The Garifuna communities of Central America’s Atlantic coast are beginning to seem like the new Cape Verde — there is so much good music coming out of there. The truth is that it has as much to do with the love of Belizean producer Ivan Duran for the music and the people as any one musician breaking it big

Track Listing

1. Nibari
2. Merua
3. Yunduya Weyu
4. Barubana Yagien
5. Hattie
6. Luwuburi Sigala
7. Anaha Ya
8. Tuguchili Elia
9. Fuleisi
10. Uruwei
11. Afayahadina
12. Lirun Biganute

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19887 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Songlines, (Alex Robinson), April/May 2008
(5 stars) Beautiful, hypnotic, melancholic melodies...every track is a gem...a unique, deeply moving, unforgettable album.

The Guardian, (Robin Denselow), April 4, 2008
(4 stars) An emotional, often thrilling, reminder of why Garifuna music is so distinctive and enthralling...Andy Palacio's legacy lives on.

Songlines magazine, April/May 2008 (issue #51)
Those who fell in love with Andy Palacio's Wátina will adore this record. It is a beautiful mix of African rhythms, choral singing and hypnotic, melancholic melodies that will leave you gasping for air, with a mood that will haunt you long after every listen. From the first seconds of the first track, `Nibari', the Garifuna hold you in rapt attention: they're troubadours spinning an epic, emotional musical tale imbued with the myriad sounds, moods and tragedy of ancient African America.
Like the Saramaccan people of Suriname or those of Brazil's remnant Quilombos, the Garifuna are Latin American descendants of escaped enslaved West Africans. They trace their ancestry to two Spanish slave ships that foundered off the coast of South America in the early 1600s. Carib Amerindian villages took the shipwrecked Africans in and welcomed them into their extended families. The children of these families eventually formed their own Garifuna communities. And after migrations and forced re-settlements they survive as culturally distinct to this day.
The Garifuna are Africans in exile - never subjugated, but eternally displaced. And like other South American Africans, their ancestors preserved their cultural memory through ritual and music. Umalali is on first listen an astonishingly African-sounding record. But whilst it is powered by the visceral, sensual, communal authenticity of Africa, it is infused with the deep sadness of exile, the wash of the sea and the mesmerising contemplative chants of Native America. And every track is a gem - whether it's the sumptuous, joyfully sensual lilting of `Hattie' and `Áfayahádina', the resigned tragedy of `Uruwei' or the age-old, mournful jungle lament, `Lirun Biganute', the final track of this unique, deeply moving, unforgettable album.
Alex Robinson

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Customer Reviews

On this occasion the men are better...
As a consequence of musical explorations I discovered that the Garifuna are a mixed race culuture originating from indigenous peoples of the Americas and of African; so kind of the usual Latin American mix without the European bit. A unique cultural identity has formed within these peoples. Nevertheless, one can detect the European cross references without any trouble in amongst the polyrhythms and drums one would expect from that cultural background. It's an album of interest, and certainly one I like. But here we have the women, and I must admit that Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective in this case shows the men ahead of the women.

garifuna womaen's project -umalali
Deeply spiritual and moving. Easy and varied Afro-Caribbean rhythms and harmonies. Simple, effective accoustic accompaniment and drumming. Roots music at its finest. For me, the best 'world' music album this year.
Doctor T

I really wanted to like it
I really wanted to like this album, but I have to confess I've found it a little heavy going and samey. I've given it four stars on the basis of its worthiness as a project, and to acknowledge that I'm probably just not tuned in enough to this kind of thing to really get it. But I don't think I'll be playing it very often. My loss, probably.