WOMAD

Raul Barboza

From Argentina

2000 BiographyTwo of the world's finest accordion players, Flaco Jimenez and Spain's Kepa Junkera, played at the 1998 Rivermead festival . In 1999 it was the turn of Raul Barboza, a virtuoso musician from Argentina. Argentina is, of course, the home of the tango, a style that is known the world over. But there is another indigenous Argentine music,chamamé, and it's this music that Raul Barboza has played, and even come to define, for the past 50 years.Raul was born in 1938 into a family descended from the Guarani Indians, who live in the Corrientes region, an area that straddles the border country of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. He began to play the accordion at the age of six, and released his first record when he was 12. At that time, tango was the dominant strain of Argentine music, its dark, sensual urban rhythms having overshadowed chamamé since the early years of this century. Chamamé is by far the older of the two styles, having grown from the Indian music of the pre-Hispanic era. It then absorbed elements of the Spanish style, and the music of other European settlers, and found a new lead instrument when the accordion was introduced to Argentina from Brazil. Its rhythms are now recognisably those of the polka, mazurka or waltz, but they have been filtered through the Guarani culture to become the true sound of the pampas.Raul Barboza has collected all the old chamamé tunes, most of which were never written down, and has played on literally hundreds of albums in Argentina, although his first European release saw the light of day only six years ago. His music involves a high degree of improvisation, updating the old tunes without losing their freshness of spirit. While he often plays solo, he's equally happy with his quartet, where the rest of the line-up includes guitar, percussion and harp.