise awareness of social issues and injustices taking place.”

The Por Eso/Máquina EP will be released digitally by the Bogota-Berlin record label Big In Japan on 28 June. The label, a representative told Music In Africa, promotes electronic music from Latin America. “We search for interesting music that mixes folkloric and traditional sounds with contemporary production,” he said.