Dominican singer-songwriters Yasser Tejeda and Riccie Oriach and the AfroDominican band, will share a stage for the first time on July 14 in New York, where they will present the Afro-Caribbean fusion that characterizes their work.
The group held a press conference today at the Elsewhere Town Hall in Brooklyn, the same place where they will offer the concert, where they plan to bring to the public the various expressions of Dominican music fused with other Afro-Caribbean ones such as reggae without missing Tejeda’s touch of jazz.
“This will be a celebration of the Latino diaspora, of culture, of unity, of Dominicanness,” said Tejeda, a UC Berkelee music graduate who has lived in New York for ten years.
Tejeda, who plays the guitar, highlighted that the diversity of New York has influenced the inspiration for his work, which consists of a first jazz album and two in which he has fused traditional Dominican music that goes beyond merengue.
He stressed that the purpose of his work is to “show the other side” of Dominican music, to make its history known, as well as to inspire those who want to make art and explore more of their roots and cultural heritage.
He recalled that he began in music with “heavy metal” rock and then also found inspiration in guitarist Jimi Hendrix, in BB King’s blues and studies led him to funk, bossa nova or jazz; he was playing with different artists when he got to know more deeply the roots of the music of his country.
From that experience arose the fusion that now characterizes his work and that he has embodied in his last two albums, the most recent “La madrugá”, which he will present at the concert in New York.
Music “to heal” from so much foreign influence
As for Riccie Oriach, he makes rock fused with folklore, which he considers alternative music, a genre that he says “is undervalued”. According to the artist, he makes music “to heal me” from what he has witnessed and experienced with the music that has influenced him, from the rock of his beginnings to the Dominican style.
Oriach was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2020 in the category of Best Contemporary Album/Tropical Fusion with “Mi derriengue” and among his various awards he won the Premio Soberano (considered a Grammy in the Dominican Republic) granted by the Association of Chroniclers. of Art (Acroarte) for Best Alternative Musician.
While Adrián Brito, leader of AfroDominicano, a band that mixes Dominican music with reggae, calypso, samba, funk, punk rock and other Caribbean rhythms, assured that they are eager to bring that “sancocho” to the Latino public in New York.
“We want to put all those colors together to make a musical sancocho,” said Brito, who plays the accordion and also indicated that through AfroDominicano he also wants to educate about the tambora, another basic instrument in the Dominican merengue.
The concert will begin with a “fiesta de Palos” that is of African origin, a music that is used in religious rites with mostly percussion instruments.
The idea for the gathering of these artists came from his friend, the Dominican Ralph Joseph, producer of concerts and documentaries, who organized the concert to celebrate the launch of the digital magazine “New York Latin Live” to inform what is moving in the world. of art with a Latin flavor or inspiration.
2023-07-07 18:14:00
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