catalina maria johnson

Latina writer, radio host/producer, explorer of global grooves in every flavor

[catalinamariajohnson]

Yoruba Spirit! Songs for the Orishas

This week’s Beat Latino spends time with a special kind of Cuban music, both within and outside of the island — songs inspired by the Yoruban Orishas – saints-spirits-deities that intercede between humans and the divine and who are invoked and honored by song, dance and drumming. Beat Latino shares a selection of songs that reference this beautiful and musical spirituality transplanted from Africa to the Americas, created by musicians from Miami to Havana and beyond in the Caribbean. Enjoy!

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11:00 am or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

What an amazing Spring we have coming our way! Winter may not want to leave our cities, but the music is getting hotter than ever. This week's Beat Latino shares tunes from all over our musical universe, and many of them are really pushing the envelope of Latinidad. Whether the hip hop is all about the future is female - check out Nakury from Costa Rica and Niña Dioz from Mexico accompanied by Lido Pimienta and Ceci Bastida - to experimental tropi-jazzified salsa by Efraín Rozas, to other shades of tropical from Mexico's Centavrvs, to Cuban classicas made fresh by Orquesta Akokán, nuestra música is an experiment in becoming. who we are. and always have been... informed in tradition but always forward-leaning, future-bound. Enjoy!

Feature photo: La Mecánica Popular by Mariano Paul, courtesy of the artist

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11:00 am or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

Folk Alliance International

This week's Beat Latino takes a paseo to check out Latinx folk music at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. From Panama/KC's Making Movies to Tejano legends Flaco Jimenez and the Texmaniacs to Nicaragua's folkoric rock from Elena y los Fulanos to Ecuadorian rocking guitarist Eljuri to Mireya Ramos from Mariachi Flor de Toloache, I had a chance to experience a wonderful array of folk sounds that we can begin to consider nuevo folk and an integral and important part of the music of the United States. Includes a part of of conversation with Kansas City's own Making Movies. Check it out!

Feature photo: Los Texmaniacs by Catalina Maria Johnson

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11” or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

COLLABORATIONS!

It is fascinating to listen to the results of musicians collaborating, each artist adding a complementary or paradoxical piece to the mixture, and this week's Beat Latino is all about this beautiful synergy! When Mexican American folk diva Lila Downs joins forces with French-Chilean rapper Anita Tijoux or Afrocuban pianist Omar Sosa's amazing notes mesh and harmonize with Seckou Keita's delicate kora or the richness of Quetzal's Cali grooves bounce against the vibrant R&B of Aloe Blacc... wondrousness ensues when musical minds come together! And in all cases in this week's Beat Latino, 1 plus 1 definitely equals way more than 2.

Feature photo: Dat Garcia, courtesy of the artist.

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11” or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

New Music, Nuevas Rolas

This week's Beat Latino delves deep into the new sounds of the supremely eclectic Latinx musical universe! It's a wild and wonderful time for nuestra música , with cumbia-gone-rogue from Bay Area-style from Bang Data, afrobeat mambo gone-equally rogue from Oakland, Cali's La Misa Negra, sunny crooning from Chilean-Mexican Adan Jodorowsky, magnificent pairings such as Lila Downs and Ana Tijoux (Mexico and France-Chile) and new Cuban-tinged Caribbean grooves from Tanga (Vancouver, Canada) and much more! The sounds are all over the map, in more ways than one! Enjoy! Feature photo: La Misa Negra, Courtesy of the Artist. Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11” or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

Positive vibes

This week's Beat Latino is a sunny selection of songs old and new to raise your spirits and share some positive vibrations! There's songs to positivity, beauty, good vibes, and better times from Colombia to Mexico to Chile to Havana to Jamaica! As the song by French-Chilean singer songwriter Adan Jodorwosky says, "Solo viene lo mejor" - "The best is yet to come!" Dance, relax and enjoy these positive vibrations!

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11:00 am or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

Positive vibes

This week's Beat Latino is a sunny selection of songs old and new to raise your spirits and share some positive vibrations! There's songs to positivity, beauty, good vibes, and better times from Colombia to Mexico to Chile to Havana to Jamaica! As the song by French-Chilean singer songwriter Adan Jodorwosky says, "Solo viene lo mejor" - "The best is yet to come!" Dance, relax and enjoy these positive vibrations!

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11:00 am or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

Tropical Tropics Tunes!

It’s a HEAT WAVE on Beat Latino! Despite that winter’s frozen breezes still surround us, the music is nothing but hot on this week’s Beat Latino! From oldies but goodies like boogaloo tropical, California-style (Al Valdez) or psychedelic Amazonic cumbia, Peru-style (Juaneco) to new tropical trance from Colombia and New York (Combo Chimbita), we promise to keep you moving and dancing and warm…

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[catalinamariajohnson]

It's a HEAT WAVE on Beat Latino! Despite that winter's frozen breezes still surround us, the music is nothing but hot on this week's Beat Latino! From oldies but goodies like boogaloo tropical, California-style (Al Valdez) or psychedelic Amazonic cumbia, Peru-style (Juaneco) to new tropical trance from Colombia and New York (Combo Chimbita), we promise to keep you moving and dancing and warm until the thaw comes! Enjoy!

