The 2007 WOMEX Award Winners
Two Journeys: Andy Palacio
Enter Ivan Duran
The Award
For more Information
The 2007 WOMEX Award Winners
WOMEX is proud to announce the joint winners of the 2007 WOMEX Award, Andy Palacio and Ivan Duran , both of Belize. Andy Palacio is a Garifuna musician, activist and Belize's cultural ambassador. Ivan Duran, a musician and producer, is founder of Stonetree Records.
"We intend the WOMEX award to serve as an example of what is best in our community," said WOMEX General Director, Gerald Seligman. "And who better to receive it than Ivan Duran and Andy Palacio? Each in their way is exemplary. Each has made an indelible mark on his country's cultural life. Ivan is virtually a one man music industry in Belize. And Andy has almost single-handedly put Garifuna culture on the world's musical map, and by doing so has helped to preserve it."
"The past decade has seen the production of a number of field and studio recordings from Central America that have brought Garifuna artistry to the attention of world-music audiences," explained Princeton University's Michael Stone, a scholar of the Garifuna and friend of Duran and Palacio. "Leading the way, Belize-based Stonetree Records - through the work of producer Ivan Duran with singer Andy Palacio and other Garifuna artists - represents a unique effort, indigenous to the region, to document and reinforce the expressive cultural traditions of the Garifuna people and other minority groups of Caribbean Central America."
"It's an extraordinary endorsement," said an emotional Andy Palacio, "not just for me as an artist - but for a community that, despite the greatest challenges, has demonstrated a remarkable resilience, with cultural expression at the forefront." Community, it's a concept Andy returns to again and again, even calling his group the Garifuna Collective.
"I'm too young to be receiving awards!" exclaimed Ivan Duran, already practicing for his acceptance speech. "I feel very humbled by this award and I share it with the many 'small' and unknown producers around the world who, like me, one day decided to produce new music and artists that no 'big label' cared about."
Two Journeys: Andy Palacio
It was in 1635 that a ship full of West African slaves shipwrecked off the coast of St. Vincent. Only half survived. They mingled with the indigenous Caribs of the region, eventually being forcibly re- located to settlements along Central America's Caribbean coast - Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Explained Michael Stone, "The Garifuna sustain a proud heritage of having resisted enslavement at European hands, although their unique cultural heritage is today under considerable threat." Which is where Andy Palacio comes in.
Palacio's destiny was also determined thanks to inclement weather off the Caribbean coast. In an almost mythical encounter, a ship he was sailing on when he was eighteen was blown off course by a storm. For safety, they stepped ashore near a small Nicaraguan village. There he met an old man who thought himself the only one alive still speaking the Garifuna language - until Andy hailed him in their native tongue. "From that day I realized that what was happening in Nicaragua, the disappearance of Garifuna culture, foreshadowed what was going to happen in Belize less than a generation down the road," Palacio told Dmitri Vietze. "I decided to follow my passion and focus more on performing Garifuna music as a way to keep the traditions alive long into the future."
First as a Punta Rock artist and now as he plumbs deeper musical roots, Palacio has been seeking to preserve and to share his culture. "For the Garifuna," he explained backstage in Berlin during a recent show, "music and dance are inextricably linked with survival. Music accompanies us every day, whether we're at work or at play. It is the breath that keeps us alive collectively. At its highest level, it's an expression of our spirituality."
When asked about his mission, Palacio replied instantly: "First to tell our story, and then to share our legacy." Sharing it is turning into a joint mission with Palacio's friend, Ivan Duran.
Enter Ivan Duran
"I got interested in Garifuna culture in my teens," Duran explained, "when I started studying music." Duran was born in Belize to Catalonian parents, restless travelers who arrived one day in Belize and never left. "I always loved the drumming and singing even though I didn't really dig what was being done with the arrangements, all those synthesizers and all. It's a music that always goes straight to my heart. Its beauty lies in its simplicity, and good music need not be complicated."
Duran and Palacio started collaborating in 1995 when Ivan produced Andy's first full-length album, "Keimuon", which was also the project that launched Stonetree Records the following year. "Since then we have developed a great artist/producer relationship and there is complete mutual trust. Of course, the fact that we live in the same country and just a few miles apart makes it a lot easier."
