The world music follow-up continues from WOMEX 2020, the worldwide music expo which WORT DJs Gloria Hays, Ankur Malhotra, Jeff Spitzer-Resnick and Dan Talmo attended in October (virtually, of course.) In addition to lots of great new music that each of them have played on their shows and shared with other WORT world music DJs, they have also been able to arrange a number of fascinating interviews with musicians from all over the world.
Recently, Jeff Spitzer-Resnick had the chance to catch up with Yocu Arellano, founding member and drummer for Los de Abajo (“those from down under”) from Mexico City. Joining the conversation in order to make it a truly bilingual interview was Madison East High School Spanish teacher Barbara Davis, who conducted the middle section of the interview in Spanish.
You can listen to the interview via SoundCloud (link above) to hear Yocu himself explain in English and Spanish the origins of the band’s name, when it was founded 29 years ago (literature buffs-think Mariano Azuela,) its politics, his band’s discovery by David Byrne, his bilingual message to our listeners, and Yocu’s positive attitude about immigration. As he says, “It doesn’t matter where you come from. All of us are immigrants.”
Here’s a link to the band’s latest single, “Linda Maria” featuring Santa Fe Klan.
