30 November 2017
Newsdesk
The London Latin Music Festival, La Linea, will return in 2018 with a heady mix of debut commissions, one-off UK performances, and live premieres from global superstars and rising stars across the Latin music world. Running for 10 days at the end of April, the festival will utilise a range of London venues and boasts a stand-out line-up that features everything from traditional Cuban music, Latin rumba, ska and punk from Spain, Chilean classics, genre-spanning sounds from Mexico, and future Iranian/Afro-Cuban inspired electronica.
The first acts confirmed for next year’s festival are former Buena Vista Social Club frontman Eliades Ochoa, who returns to the UK for the first time since the iconic band’s farewell tour in 2015 to make his solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall, the UK premiere of a special tribute to Latin American composers in Hollywood, Sonorama, which nods to the likes of Juan García Esquivel, Lalo Schifrin, Maria Greve, and Johnny Richards in a big brass and electronic reinvention led by Mexico-City based composer and performer Camilo Lara, and global phenomenon Mexrrissey, who will premiere their brand new show ‘La Reina is Dead’ at the Barbican.
Also on the initial bill is Chilean-French singer Ana Tijoux, who returns to London for the first time since her sold-out appearance at La Linea in 2015, diverging from her hip-hop roots to explore a more intimate sound and style through her new project Roja y Negro: canciones de amor y desamor. The festival also welcomes back London-based Iranian/Cuban quartet Ariwo, who will deliver their boundary-pushing sound that combines the raw energy of Cuban rumba with the deep melancholy of Iranian electronic music to the Village Underground, iconic Senegalese outfit Orchestra Baobab, and Catalonian supergroup La Pegatina, who will showcase their unique mix of Latin rhythms, lively urban rumba, ska and punk to audiences at the Electric Brixton.
Created by Como No in 2001 to showcase the Latin contribution to the wider musical world and to celebrate new artists, new collaborations and new projects, La Linea has built a global reputation for bringing together a host of stellar Latin artists to London every April. La Linea 2018 runs from April 20th to 30th, and tickets are available from Friday December 1st at www.lalineafestival.com.
Confirmed so far:
Sonorama – The Barbican | Friday 20th April
Ariwo + Soundspecies – Village Underground | Monday 23rd April
Eliades Ochoa – Royal Albert Hall | Wednesday 25th April
Ana Tijoux – The Jazz Café | Thursday 26th April
Orchestra Baobab – The Barbican | Friday 27th April
Mexrrissey – The Barbican | Sunday 29th April
La Pegatina – Electric Brixton | Monday 30th April
**Full listings below**
Information and tickets for all shows www.lalineafestival.com
Facebook: lalineafestival
Twitter: @lalineafest #lalinea17
Instagram: lalineafest
La Linea 2017 Listings:
Sonorama / Latin American Composers in Hollywood
The Barbican Friday 20th April
Doors 8pm
Tickets £15-£25
Composers and musicians from across Latin America have played key roles in shaping the music of film and television made in Los Angeles. Join Mexican Institute of Sound with a host of special guests for a special tribute to the Southern California sojourns of artists such as Juan García Esquivel, Lalo Schifrin, Maria Grever, and Johnny Richards, all of whom found their way into legendary Hollywood recording studios and onto screens large and small.
“Sonorama”, means, big dramatic, cinematic sound. It was also the name that Juan Garcia Esquivel gave to his own orchestra when Latin music met Hollywood in the late 50s. In 2018, Sonorama is a big brass and electronic reinvention of the Golden age of Latin American composers in Hollywood.
Sonorama was originally conceived and curated by cultural critic and historian Josh Kun, author of The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles for performance at The Getty Museum in LA as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles in 2017.
Mexican Institute of Sound is the multi-talented composer musician and arranger Camilo Lara whose own recent film work includes music for Coco, Pixar’s ‘Day of The Dead’ inspired feature film.
Ariwo + Soundspecies (Live)
Village Underground 23rd April
Doors 7pm
Tickets £16 in advance
Ariwo formed in London in 2015 and made their live premiere via a global online Boiler Room session that year before wowing the Manana electronic music festival in Santiago de Cuba in 2016; they’ve been gathering steam ever since.
The band brings together Pouya Ehsaei and three of London’s most influential Cuban musicians: Irakere and Carlos Acosta’s Latin Grammy winning percussion virtuoso, Hammadi Valdes; Yussef Kamaal and Sierra Maestra lead trumpeter Yelfris Valdes; and godfather of London’s Cuban scene, Oreste Noda.
Ariwo aim to connect their native musical traditions to electronic music in a way that pushes beyond traditional Cuban and Iranian identity, creating a sound that does not belong to any specific culture.
'Live Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazzy trumpet solos... an instant success.' Resident Advisor
'Formidably integrated. A sonic terra incognita guided only by a hypnotic and dubwise focus on forward motion.' The Wire
'Dark, mesmeric, uplifting and danceable; you won’t hear anything else like it.' Evening Standard
Support is Soundspecies (live), who explore the territory between traditional rhythmic percussion music and electronic dance music. They will be playing music developed from a collaboration with Ache Meyi at the Manana festival, Cuba. Featuring singer Luzmira Zerpa from Family Atlantica, percussion and guitar.
