Callum Simpson: promoting a new wave Latin music in London
British DJ and producer is making the latin culture
relevant to Londoners and accessible to non-latinos
British DJ and producer Callum Simpson (aka Cal Jader) is a passionate researcher of Latin America music and culture and one of the founders of Movimientos Records (UK). This November his label celebrates its 10th anniversary with an amazing serie of acts around London – including music, visuals, films, talks and new releases of bands and artists coming from various countries.
The last event was massive success (in a sold out night) launching the new album of the iconic chilean band Chico Trujillo at The Garage. Carrying on with the celebrations,Movimientos will promote a weekend double header at Rich Mix featuring two nights of the finest international and local Latin American acts and DJs.
On Saturday (7th Nov) sees the Afro-Colombian big band sounds of Angelica Lopez’s Papayera launching their debut album plus a welcome return for psychedelic tropical sounds of Los Chinches, and to complete the party we welcome Madrid’s Cumbia b-boy DJ Caution as well as the original future world funk don and long standing partner Russ Jones. Plus we’ll be joining forces with long standing friends at Latinos in London.
Whilst sunday (8th Nov) there’s the acclaimed and pioneering Afro-Peruvian band Novalima who are jetting in as part of the tour for their new album ‘Planetario’ presented in association with Como No.
To knowing a bit more about the upcoming events and also about Simpson’s work with the latin community, ElevenCulture.com interviewed him:
Lívia Rangel – Movimientos is celebrating 10 years promoting traditional and contemporary Latin American Culture in the UK. Tell us a bit about the upcoming mini festival at Rich Mix, please.
Cal Jader – It’s basically an attempt to celebrate the different aspects to our work and a chance to invite all the people that have been part of the 10 year journey in some way. We’ll showcasing three of the most exciting London based acts that we work with whilst screening 4 UK premiere documentaries with our good friends from Alborada and Sounds and Colours. On the live front there’s Papayera arguably the definitive Colombian party band in London – a 10 piece explosion of Afro-Colombian rhythms, Los Chinches – very dear to us – who’ve we toured around the UK in 2013 and have released their album on our label and play a London mix of psychedelic Peruvian Cumbia.
As well there is Casa De Cachaca a new formation of players from the samba in London – some of whom were part of one of the first bands we had on at Movimientos called B-Loco. And a range of our favourite DJs from DJ Caution a cumbia and tropical bass specialist from Madrid, producer iZem from Lisbon and locals Russ Jones (Arriba La Cumbia) and Carlitos Nino from Latinos in London. As well as of course headlining on sunday and on tour in Europe – from Peru – Novalima (more about them below).
On the film front i’m particularly excited to host the world premiere of Hip Hop Revolución by Alborada Films about the underground Hip Hop movement in Caracas whilst on sunday there’s a perfect way to warm up for Novalima with a film ‘Ritmos Negros del Peru’ about the history of Afro-Peruvian music amongst others.
Not only that we’ll have visuals from our favourite VJ Oddscene and decor from Tropical Angel immersing the venue into a tropical world!
Lívia – You guys are bringing the amazing Novalima Tour to London! With their third album, Planetario, they are becoming hotter and hotter. I can’t wait for this concert.. .
Cal – Well for a start yes you’re right – they are a super hot live act who keep getting better and better and we’ve had a lot of interest in them from old fans and people who’ve heard about them for the first time alike. It’s appropriate because Novalima have always been there along the way throughout the history of Movimientos – Rafael from the band used to live in London and used to DJ at some of the early Movimientos nights and then 6 years ago we co-promoted their last London show with Como No (with whom we are collaborating on this show). For me they are one of the pioneers of this new wave of music from the continent that was taking the heritage of Afro-latin and indigenous sounds and giving it a modern twist whilst still respecting the traditions. It’s great to find them still going strong on their new album which also features alot of artists we also admire including members La-33, Sidestepper vocalist Eka Muñoz, Pernett and La Mamba Negra, DJ Panko from Ojos de Brujo (Spain), and Kumar (Cuban rapper based in Barcelona).
Let’s talk about Movimientos Records. How many artists/bands have you got in the label now? Are there any new releases coming up this year?
Callum – Yes well this year we’ve just put out an album by Voodoo Love Orchestra a big brass band explosion who play all sorts of funky stuff including Mambo, Cumbia and classic soul. Earlier this year Brazilian influenced Soul and Funk band The Fontanas both of whom are firm festival favourites and regulars at our live events in London. Next up i’m extremely excited to announce the release – in early 2016 of the album of En El Aire Project from Eliane Correa – bandleader of one of our key bands Wara – who’s concocted an incredible album of Afro-Cuban Soul and Jazz – like Irakere meets Esperanza Spalding (dare i say!) .. watch this space.
Lívia – If you could make a Retrospective of this decade of work, which actions would you put on the spotlight?
Callum – For me the most exciting thing is where we’re at now regularly running events and clubnights at 6 or 7 different key venues around london and programming a ton of acts at festivals around the UK amongst other things. But there has been so many good experiences along the way though from a Cuban Hip Hop tour in 2007, a benefit show with Manu Chao and more recently working alongside the Venezuelan embassy to promote new acts from Venezuela.
