Making sweet music with a Grammy winner
Whanganui High School students listening to Panamanian musician Romulo Castro.
PHOTO: Lewis Gardner
Sounds from the music room of Whanganui High School blended with the expertise of a Grammy Award winner last week.
And the results will soon be recorded.
Panamanian singer/songwriter Romulo Castro is mixing musicianship from the students, including poi and haka beats, with this own band to get an Aotearoa/Latin mix for recording.
Castro was at the school on Thursday to take a workshop with students.
As well as explaining who he was and how Panama influenced his work, the musician took the students through some of his pieces and discussed various Latin rhythms.
He will return next week for further collaboration with the students and will then take the audiofiles and video footage back to work on with his own nine-piece band. After further recording and mixing, the piece will be released.
Whanganui High School music teacher Jeanette Jones said it was a marvellous opportunity for the school - and Whanganui - to have a Grammy award winner in its midst.
It happened after a number of "Hispanophiles" living in Whanganui got together to organise the Latin American/Spanish film festival.
That led to a connection with poet and Massey University senior lecturer in Spanish, Dr Leonel Alvarado, who is originally from Honduras and knew of Castro's work.
The singer/songwriter's visit to Whanganui included a public talk, a concert and the workshop with the high school students.
Castro was born in Mexico of a Panamanian father and Spanish mother, who was in exile from Franco's dictatorship.
He was raised in Cuba and returned to Panama as a teenager. There, he began a musical career that has spanned more than four decades.
Publicity material with his tour of New Zealand said his "multicultural roots have rubbed off on his music, which combines a great variety of rhythms from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, Latin American to indigenous cultures."
With his nine-piece band El Tuira, named after the major life-giving river in Panama, he has produced four albums to international acclaim.
Performing throughout Latin America, the US, Spain, Israel and Algeria, it was his collaborations with Ruben Blades that led to Grammy Awards in 1996, 1999 and 2015 in the Best Latin Performance and Latin Album categories.
"Castro is in the forefront of social consciousness performers in Latin America, with his music seeking to raise awareness about social, environmental and political issues," the release said.
"A hip-hop version of his Grammy Award-winning song La Rosa de los Vientos features a video filmed in the Curundu neighbourhood of Panama City, and celebrates a successful project where slum dwellers built their own new housing development."
After the session, Castro was thanked by student Taliah Sua, who encouraged more students to learn Spanish so they could get to know in that part of the world.
It was a sentiment shared by many people in the room, high school Spanish teacher Beverley Stuart said.
By Anna Wallis
Wanganui Chronicle 27/2/17