Eliades Ochoa
Royal Albert Hall Wednesday 25th April
Doors 7pm
Tickets £25-£60
One of the most important Cuban musicians of all time, the former Buena Vista Social Club frontman makes his solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall, fronting his own band.
A winner of several Latin Grammy nominations and awards, Ochoa is known as ‘Mr Chan Chan’ in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba. Until 2015 he combined performing with his own Grupo Patria with his role as a principal performer in the worldwide sold-out Adiós Tour with Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.
His unique guitar and vocal style has made him a champion of the string and percussion-driven Cuban country music. At this special show he will be playing a special set adding hot brass into the swinging guitar and conga mix.
‘The finest guitarist of his generation’ - The Guardian
Ana Tijoux presents Roja y Negro: Canciones de Amor y Desamor
The Jazz Café 26th April
Doors 6:45pm
Tickets £18 in advance
Following her last sold-out appearance at La Linea in 2015, Ana Tijoux returns to London. Considered one of the most respected rappers in any language, she has established a standard not only for female rappers or for rap in Spanish, but for rap itself at a global level. In her new project Ana has made a change in sound and style, exploring a more intimate side dedicated to love and heartbreak.
Since releasing her hit 2014 album Vengo, Tijoux has dusted off old boleros, tangos and waltzes to explore new ideas, to have fun, and to create an intimate and nostalgic musical encounter with her audience. Together with her long-time collaborators Raimundo Santander and Ramiro Duran, she has taken the Latin classics of their youth - from Chilean legends like Violeta Parra and Victor Jarra to Chico Buarque and Simon Diaz - to create Roja y Negro: canciones de amor y desamor.
Orchestra Baobab
The Barbican Friday 27th April
Doors 7.30pm
Tickets £15-£30
West Africa’s most iconic band, steeped in Afro-Cuban traditions, rightfully take their place in London’s Latin Music Festival. Almost half a century since their formation, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab has returned with a timeless set of classic, swaying tunes in the group’s trademark style. Expect some special surprises.
Responsible for some of the world’s most sublime and truly distinctive music, Orchestra Baobab fuse Afro-Cuban rhythm and Portuguese Creole melody with Congolese rumba and high life, which back at their inception in 1970 kick-started a musical renaissance in their native Senegal, turning the capital, Dakar, into one of the world’s most vibrant musical cities. Over the next decade the group dominated the local scene and produced countless hits before disbanding in the mid-80s, but it was their neglected 1982 album, Ken Dou Werente – which included many of their most famous songs, ‘Coumba’, ‘Ledi Njemme Mbodj’ and ‘Utru Horas’ – that became a cult classic, re-released to huge acclaim by World Circuit Records in 1989 under the title Pirate’s Choice.
‘Old-school Africa at its finest.’ - The Observer
‘One of the world’s greatest live acts.’ - The Guardian
Mexrrissey presents La Reina Is Dead
The Barbican Sunday 29th April
Doors 8pm
Tickets £15-£25
Mexrrissey debut their new live show, La Reina is Dead, a complete mexterpretation of The Smiths greatest album The Queen is Dead.
The Mexican super group began its meteoric rise at La Linea in the Barbican in April 2015 with a sold out debut. In the last three years Mexrrissey has been acclaimed for its debut release No Manchester (Cooking Vinyl) and circled the globe spreading the #MexMoz love playing sold out shows from Manchester to Los Angeles and Sydney to Buenos Aires.
The love that Mexico has for Morrissey and its reciprocation - “Nothing the world holds could match the love waiting for me in Mexico City” Morrissey - is the subject of a thousand articles and theses but the sheer joy of Mexrrissey has to be experienced live.
With new arrangements, new mariachi suits, new films and new swagger La Reina is Dead opens a new chapter for the Mexican reyes and their songs of love loss and longing.
“Mexrrissey was a much truer, more passionate invocation of the Moz spirit…even more powerful than the already-great original.” - Rolling Stone
La Pegatina
Electric Brixton Monday 30th April
Doors 7pm
Tickets £18 in advance
Party with a capital P. That’s how we describe La Pegatina’s live show. Quintessentially and energetically Catalonian, when they hit the stage their festive spirit and crazy energy has them whipping up a storm wherever they play. Masters of frenzied rhythms and catchy sing-along choruses that make them instant anthems, they combine Latin rhythms, lively urban rumba, ska and punk, with infectious lyrics in Spanish, Catalan and French.
On La Pegatina's latest album, El revulsiu, they collaborated with a range of other artists such as Bosnian agitators Dubioza Kolektiv, Capitán Cobarde from Sevilla, Madrid revolutionaries Ska-P, Mongolian punk-folk outfit Hanggai, singer and rapper Ms Maiko from the Canary Islands, MC Rayden from Madrid, alternative Argentinian rockers Onda Vaga, wild Japanese orchestra Turtle Island, and the amazing and surreal Oques Grasses from Catalonia.
In their twelve years as a band, they haven’t lost any of their freshness, haven’t changed their ideas or their uninhibited performance style, and haven’t lost any of the rapport that has characterized them throughout their career. They have played in 24 countries (Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile, Japan, Canada and in several European countries), with over 1000 concerts in only 14 years.
