The Crossroads Music Series presents:
PARAMO (Chilean nueva cancion)
MOGAUWANE MAHLOELE (South African master musician and craftsman)
Saturday, October 12 at 7:30 PM
Calvary United Methodist Church
48th street and Baltimore Avenue
Admission $5-10-15 sliding scale
PARAMO's music is based on the traditions of the Andean highlands
region and on the Latin American musical movement known as nueva
cancion (new song). The band follows a tradition of songwriters and
musicians who have combined the diverse musical cultures of various
regions in Latin America. Its repertoire of instrumental and vocal
music spans the South American continent: Chile, Argentina, Peru,
Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. While maintaining its identity as a
South American group, Paramo has also kept open to the influences its
members have gathered in their years of living and playing in the US.
Neuva cancion began in Argentina in the late 1950s, when many
traditional rural musicians migrated to the cities. It soon spread to
other countries, most notably Chile, where its combination of
political lyrics and traditional music made it the voice of a great
movement for social justice. After the 1973 coup, many artists were
murdered, imprisoned, or fled, but nueva cancion continued to be
played underground and in other countries until the dictatorship fell
in 1990.
MOGAUWANE MAHLOELE was born in Storomo and raised in Mamelodi ya
Tshwane, South Africa. Craftsmanship and musicianship were entwined in
his upbringing. As the son of a musical family he was watched closely
as a child to see what talents he might have. His elders taught him
not only how to play but also how to make traditional instruments
including dikonokono drums, dundun, stolotolo (mouth harps), dipela
(kalimba), flutes, kora, doussin gouni, birimbau, balafone, and
algaita (traditional trumpet).
In 1976, Mogauwane left a family and a country that he loved, knowing
that if he stayed, his life would be "wasted" in jail, where his close
friends were incarcerated during the apartheid years. He has chosen
not to live in fear and has vowed "not to negate the very strong
things" he was raised with. In Philadelphia, he makes his living
teaching music and performing. In the absence of other musicians from
South Africa, he has begun to nurture an ensemble of diverse African
and African American musicians, teaching them traditional music and
his own compositions.
The Crossroads Music Series, a consortium made up of the Cherry Tree
Music Co-op and the Calvary Center for Community and Culture, presents
artists representing two different Philadelphia musical communities on
the second Saturday of each month. The program is in part supported by
a grant from the Bread and Roses Community Fund.
