Christopher Columbus met up with Central America on his last attempt to discover a sea passage to the Spice Route, and while he may not have come across pepper, he did find a sea of papayas.
Papaya seeds made their way to India where, with the turn of the centuries and life’s twists of fate, some spice traders have used them to adulterate pepper.
The Papaya Orchestra takes its name from this fruit, which grows wild in this narrow strip of the continent and is considered a tasty treat by magpies, toucans, monkeys, iguanas, lizards, tapirs and all kinds of other birds, mammals and insects.
Meeting for the first time and in many cases, venturing out of their communities for the very first time, fourteen musicians and the instruments and customs of seven countries were convened to play music heard traditionally at festivities, to accompany a special day of labor or religious ceremonies, and in everyday life.
This is how the folk violin of Panama, the Garifuna drums of Belize and Honduras, Guatemala’s earthen jars (pre-Columbian percussion) and Nicaraguan marimbas de arco were brought together under the direction of Costa Rican pianist Manuel Obregón.
This fusion of indigenous instruments with the more conventional piano, electric bass, accordion and drums has resulted in an unusual and surprising sonority that has since come to identify this volcanic arc connecting northern and southern America.
THE JOURNEY
This is Papaya Music’s founding disk, inaugurating an entire collection of sonorous landscapes and musical regions in Central America, with their composers, rhythms and reinterpretations of traditional folk music. It was recorded during a series of debut concerts in Costa Rica, in February 2002.
The music of Papaya Orchestra is like a travel book taking us on a journey, to the great indigenous civilizations established within the jungles and highland plains, to densely populated cities scattered over the isthmus and to Caribbean communities reminiscent of an African diaspora. Their concerts are an intense, joyful and festive voyage through the region’s seven countries, recreating scenarios and ambiances through the transporting magic of music.
The musicians of Papaya are a true reflection of ethnic convergence in this zone, made up of indigenous ancestors, the Africans who came with the Europeans in the colony and all of the mixes that subsequently took place.
The journey begins in the Azuero Peninsula, on the Pacific coast of Panama where the orchestra’s distinctive “grito” or shout was born. From there Papaya tears off from the beaches of Belize on its way to Lake Nicaragua. As happens during such voyages, the trip is full of rhythmic leaps, sudden changes of climate, border crossings and shifting languages. It brims with joy as an accordion plays a Panamanian cumbia, then pauses for a moment to hear Lenin Fernández play the “tonajas,” earthen jugs that evoke the music of pre-Colombian times and sing the dramatic history of Guatemala’s native population.
TRADITION
Central America’s indigenous people have always loved dance and revered good musicians, as documented by European travelers over the years. “In just one day they can take the most difficult melody and perform it with great expressiveness,” wrote the 19th century chronicler, Von Tempsky.
Manuel Obregón had the same experience the first time he got together with the marimba group “Nicaragua Mía” at Casa de los Tres Mundos, in Granada, Nicaragua.
The Martínez family rose to the challenge of fusing marimba de arco and piano, demonstrating their willingness to venture outside folkloric tradition and executing complex harmonies with ease.“We’re not from a school, we are the root,” asserts Marcos Martínez, leader of the group. “The music is in our mind.”
Tradition is also represented in this orchestra by musicians from Panama, a country whose folklore is unusually dynamic. The African legacy is provided by the musicians of Belize and Honduras, while the artists of Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador -more exposed to the influence of U.S. rock, jazz, pop, R&B, Latin rhythms and contemporary music- reflect the cosmopolitan aspirations of the region.
Our journey through the seven countries of the isthmus comes to a close with “Catedral”, which Manuel Obregón composed especially for the orchestra, revealing the esthetic refinement these Central American musicians can attain.
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