El Sexteto Tabalá & Las Alegres ambulancias

Those two bands are the main musical representatives of a very special place in Colombia,  San Basilio de Palenque. Palenque is an African village in Colombia, founded by fugitive slaves more than 300 hundred years ago. The music they play has been transmuted trough generations almost directly from the other side of the Altantic Ocean, in Africa. The translation for “Las Alegres Ambulancias is the "happy ambulances," because they were originally singing happy songs during funerals when a friend or a family member would die. El Sexteto Tabalá is also a traditional music band from Palenque created in the 30's: their music has an undeniable cuban flavor. This is not only because cuban music has also strong African roots but also due to some Cuban engineers who came to Palenque during the 20s, bringing with them their music and influencing the local music. Andrew Valdez, singer of the Sexteto Tabalá is featured on the first verse of our version around Colombia of La Tierra del Olvido, bringing an incredible feeling to the song.

When we arrived in Palenque, nearly 20 musicians were waiting for us to record on Carlos Vives' song, La Tierra del Olvido. Most of them where members of Sexteto Tabala and Las alegres ambulancias. The youngest of them was 9-years old and he was playing together with his father, mother, grandmother and great grandmother!! 4 generations were playing together at the same time with the rest of the musicians. They where mainly playing percussions and vocals-- the only exception was a marimbula, the African ancestor of the double bass.