Inti-Illimani

Wednesday, March 14, 2007; Page C08

After four decades of touring, the members of the Chilean octet Inti-Illimani could be excused if they rested on their considerable laurels.

Since the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende forced the group into political exile, the "Intis" have become Latin America's most prominent folkloristas and an outspoken voice for the continent's oppressed.

But as founding member Jorge Coulon told a wildly enthusiastic crowd at Lisner Auditorium on Sunday night, "We must not become prisoners of memory. We don't want to become a museum of ourselves."

The group has taken on five new members over the past decade, and the impact -- musically, at least -- has been dramatic. While still steeped in traditional culture, Inti-Illimani is striking out in new directions, working edgy harmonies and jazzier rhythms into its music -- reinventing itself, more or less, for the 21st century.

But there was still plenty to please purists. An Inti-Illimani concert is a wild ride through Latin music, a whirlwind of Andean folk tunes, tangos from Argentina, Brazilian sambas, and throbbing, sobbing love songs from Mexico. Shifting among 30 different instruments, the players wove an intricate and always-changing tapestry of sound, shifting effortlessly from whispery ballads to intoxicating explosions of flutes and drums, always to mesmerizing effect.

And while there's a definite political flavor to much of the music, it's done with a light touch -- steering clear of diatribe or anything too controversial.

The band mixed up old favorites like "Sambo Lando" with material from the forthcoming album "Pequeno Mundo," including the jazzy, percussive "Rondombe" and a compelling new version of the 1960s song "La Guitarrera Que Toca."

Some of the most moving singing of the evening came from multi-instrumentalist Juan Flores on "La Tarde Se Ha Puesto Triste" -- but all the players displayed relentless virtuosity in a concert that was pure exhilaration to the very end.

-- Stephen Brookes
- WASHINGTON POST

When asked recently about remaining active and engaged in touring and recording after a 40-year history, Jorge Coulon, a charter member of the Chilean band Inti-Illimani made reference to the September death of celebrated mime Marcel Marceau.
"Recently, we heard the sad news about the death of Marcel Marceau," Coulon writes in a recent e-mail interview from his South American home. "He died at 84 and was, until the end, after 60 years of activity, acting with the same passion. There is a mystery in why and how artists continue to keep going ... (but) there are not rational answers. It is a blend of passion, necessity, responsibility towards our own history."
Coulon, who sings and plays guitar in the eight-piece group, also attributed Inti-Illimani's longevity to a worldwide audience that delights in the ensemble's eclectic mix of Latin, jazz, folk and world music.
"When you are lucky enough to have a wonderful and passionate audience, crossing generations, emotionally and intellectually, you have a solid background for your own pleasure to play, create and perform," he says.
Named after a mountain the Bolivian Andes, Inti-Illimani is celebrating its 40th anniversary and will make its Athens debut on Tuesday at the Melting Point.
The band, which was founded in 1967 by a group of engineering students at the University of Santiago, has had a colorful career, 15 years of which was spent in political exile in Italy at the behest of Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, who apparently wasn't terribly fond of creative types or human rights.
"For us, going back home was imperative," says Coulon, who was among band members who were estranged from their home country from 1973-1988. "The relationship between our songs and our country and our people was and continues to be a very important part of our work. Returning home after 15 years of exile was in many ways a complicated thing, but something in our spirit returned to the right place."
The "Intis" have been performing in the United States for more than three decades, during which time Coulon (whose brother Marcelo plays guitar, piccolo, flute and bass in the group) says he has observed a considerable shift in the band's patrons.
"We have been coming to the (U.S.) for the last 33 years and we have been witness to a dramatic transformation in the culture, mentality and demographic composition of this country," he says. "In the beginning, we had a principally
Anglo audience from universities and socially engaged sectors of the country. Step by step, (our audience) is growing and expanding into different sectors, including people who love world music and people who love classical music and are extending their interests. Also, in the last 10 years, a new Hispanic audience began to be attracted to our work in a way that helps them discover a certain pride in their cultural identity. Also, the age of our audience is becoming wider. ... It is interesting that we have a larger audience, especially with a lot of young people in there, but we have not lost companions by the route."
Inti-Illimani is also promoting its 2006 album "Pequeno Mundo" (its 46th release) and its work providing musical accompaniment to the animated film "My Little World," which is set for release next year. The band is no stranger to film scoring, having worked on several other cinematic projects during its time together.
"We like to do it a lot, being conscious that music is a very important part in the mood of spectators towards a film," says Coulon of the group's film work. "We aren't doing this permanently, but (when) movie directors are looking for sounds, songs and music, they find musicians, not the other way around."
With Inti-Illimani's 40th year coming to a close, its 41st year will include collaborating with a children's choir and a symphony orchestra, as well as a few more movie projects. Coulon says the group he helped found so many years ago will continue to create into the foreseeable future.
"I would like that the group continues as long as we have something interesting to say musically and we continue to enjoy playing together," he says. "Me or Marcelo (or) the older members of the group may retire in the future, but new fantastic musicians are waiting for our baton - the history of Inti-Illimani has been like that.
"I like the idea of the group like an Agora, a meeting point, a sort of congress with a precise musical identity, an identity built in years of work, by different people - a permanent musical work-in-progress."
Chris J. Starrs
- Athens Banner-Herald (Georgia) 11-01-07

