Music
Press
Lovely, lilting music from the Dutch Antilles...it's easy to understand the love and respect he enjoys as a musical troubadour of his homeland. Featuring a small band that includes acoustic guitar, flute, electric bass and delicate percussion, this is an exquisite disc that will appeal to anyone who enjoys Cuban trova or campesino music. - Songlines
Vibrant music, expressive singing, lots of feeling. That is what you get with this disc…Oswin Chin Behilia is a genuine troubadour: communicative, entertaining, passionate, observant. He is bursting with the possibilities of his art. Live demonstrates it all. - www.jahworks.org
Gran nounours de 65 ans, Oswin Chin Behilia est un monument national de Curaçao. Iles des Antilles néerlandais perdue au large du Venezuela…Voix feutre, guitare flâneuse, la musique indolent d’Oswin trouble : on jurerait entendre du son cubain mais comme curieusement décentré, et relevé d’un nuage de calypso. Tout s’explique quand on apprend que dans les années 1920 une sécheresse dramatique avait envoyé la moitié des hommes de l’île gagner leur vie dans les plantations cubaines…Une délicieuse découverte. La Nouvel Observateur
- La Nouvel Observateur
Behilia has the gift of composing simple, directly appealing melodies...whether solo or accompanied by an excellent band his relaxed delivery has a salutary effect, you've got rhythms here that bounce, skip or drive along - Chin's Caribbean-Brazilian grooves float past like a feather on the breeze. - De Volkskrant, Amsterdam
…is awash with bright, guitar and flute-led songs…a soft and lilting mosaic of genres such as salsa, calypso, soca and zouk, it’s a truly pan-tropical sound…He mixes classic Curaçao songs with recent compositions, singing in a soft, warm, rhythmic voice; his is the sweeter tone in the gorgeous duets he sings here with the young, smoky-voiced female star, Izaline Calister…
- Songlines
Le chanteur – guitariste Oswin Chin Behilia est un des plus célèbres chanteurs compositeurs de Curaçao (île principale des Antilles néerlandais située au large des côtes du Venezuela). Il vent de sortir un nouvel album intitulé « Bendishon disfrasá «. Sur ce recueil, les amateurs de musique cubaines et péruviennes s’étonneront de voir que ce genre de musique peut aussi entre chantée en papiamentu, la langue créole de Curaçao. Un album qui nous insuffle la brise des îles, à découvrir cet été, avec FIP ! La sélection FIP Radio France August 2004 - FIP Radio France International
…a fascinating retrospective of one of the legends of Curaçaoan music… a fine introduction to Chin’s work, a catalog of old and new classics underpinned by his swinging, salsa-infected groove. - Sing Out
During a songwriting career that began in the early 1960s Oswin Chin Behilia has been a chronicler of his times besides writing about love and nature. Many of his songs engage the social aspects of life on Curacao in a genre he calls his “social lyrics”. On this third Otrabanda release several of his songs deal quite specifically and with a greater sense of urgency with recent major historical developments in the political relationship between his native Curacao with the Netherlands. In the time honored fashion of a protest folk singer, through radio play, concert appearances, and even recently on local high school curricula, his lyrics reach both his home audience and Antillean immigrants in the Netherlands, often to chagrin of the powers that be on both sides of the Atlantic.
Much like the calypso that chronicled the goings on of the erstwhile British West Indies,
Behilia has penned quite a few Dutch Caribbean classic tracks, often choosing the native Curacaoan tumba and sehú forms or Cuban son montuno as vehicles to tell his tales.
As a teenager at the end of colonialism in the Dutch West Indies he witnessed the change when a measure of home rule (autonomy) was reached in 1954. The events of the late sixties culminating in the riots in Willemstad in 1969 saw a sea change in the political coming of age and a demand for even greater social and political independence from Holland. Throughout Behilia continued writing songs about the social and political climate he observed. 2006 marked a major shift in the political relationship of the Netherlands to its six islands in the Dutch Caribbean, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Martin, Saba and St. Eustatius. Referenda were held to determine what the people of the islands wanted terms of their future status relating to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curacao and St. Maarten opted for the status of independent countries within the Kingdom (status aparte, like Aruba) while Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba are to become special municipalities of the Netherlands overseas. The dust has far from settled as yet.
