Events . Live Cumbia Amazonica with Los Wemblers

Live Cumbia Amazonica with Los Wemblers

Los Wemblers ---- Peruvian Cumbia amazonicá pioneers on their first US show of their first-ever worl
Pandemic series Concert by Pandemic
Salem's Event Center 27th and Penn Ave Pittsburgh
All Ages $15 / $15

Los Wemblers ---- Peruvian Cumbia amazonicá pioneers on their first US show of their first-ever world tour.

Presented by Pittonkatonk, Pandemic & Juan Diego VII
We plan to open early for food and drinks. details to come

LIVE CUMBIA
Sp guest DJ's Juan Deigo, Pandemic Pete & more
Local support Afro Yaqui Music Collective +

more details to come.

Tickets go on sale Aug 15

Formed in 1968 in Iquitos, Peru, Los Wembler’s pioneered a unique style of music that combined cumbia rhythms, electric guitars, and psychedelic sounds. Their 1971 LP, Al Ritmo de Los Wembler’s, pushed the regional sound of chicha (cumbia rhythms combined with Andean folk melodies) to new levels. This new sound took the name cumbia amazonicá, after the first track on Al Ritmos, and it shaped andean popular music for decades. Even at their height of popularity, Los Wembler’s performed only in their hometown of Iquitos and neighboring areas, with rare performances in neighboring Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. By the early 1980s, Los Wembler’s faded into the background as the popularity cumbia amazonicá gave way to newer electronic cumbia sounds. Los Wemblers never stopped playing, but stayed in Iquitos playing the occasional party, wedding, or community events. In the early 2000s, cumbia amazonicá was rediscovered as a missing link between traditional cumbia and a new generation of musicians in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. In 2007, Barbès Records released Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru and Los Wembler’s were rediscovered. In 2011, they performed in Lima for the first time in twenty-five years. A new generation of tropical electronic musicians looked to them for inspiration and the Peruvian group Dengue Dengue Dengue collaborated with them. In 2015, the Smithsonian invited Los Wembler’s to perform at the Folklife Festival in Washington DC.

Los Wembler’s haven’t lost any of their creative edge. Watching them perform or record is to witness musicians at the height of their powers. Their happy first experiments with cumbia and indigenous rhythms were not the product of chance. These are accomplished musicians in tune with their environment but also infinitely curious about the world. They may have a fondness for 1970’s production values, but after all, so do Jack White and Daptone. The style Los Wembler’s created more than forty years ago has finally found an audience around the world, and Los Wembler’s intend to keep it relevant by finding new ways to experiment.

Catch them in Pittsburgh for the first US show on their first world tour.

Related Entities: Pandemic
Tags: Cumbia World Music