The music of Chilean folk group Inti-Illimani is pure beauty.
Their melodic, masculine voices rising and falling like the sinuous Andes mountains of South America, the Inti-Illimani gave a tantalizing performance at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.
The eight members of the group commanded string, wind and percussion instruments with their blend of folkloric songs, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Brazilian sounds, Mexican melodies, Italian tarantellas and Latin jazz.
Poetic and passionate, their music is a continuous surprise – lonesome and haunting, sentimental and gushing, playful and energetic, they take the audience into a stirring musical journey that makes the spirit truly soar.
Having recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, their repertoire includes 43 albums and more than 400 songs, many laden with references to the political and social strife Chile suffered in the 1970s and 1980s under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
More than 20 members have played for the Inti-Illimani over the decades, with current members ranging in ages from 28-60. All are from Chile except Efren Viera, who was born in Cuba.
Their repertoire includes traditional instruments such as the quena, zampoña, charango, Peruvian cajon and siku.
Musical Director Manuel Meriño composes most of the melodies but the creative process involves everyone, said Daniel Cantillana, who joined the group almost 10 years ago.
“Some of us have a classical conservatory background, some jazz, some traditional” he said. “It’s a mix of elements.”
Their sound has evolved through the years, partly to accommodate different individuals’ talents, said Marcelo Coulon, 57, who joined the group in 1978.
“The mountains of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile are a place without real frontiers,” Coulon said. “We have such love for this sound, this great thing that was born so long ago.”
- VIDA Y MAS, October 21, 2007, Chicago, IL

World Music: Jara Memorial – Festival Hall

Twenty-five years ago this month the Chilean singer, poet and revolutionary, Victor Jara, was tortured and murdered by members of the military during the brutal coup that overthrew President Allende’s Popular Unity Government…..
Chile’s best known band, Inti-Illimani, were close friends of Jara’s. When the coup happened, they were out of the country on tour, and stayed on the road in exile for the next 15 years. The eight-strong ensemble proved that there is far more to Andean music than ponchos and panpipes, using guitars, violins and oboe as well as traditional instrumental to create rich textures of sound…..
They were joined by the flamenco and classical virtuosos Paco Pena and John Williams on some achingly melancholic tunes, and toward the end Peter Gabriel made a rare appearance to join them for two songs of his own, including Hold On, an appropriately powerful number about freedom and resistance.
Nigel Williamson - THE TIMES Tuesday September 8, 1998 – London, England

World Music Review: INTI-ILLIMANI at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

When people of all ages vigorously defend their tiny bit of space on a concrete bench an hour before a free folk concert, you know something’s up. The Chilean band Inti-Illimani inspired this devotion, and their performance at Harbourfront Centre’s Ritmo y Color Festival on Friday night warranted the audience’s determination.
Indeed, determination is a kind of touchstone for the band itself. For 30 years they’ve been playing music that’s made them a symbol of the struggle for human rights and peace in Latin America, a symbol that was acknowledged as soon as the group walked on stage. The entire audience gave Inti-Illimani a standing ovation before they even played a single note.
From the first strums on the charango, Inti-Illimani proceeded to keep the audience spellbound for the next 90 minutes. They drew from a trademark mix of traditional Latin American melodies cross-pollinated with European style chamber music and occasional nods to jazz. Inti-Illimani is proof that the sax and the sikus (pan pipes) need not be strangers.
One of the concert’s most charming moments came during a piece that began with a Sardinian rhythm, no doubt a legacy of the band’s 15-year exile in Italy. (The band jokingly refers to its time abroad as the “longest tour in history”.) Always inventive, in Inti-Illimani’s hands, the Sardinia dance mutated into music from southern Chile and then back again, much to the crowd’s delight.
In fact, wherever Inti-Illimani led, the core of the audience attentively followed – even to an extended instrumental jam that began with the sounds of an African thumb piano, and entered into something dangerously close to self-indulgent jazz noodling played over constantly shifting layers of strings and flutes. The most electrifying performance of the night was a cuatro-guitar duet. It began in a melancholic hush, but gradually transformed into an exuberant display of virtuoso technique.
Li Robbins – Special to The Globe and Mail


- THE GLOBE AND MAIL – THE ARTS – Monday July 27, 1998

The fact that Inti-Illimani has yet to enjoy the fruits of massive commercial success even in the Latin pop world is bewildering, considering that few Latin American acts can rival the Chilean group in terms of the sheer beauty of its sound.
On Friday, the veteran ensemble was enthusiastically applauded during a two-hour presentation …. From the opening tune, the gorgeous ‘Danza di Cala Luna’ to a wonderful charango solo….If there is one Latin brand of music that could be prescribed as “chicken soup for the soul,” this is it. Heartwarming and inviting, Andean music is based on the delicate combination of various string instruments (charango, ronroco, guitarron) and flutes (quena, zampona), creating a light, wistful feeling. Much like a Zen affirmation, Inti-Illimani’s music floats within your soul, filling it with calmness and hope.
Ernesto Lechner

- LOS ANGELES TIMES Monday, November 9, 1998