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Garifuna Music & African Roots
Aurelio Martinez
| Honduras
Booking-Agent:
Amaya Collantes
+49 30 261032927
ac@f-cat.de
Zur Zeit leider nur in Englisch.
Aurelio Martinez is one of the most extraordinary and passionate Garifuna artists of his generation, he follows in the footsteps of the legendary Paranderos of the Carribean coast of Central America to become the new voice of Parandea. Acclaimed for both his preservation and modernization of the Paranda musical tradition, Aurelio’s virtuosity is found in his distinctive, penetrating vocals and his talent as a composer.
Born in 1976 into a family possessing a long and distinguished musical tradition in the small Garifuna community of Plaplaya in Honduras, at the age of six, he was already playing drums at social gatherings and picking up his father’s guitar as soon as he was big enough to hold it. Inspired by his grandmother and his father, Aurelio gathered a vast repertoire, which later enabled him to develop his playing and his own style.
As an original member of the Garifuna All Star Band, Aurelio has taken his Paranda music to stages in France, Japan, The USA, Mexico and neighbouring Central American countries.
Martinez is acclaimed as a central figure in the recent resurgence of the music of the Garifuna, an Afro-Aeridian community whose culturally threatened population lives primarily along the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. His debut album Garifuna Soul received critical acclaim worldwide and he is a member of the Garifuna Collective, a multi-generational group of Garifuna musicians whose work with the late Andy Palacio on the Cumbancha/Stonetree album Wátina is now legendary in world music circles. Martinez just lead the Andy Palacio Tribute Tour, promising to carry the torch for Garifuna culture after Palacio’s tragic and untimely death in January 2008. The Andy Palacio Tribute Tour featuring Aurelio Martinez, Umalali and the Garifuna Collective took place in Europe in summer 2008.
Martinez is the first member of his local Garifuna community to be elected as a representative to the Honduran National Congress, where he is a staunch advocate for the nation’s minority population.
June 2008 - With the help of luxury watch company Rolex, Afropop legend Youssou N’Dour and Aurelio Martinez, will be working closely together over the next year (2008/2009) in an inspiring musical reunion between Africa and the Americas. The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative pairs highly talented young artists, from around the world with great masters of all kind of arts, for a year of creative collaboration in a one on one mentoring, relationship. West African superstar N’Dour personally selected Martinez to be his protégé, inviting the Honduran musician to tour and record throughout the coming year.
The two artists plan to tour together in Europe this year (2008) and collaborate on new music in N’Dour’s recording studio in Dakar. Producer Ivan Duran (Womex Award winner 2007) has already begun work on Martinez’s next album, which will be released in 2009 on Cumbancha/Stonetree.
Aurelio’s collaboration with Stonetree Records dates back to 1997, when he contributed to the now famous Paranda recording sessions, delivering three masterful performances, including his well known composition “Africa” and an inspiring duet with Andy Palacio.