There was also a couple of UK tours in 2013 which were hugely important for me and something i’d like to develop more. We toured two bands that we already worked with – Los Chinches and Wara – whilst at the same time starting to release music and develop the record label. The intention has been to elevate artists with a different voice and showcasing different forms of Latin music.
Through all of this we’ve aimed to counter the more mainstream perceptions of latin music, promoting subcultures and alternatives that’s been very important for me. And similarly helping to make this culture relevant to Londoners and accessible to non-latinos.
Lívia – As a british guy – surrounded by all this mainstream industry and all these great pop, punk and rock’n’roll artists – how did the latin culture catch your heart?
Callum – Big question! Well growing up I was into all the pop punk brit-pop indie stuff of course but was always interested in Hip Hop which kind of led me to DJing and buying records – drum n bass, funk & soul and leftfield beats etc and I certainly always had an ear for a bit of bossa nova and brazilian funk without thinking about it too much. I suppose once i got deeper into rare grooves, disco and jazz you start to realise that so much of contemporary music is influence by afro-latin rhythms. Acts and DJs like Jazzanova and Gilles Peterson were also hugely influential to stirring those latin tendencies within me. Throughout the course of 10 years of Movimientos it’s been a constant learning curve for me understanding more about traditional rhythms from the continent and I’ve grown to love the music more and more.
And further to that through studying Latin American politics at university as part of a politics degree I learnt a lot about the history of exploitation that happened and continues to happen in Latin America and I was very much fuelled by a passion in trying to raise awareness of some of the emerging social movements and issues affecting marginalised communities there. It was logical to me as a DJ at the time that we try to do this by combining awareness raising with music which of course has always been so integral to forms of resistance from Andean music to the development of Samba in the favelas. Oppressed peoples always find a way to express themselves culturally and usually it’s most powerful through music and dance.
“(…) when we started running events and clubnights- the main focus was this marriage of music and social issues”
So when we started running events and clubnights- the main focus was this marriage of music and social issues. We always tried to incorporate a socially conscious element so that there was a deeper meaning to the event we’re doing.
Since starting Movimientos I’ve been inspired by the likes of say Manu Chao, Calle 13 and others who have acted as musical and cultural activists. All cultural art forms have such potential to encourage alternative ways of thinking, and through music this can be immensely powerful.
“All cultural art forms have such potential to encourage alternative ways of thinking, and through music this can be immensely powerful”.
Lívia – What do you think about the new brazilian music? Do you have any favourite artist or tune?
Callum – I think it’s a phenomenally rich period of Brazilian musical history and from the outside it appears there‘s a strong emerging network of quality new acts around the country – usually taking some influence from their Afro-Brazilian heritage. I love what Criolo is doing with his diverse take on hip hop as well as a very powerful live band, Metá Metá too are an incredibly unique act that blew my mind when they came to Cafe Oto last year, and i’ve got a soft spot for the 73 year old Dona Onete – something of an amazonian queen mixing carimbo and roots rhythms from Pará with a great young band who give it a really fresh approach.
Also the digital bass scene heralded by the recent Kafundo compilations – appears to be pretty healthy with the likes of acts and producers like Omulu, Os Nelsons and Furmigdub all of whom I play a lot in my dj sets. My favourite tune at the moment (because it’s always different!!) is a raggamuffin remix version of Beija Flor by Timbalada – that’s about 15 years old now but I‘ve rediscovered it – partly due to DJ Dolores – and it still rocks the dance.
Lívia – Latin America is an enormous continent full of beauty, creativity and talented people as well as poverty, violence and corruption. Which countries have you visited in there? What was your impression about it?
Callum –I’ve been in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia at various times. In Brazil last year I was on a carnival exploration with my dear Brazilian amigas Mariana Pinho and Manuela Benini (the best tour guides one could ask for!) and a little DJ tour – visiting along the way Rio, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Recife, Olinda, Aracaju and Brasilia and was lucky enough to be able to connect with many different cultural protagonists in all of these places. For me the one of the main things that stood out – something i alluded to earlier – was the power of the Afro-Brazilian heritage and the way that it seemed to permeate so many aspects of cultural life there and there seemed to be a new younger generation discovering, exploring and celebrating this rich identity. But of course you could see that the mainstream always looks to ‘sanitise’ these cultures and marginalise certain communities.
“In Brazil you could see that the mainstream always looks to ‘sanitise’ these (afro-brazilian) cultures and marginalise certain communities”
When we started Movimientos 10 years ago I visited Colombia with an organisation called Justice For Colombia to hear testimonies of many different people affected by the internal conflict and the insidiuous influence of the paramilitary forces, of course the peace deal that’s looks like it’s happening there now is only the start of resolving the multitude of issues in the country. One thing was clear from all of this that the conflict cannot be looked at simply within the context of the country itself because – and this goes for a lot of the problems of the region – there’s still a massive issue regarding the influence of outside forces, transnational corporations – new forms of exploitation and colonialism. Whilst these influences may be more subtle are no less destructive in their ability to impact the people of Latin America to direct their own future.
Event: Movimientos 10
Date: Sat 7th – Sun 8th November 2015
Times: Sat 12.00 – 03.00, Sun 14.00 – 23.00
Line up: Novalima, La Papayera, Los Chinches, DJ Caution, DJ Russ Jones, Movimientos DJs, More TBA.
Venue: Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA
Tickets: www.movimientos.org.uk/Mov-10
