Me gusta LA CUMBIA .

La Sonora Dinamita‘s songs are faithfully covered
by this Guatemalan tribute band.
Incredible energy and musicianship
(some of the dancers are a bit uncovered however…)

¡VIVA la CUMBIA!

After much painstaking research, both musical and cultural, with the objective of bringing you, my connected and faithful readers, the best of everything, I made a troubling discovery: it would appear that due to the international fame of Colombia’s SONORA DINAMITA (yes – the group that sings all those vulgar dance-tunes with the sleazy word-play and horns, them…) a host of tribute bands, imitators, and outright frauds have sprung up, trying to pass themselves off as the original lineup to paying audiences from L.A. to Bogota and back. Such rhythmic outrage must cease. But until then— enjoy this amazing and technically precise live show by one of the usurper groups [la orquesta de Any Velasquez]. I enjoy the absurd juxtaposition of the dancing, sweaty band women (who are doing the hard work) with the breezy fashion models in bikinis as they stride through beach landscapes in designer shades or gyrate in swimming pools. It’s a bit like the parallel plot in Midsummer Night’s Dream between the prosaic stage players (Bottom & crew– which could be a pun in this context) and the airy fairies (Titania/Oberon & friends). But I digress. I actually stumbled upon La Sonora Dinamita indirectly when I bought a CD in Mexico City in 1998 by one of these Sonora D. knock-off bands doing an extended soulless version of their greatest hits to a synthetic rhythm track. I noticed how hilariously ribald the lyrics were and when I hummed a line to my Spanish teacher she informed me that the original song was a classic recorded many years before the CD that I possessed. Remember those “K-Tel presents” albums advertised on TV in the 70’s which were NOT the real thing ? My CD was one of those. But it’s hard to know all this stuff when you are just a gringo.