Feature photo: Cover of Mista Savona Presents Havana Meets Kingston (out on VP Records), Courtesy of the Artist

Tune into:  Vocalo Sundays at 11” or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

APAP 2018 Recap!

http://beatlatino.s3.amazonaws.com/APAP%202018%20Recap_Beat%20Latino%20with%20Catalina%20Maria%20Johnson.mp3 Download this Episode of Beat Latino (MP3) Beat Latino celebrates the wonderful week or so of musical activities at APAP 2018, the industry showcase for Arts Professionals, that took place in New York City last week. We were able to experience so much wonderful music live! From the…

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[catalinamariajohnson]

Beat Latino celebrates the wonderful week or so of musical activities at APAP 2018, the industry showcase for Arts Professionals, that took place in New York City last week. We were able to experience so much wonderful music live! From the afro-flamenco and reggae-tinged rhythms of Buika to snazzy, edgy, muscular jazz of Grammy nominee Antonio Sanchez at Winter Jazzfest to the tropical psychedelic beats of Combo Chimbita at Secret Planet presented at Drom by Barbes and Electric Cowbell to the Guatemayan hip hop of Doctor Nativo at Mundial Montreal's showcase to the flute-laced rhymes of La Dame Blanche at Globalfest to.... so much more! It's a recap of the finest of the finest musical vanguardia to experienced at APAP 2018, including comments by APAP's Executive Director Mario Garcia Durham. Enjoy!

Featured photo: Buika at Winter Jazzfest, NYC 2018 by Catalina Maria Johnson.

Tune in to:  Vocalo Sundays at 11” or Beat Latino every week

[catalinamariajohnson]

Resolutions

It’s that time of year when our thoughts turn to changing for the better, so this week’s Beat Latino shares music for to accompany New Year’s resolutions. More music, less violence? More singing, more dancing? New romantic horizons? Well, we got you covered with a tune for every kind of trend you wish to encourage in the year to come!

"Tune in to:  Vocalo Sundays at 11" or Beat Latino every week".

[catalinamariajohnson]

DAY OF DEAD CELEBRATION!

It’s a fiesta for the dead! This week’s Beat Latino is a selection of songs to bring back the dead and keep the alive on the dance floor with tunes from California, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and more . ¡Viva el Día de los Muertos! It’s Beat Latino’s Day of the Dead special. Photo: Mexican skeleton puppet. Photo by Catalina Maria Johnson.

[catalinamariajohnson]

This week's Beat Latino is dedicated to tunes about dreams. Whether it's the American dream, dreams of a better life, dreams of a new world, a new romance or just plain dreaming, we've written music about it, from the stylized techno-merengue of Dominican Republic's Rita Indiana to the salsa with a conscience of New York's La Excelencia. Enjoy! And never stop dreaming!

Tune into Volcano.org Sunday 11:00 am!

[catalinamariajohnson]

World Music Fest 2017 Preview

This week 's Beat Latino is dedicated to the fabulous music we will get to hear at the Chicago World Music Festival 2017! Music from all over the world in dozens of venues around our city. From our side of the music, there'll be bands from Venezuela to Haiti to Cabo Verde to Argentina and with beats from Afro-Venezuelan tambor to mariachi to funaná to Latinx folk, it's going to be an AMAZING September in Chicago! Join us to celebrate the music of citizens of the world on Beat Latino! With special comments from Betsayda Machado (featured photo, courtesy of the artist) about La Parranda el Clavo from Venezuela.

Tune into Volcano.org Sunday 11:00 am !!

[catalinamariajohnson]

Sun, Moon, ECLIPSE!

Beat Latino celebrates the conjunction of celestial bodies that had us all staring at the sky in wonder and awe - last Monday, when the sun and moon coincided and many of us in North America got to experience TOTALITY! And it was totally awesome. So, the music in this week's Beat Latino is all about the moon with a bit of the sun. It was most memorable because for a brief moment in time when we were something else - creatures of this planet in love with our heavens.

Featured photo: Rebeca Lane, Courtesy of the Artist

Tune into Volcano.org Sunday 11 am!

[catalinamariajohnson]

The Beauty of Our Color: Brown and Proud

This week's Beat Latino focuses on the beauty of our color brown, moreno skin, and the musical odes to beautiful morenas to new anthems to the mixtures of international peoples from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Spain. As Bomba Estéreo sings in their new anthem "Internacionales": "Mezclados, somos todos mezclados, venimos de todos lados, la misma historia con otro sabor" (Mixed, we are all mixed, we come from everywhere, the same history with different flavors)". Amen!

Tune into Volcano.org, Sunday 11 am !!!!