Stonetree doesn't flood the market with releases. Instead, each is hand-crafted and worked lovingly until the performances, the recordings, the mixes - and the artwork - are all just right. "It has never taken me more than a few seconds to decide whether I should record a particular song," Duran said. "I create a powerful bond with the song and no matter what I do to it in the studio, I make sure we never loose the spirit of that first impression."
It is this intuitive grasp that helped Duran shape his approach to recording Garifuna music. He and Palacio spent months discussing how to get it right. Most efforts, even Andy's own, had been cast in a rock setting. Insight came in a flash. "When Andy played me a tape of Paul Nabor singing an old Paranda composition, I knew it was time to hit rewind and go back to the roots to find the soulful melodies and the real essence of Garifuna music." [Nabor is the 79-year-old Garifuna musician who Palacio has been taking on his world tours.] Andy agreed, and the first fruit of the more acoustic, rootsier approach was Aurelio Martinez' CD "Garifuna Soul".
Then came the acclaimed "Watina", with Andy fronting the Garifuna Collective (number one in the World Music Charts Europe at the time of this writing), and now, the Umálali project with the same collective, directed by Palacio and fronted by a diverse group of Garifuna women singers. Andy and Umalali will be performing at the WOMEX Award ceremony on Sunday, 28 October 2007.
The Duran-Palacio partnership is one of mutual respect and remarkable results. "Andy is an inspiration for many Belizean artists," enthused Duran. "His willingness to experiment and expand Garifuna musical forms has set an invaluable example for generations to come."
When it comes to the future, Duran said, "I just hope that the music can inspire and give pride to a small nation like ours. Musicians and artists have for too long been overlooked and under-appreciated. Our nascent local music industry is finally starting to be recognized for its valuable contribution to the development of our country. Even though I've been making records for 12 years, only recently has our music started to get international attention. This WOMEX Award couldn't have come at a better moment. Personally, this is the most amazing recognition one can receive in our field of world music. This award encourages me to even work harder to produce the best possible recordings that our artists so much deserve."
The Award
For these reasons and a hundred more, WOMEX has bestowed the 2007 award on Andy Palacio and Ivan Duran.
"In 2001 UNESCO's Director-General proclaimed the Garifuna language, music and dance to be among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity," said Michael Stone. "The decree highlighted the distinctive value of the Garifuna cultural traditions (under pressure from mass tourism, encroachment upon native lands, emigration and other forces of globalization) and stressed the urgency of safeguarding Garifuna culture." Among the best efforts are those of our Award winners.
"Together they truly represent a certain spirit of WOMEX," said Ben Mandelson, musician, producer, and WOMEX's first Director. "Andy is taking a local music and putting it on the regional, then international stage; making it popular without compromise, yet remaining creative; being committed in the long-term to representing core cultural values as a true 'sonic ambassador.' Ivan best represents what is valuable, good, important, correct, moral and creative about the world music community; which he does with integrity; meeting international standards and global vision whilst using local resources. He is creating a positive image of his country internationally through positive means (the means of music). Together they represent committed independence, determination, and integrity - with a moral quality as well as a product and business quality. And all of this achieved with a relaxed modesty and humour!"
We'll give the last word to Paul Nabor, the Garifuna's elder statesman, who is still bringing down the house with Andy Palacio. In a large white cane cowboy hat that threatens to engulf him as he shuffles about on stage, Nabor sings his powerful songs of a resilient culture. What did he make of the award? He smiled. "I feel happy. Andy's the first one trying to do this for the Garifuna. I've been playing since I was 18 and I'm 79 now, and this is the first chance I have to play for so many people. I'm proud of Andy. I can say to anybody that Andy started this thing."
And what about Ivan? "Ivan works fine, too. I love how Ivan works. He takes good care of me."
Join us in Sevilla at 12 noon on Sunday 28 October 2007, for the WOMEX Award presentation and concert.
For more Information
'Watina' is released on Stonetree Records in Belize, Guatemala and
Honduras. It is released on Cumbancha everywhere else.
www.stonetreerecords.com
www.cumbancha.com/welcome.php?_pg=albums/watina
www.rockpaperscissors.biz/go/andypalacio
For Tour Information
www.myspace.com/andypalacio
www.myspace.com/stonetreerecords
www.youtube.com/stonetreerecords
www.womex.com