In the opening (Zikinzá) and closing Sigi traha e Bom (They’re Making a Bomb) tracks on Liber, Behilia passionately and eloquently takes issue with specific historical developments that in his view, are in the process of ushering in a second phase of (neo)colonial rule. Zikinzá is both the title of a Curacoan children’s song as well as the onomatopoeia in Papiamentu for the sound of sawing wood. The metaphor being that the legs are being sawed out from under the table. Behilia has never been afraid to tell it like it is, often criticizing the shortcomings of his own island as songs like Zona mi protesta and Bendishon disfrasá on previous Otrabanda releases attest, as well as the track Korupshon included here.
First and foremost his songs are just plain good music to listen to, sometimes to dance to and more often than not, food for thought. – Scott Rollins
- Otrabanda Records
Discography
Oswin Chin Behilia - Bendishon disfrasá - (OTB01)
Oswin Chin Behilia - Live - (OTB07)
Photos
Bio
Oswin Chin Behilia belongs to that select group of singer/songwriters whose music combines memorable tunes with lyrics that reflect both social and personal concerns. Mention his name to a fellow native of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles and his face lights up with fond recognition. Both young and old consider his song Plegaria, for instance, as the folk alternative to the national anthem, while Sunú is universally regarded as one of the classic love songs in Papiamento, the creole language spoken on the islands of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire located off the coast of Venezuela.
Born on 15 December 1938, this man of many talents has led an eventful life both in and out of the world of music and was he knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands for contributions in several fields to his native island as musician, broadcaster, politician, impresario and mentor to young talent.
Oswin Chin Behilia's first band Los Tiarucos was founded in 1963. Los Tiarucos performed in the sixties and seventies at hotel and festival engagements at home and in St. Martin, Miami, New York, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Brazil, the musical influences of which can be discerned in his compositions.
Oswin Chin Behilia's songs have been covered by a host of his native island's finest musicians, some of whom include the rising young star Izaline Calister who has interpreted Sunú, No Bai and Plegaria in jazz settings with her compatriot, the pianist Randall Corsen. Oswin Chin Behilia attracted attention from European promoters at the 2002 and 2003 WOMEX fairs in Essen and Seville where he was featured both times on Charlie Gillett's BBC Radio show and his album Bendishon disfrasa/Blessing in Disguise was selected by Songlines for their Top 50 Summer Albums of 2005 and was also chosen world music record of the month by Radio France International in August 2004.
“Chin” was also a guest soloist at the 2004 edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival with Tumbabó, the big band led by pianist Randal Corsen dedicated to playing arrangements of music from the Dutch Antilles. In paying tribute to Chin in the Dutch press Corsen said the following: “Chin is an astute songwriter whose compositions often reveal the essence of life in the Dutch Antilles. Many of his compositions include Antillean waltzes reminiscent of the bossa novas of Antonio Carlos Jobim, though he frequently makes use of the Cuban son as a musical structure. Chin’s repertoire includes lovely danzas, boleros, tumbas and the traditional sehú. As such his music is unmistakably from the Dutch Antilles, though universal in appeal.”
During the Caribbean Express festival held in Utrecht’s Vredenburg Theater in May 2007, Chin performed with the Randal Corsen Sextet and was joined by guests Tanja Kross and Izaline Calister. In April 2008 he performed at the Colony Theatre in Miami and on June 29, 2008 will perform in the Concertgebouw again with the Randal Corsen Sextet.
Oswin at present has two international CD releases on the Dutch label Otrabanda Records "Bendishon Disfrasá/Blessing in Disguise (OTB01) and Live (OTB07) (www.otrabandarecords.com). Featuring a band which includes acoustic guitar, flute, electric bass and delicate percussion, this is exquisite music that will appeal to anyone who enjoys Cuban trova or campesino music. The satin voice singer guarantees a lyrical foray into Caribbean grooves off the beaten track. A third international release at Otrabanda called Liber is expected later in 2009. To view Oswin Chin Behilia: A Caribbean Troubadour here is the YouTube link:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=TXzOc4UqzQ4
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