Anyways, a new arts benefactor has appeared on the scene, so I’m back. This “JUST KISS MY SWEET PAPAYA” piece deals with the concert by La Orquesta de la Papaya that took place Thursday night, April 14th at the Bliss. The review is divided into two sections: a straight music analysis part and a “clashing classes” part. In a kind of  nod to William Burroughs’ fracture syntax I have arbitrarily opted to mix the two sections.

Clashing Classes: It might not be any longer justifiable but the Bliss has one heavy duty class stigma attached to it. Anyway one cuts it, the Bliss is viewed by many working class and poorer folks as a high falutin’ bastion for effete snobs and the silver spoon set. A place where the rich and well connected go for their periodic dose of culture and to profile their lasted designer garb. Bling, bling for the filthy rich.

Music analysis: The Orquesta de la Papaya is composed of musicians from all seven Central American countries. Three marimba players who all are members of the Martinez family: Domingo, Yader and Marcos hail from Nicaragua. Founder of the orchestra, composer and keyboardist Manuel Obregon calls Costa Rica home. The violinists Miguel Angel Leguisano and Antonio De La Cruz, accordionist Ormelis Cortez and vocalists Raul Vital and Yomira Johns originate from Panama.  Four back up vocalists and percussionist Lenin Fernandez reside in Guatemala.  Bass guitarist Oscar “Chele” Menjivar hangs his hat at home in El Salvador. Garifuna drummer Juan Dolomo, guitarist Ramon Eduardo Cedeno call Honduras home. And last but far from least vocalists Andy Palacio, Paul Nabor and Sam Harris, percussionist Geovani Chi along with performance artist Grandmaster represented Belize in the orchestra.    

The pisser found in that Eurocentric mindset was that virtually all the local artists that attempted to create art, music, drama, prose or poetry using indigenous, local-grown themes, content, imagery or situations were shunned by the cultural power brokers. Local creative types that found inspiration in things Belizean were seen as barbarians attacking the gates of the Bliss’ Eurocentric hoity-toity land. An outsider artist like Sandra March who in the early ‘70s was painting her unfettered expressionistic work while living in a cave at Gales Point was persona non grata at the Bliss until the mid 1990s. A radical playwright like Evan X Hyde had his locally inspired work banned from being performed at the Bliss for thirty years. It wasn’t until 2004 that the ice melted and his play “Weh John John Deh?” which was written in 1973, made it to the stage at the Bliss. March and Hyde’s work apparently was just too bitter of an indigenous pill to swallow for the hoity-toity set. Their ‘native’ fixation was too uncultured for the culture brokers.

La Orquesta de la Papaya concert was an homage to traditional Central American folk music idioms. An homage where those desperate indigenous music styles were mixed, counter pointed and transformed through composer/director Obregon’s jazz inspired, spirited and seemingly spontaneous compositions. In one he would lay out a sprightly marimba bass line, then overlay a cumbia reference drum beat, then incorporate some call-response Gospel-esque vocalizing, counter point them with emotionally charged Punta guitar riffs and top the whole concoction off with smoldering Mejorana referenced keyboards and wailing violin and accordion sections. He simultaneously juxtaposes African, Mayan, Mestizo rhythmic patterns with Christian spiritual melodies to form an indigenous jazz improvisation. A tasty smorgasbord of rhythms, beats and melodies.  La Orquesta de la Papaya uses folk music as the starting point to bend, twist, interweave and recreate those traditional idioms into an entirely new, empathetically energized sound. The Papaya sound is both traditional and cutting edge at the same time; familiar and foreign.

Andy Palacio performs at La Papaya

As leaving the La Orquesta de la Papaya concert Thursday night a mid-thirty-ish, one time wunderkind kid media mogul was hanging-out outside the Bliss passing oh-so clever sarcastic comments like, “It sounded like a Bar Mitzvah concert.” and “Didn’t it remind you of wedding music?” I interpreted his mini cryptic one-liners to mean that the recital was too ‘ethnic’ for the aging wunderkind; too non-mainstream, especially North American mainstream music. Yes, La Orquesta de la Papaya is light years from the mogul’s beloved ‘Wu Tang Clan’ or ‘G-Unit’ or ‘The Black-eyed Peas’ Hip Hop, chip-on-shoulder tunes. To ears conditioned by the vicious beats and violent messages of Dance Hall and Hip Hop La Orquesta de la Papaya does plow odd ethnic fields. For Papaya’s sound is primarily based on indigenous Central American music idioms, Central American beats and Central American life experiences. The Papaya music content is also diametrically opposed to the nihilism that permeates Hip Hop. Papaya is all about vitality, euphoria and a joy of spirit. In other words the same thing the caustic mogul was making snide comments about: ethnic or ‘native’ music, meaning in this case, non-European, non Gringo music. Papaya gone native.

Poor, misdirected wunderkind. What his casual, unthinking put down of the concert is indicative of, is a neo-imperialist attitude that believes “all things from Uncle Sam-land and Union Jack-land are superior to their local counterparts”. His attitude is merely a smarty-pants updating of the colonial attitude that held back Belizean writers, musicians and artists for decades. It smacks of “Hail Britannica” Eurocentric superiority.   

Papaya mirrors the various cultural quirks found in each country. There is much more ethnic diversity in the countries that compose Central America than first meets the eye. Belize, Guatemala and Honduras are the home of the Garifuna. Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have African/Creole communities scattered along their CaribbeanGuatemala, Belize, Northern Honduras and El Salvador are the home of the Maya. Each cultural group has developed their own unique sound. The isthmus is the home for Afro-Caribbean rhythms like Calypso, Soca, Paranda and Brukdown; and Spanish expressions like Tamborito, Ranchera and Merengue. coasts.

Papaya’s sound is saucy, spicy and spunky. The audio equivalent of a meal composed of tamales (extra chili), ducunu, escabache, boil-up, baleadas, and pupusas topped off with a plate of rice-n-beans. Taste bud heaven, local cuisine. And in this age of fashionable globally induced pessimism, local music, like local cuisine, is much too up-beat and vulnerably sincere to appeal to jaded Hip Hop ears and tongues.

The soulful set of Paranda tunes performed by Paul Nabor and Andy Palacio were a stand out. Nabor’s plaintive delivery goes to the depths of longing into the realm of melancholy. His vocals define heartfelt love and sadness without sliding into the maudlin. He’s the real McKoy; seasoned by a lifetime of salt air and rough seas while fishing alone in a small dory on the Bay of Honduras. Nabor is in a special league of his own.  

Grandmaster expanded his range and utilized the talents of the entire orchestra in his fiery, superbly animated piece called “Whirl & Twirl”. His call-response duet with Panamanian Jomira Johns was exceptional. He triumphantly jumped out of the “Pressure” rut he’s been trapped in for the last year. A performance with bravado galore.  Chuck Berry with a decidedly Belizean spin.       

“Kiss my Black ass.” replied filmmaker Spike Lee when asked how he felt about not winning the Academy Award for his masterpiece movie “Malcolm X”. To paraphrase Lee, for that cynic who put down the La Orquesta de la Papaya“If ya no like it, just kiss my sweet papaya.”  concert as frivolous ‘native’ tunes,