Music
Press
The 'El Violento' (violent) tag used by Colombians to celebrate awesome skills is spot on to describe this beautifully recorded disc by the extraordinary Trio Guafa. It's also the title of track nine, and the tight interaction and dynamic improvisations between Ignacio Ramos' flute, Armando Gonzalez's tiny four-stringed cuatro guitar and Julian Gomez's acoustic double bass is nothing short of thrilling as they reinvent an intense 14.melody sequence of classic joropo, bambuco, pasillo and more modern hybrid rhythms, culled mostly from master musicians of the central Andes such as Justo Almario and Luis Uribe Bueno. The word 'guafa' refers to the bamboo cane that plainspeople use to build their homes, but also populary refers to a celebratory way of playing. Here it defines a sublime set of appealingly catchy and often emotionally moving melodies played with enormous vitality and limpid clarity. The balance shifts constantly between rootsy percussive sound and soaringly sublime tunes, with arrangements that manage to be cutting-edge contemporary while passionately reinventing tradition. Each song sparkles like a jewel in a covetably dazzling neclace, an each time you fix upon the greatest example of their virtuosity, you hear the next song and change your mind. These talented guys must be great live - let's hope they start touring soon. Jan Fairley - Jan Failey
Discography
Discography
2000 Musica Tradicional Colombiana, CD
2000 - Homenaje a nuestros compositores Mono Núñez (Compilation)
2001 XXV Festival de Música Colombiana Mono Núñez; Festival Hatoviejo Cotrafa (Compilation)
2001 Entreverao (CD)
2002 XI Festivalito Ruitoqueño de Música Colombiana (Compilation)
2004 Entre Sabana y Montaña (CD)
2006 A paso de Leon (CD)
2006 Herencia, Daqui, France (CD).
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Bio
GUAFA TRIO is based in Bogota, Colombia.
GUAFA TRIO is a very unique instrumental formation with a contemporary and own sound. They perform traditional Colombian music from folk classic composers as well as their own compositions.
GUAFA TRIO is the first Colombian trio that put together contrabass, cuatro*, and flute to play pasillos, bambucos, joropos and other genres from the Colombians inland that traditionally are played by string trios. Its project started life at the beginning of 1998 with Musica Llanera (traditional music from the Venezuelan and Colombian areas better known as Llanos Orientales) performing at 1st Festival of Llanera Music in Bogota where they showed their original musical and interpretative approach to the Llanera music. The audience expressed a big emotion and interest when listened to it, because it was presented under a complete different perspective.
* Typical four-string guitar unique to Colombia and Venezuela.
Later on, GUAFA TRIO, enlarged their repertoire including compositions of Latin American and Colombian Andean Music. They always have given a big importance to perform with a high instrumental level as well as to improve their interpretations quality. In a short time, they had captured the Colombian audiences interest.
In 1999, GUAFA TRIO was awarded with the Colombian Mono Núñez, which is the most prestigious Colombian distinction of traditional music. In 2000, they won the first prize in the competition for traditional music at the XIV Festival Hato Viejo, Cotrafa (Colombia). The Colombian Foundation BAT in 2005 honored its flute player, Ignacio Ramos, with the prize as best interpreter. In addition, they got the third award as best original composition with the theme entreverao.
GUAFA TRIO has crossed the whole country performing more than 1000 concerts in festivals, theaters and events as for instance Trios National Festival (Popayan), Auditorium Luis A. Calvo (Bucaramanga), Camarín del Carmen Theater (Bogota), León De Greiff Auditorium (Bogota), Luis Angel Arango Hall (Bogotà), British Petroleum Company tour (Casanare), series of concerts during the Presidential Summit (Cartagena), Metropolitano Theather (Medellin), Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Theater (Bogotà) as well as in USA & Europe.
IGNACIO RAMOS - Flute
He won the prize as best flute player at the Festival of New Colombian Music in 2005, organized by the BAT Foundation.
Ignacio plays the flute with enormous vitality and sentiment!
ARMANDO GONZALEZ - Contrabass
He is also jury member of the El Colono de Oro Festival as well as other important Colombian competitions of traditional music.
Armando used to be a rocker and he plays the cuatro llanero with the same intense feeling of a Colombian llanero!
JULIAN GOMEZ
He is the youngest in the trio and comes from a classic academic!
Julian was born in Pasto, the most representative Andean city of Colombia, and his big passion is jazz. With his double bass, he brings a perfect balance and interaction to Guafa Trio.
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