Damba Yaribe

Futures are incubating, eggs have been cracked...Damba Yaribe is music of new beginnings from the oldest sources. We believe that for bomba to go forward, we must go deeper into the wellsprings of its birth and from the headwaters where its first drops trickled down from the sky...we will follow those paths wherever they may lead us...from Cataño to Juana Diaz, from Moca to Loíza, from New Orleans to Kinshasa.Damba Yaribe is the chill that darts up your spine when you hear great music with heart-pounding rhythms, when the music reverberates down to the marrow of your bones...the goosebumps on your arms are its footprints. Damba Yaribe is the first big breath that you take when coming up for air after a long time underwater, or just when you thought you'd been buried alive. Damba Yaribe = "the holy serpent has arrived". Have no fear, Damba is here!Damba Yaribe is drawing four aces from the deck in a poker hand after a string of bad luck...announcing the fullness of their presence in colors of black and red. Damba Yaribe is the return of a lost love, the precious coin found under your grandmother's frayed rug in the attic. Damba Yaribe is the sound of the prodigal bombero coming home for a family reunion.The distinctive 30-song repertoire of Damba Yaribe is based on a collaborative archival research project by Dr. Halbert Barton and Alexander LaSalle, begun in 2003 and under contract with the American Museum of Natural History and the Archive of Traditional Research. Damba Yaribe also picks up where the Centro de Investigación Raíces Eternas (CICRE, 1998-2002) left off, from a five-year postdoctoral research project by Barton and José Emmanuelli, co-founders of Bombazo de Puerto Rico.We are a group that brings together many years of performing experience and cultural research from groups such as LaSalle's Alma Moyó, Nadal's Bamboula, and Barton's El Bombazo de Brooklyn (formerly Los Bomberos de Brooklyn). The resulting sancocho (or "stew") is a blend of ingredients that must be heard live and danced to be truly savored. A few of our songs have received test-drives, most notably with Los Bomberos de Brooklyn (starting at the Hostos College Bomplenazo in October 2004) and Alma Moyó (at the same Hostos event in October 2006, available on you-tube.com). Our debut performance at the 8th Annual Gran Bombazo de Brooklyn was recorded on digital video by Damián and will soon be made available on DVD and with clips on you-tube.com. Check this site regularly for updates.