A look inside Aurelio's new album 'Darandi' from Real World on Vimeo.

Since childhood, Aurelio Martinez has been performing the music of his Garifuna ancestors. Descended from shipwrecked African slaves and the Island Caribs of St Vincent, the Garifuna faced imprisonment and exile in the late 18th century, eventually finding home in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Darandi is a collection of Aurelio's favourite songs from his career recorded to capture the sound of his incendiary live performances. Accompanied by some of the Garifuna world's brightest musical talents, pairing upbeat, dynamic rhythms with melancholy, heartfelt melodies, this music is both deep and danceable.

Aurelio Martinez is, without exaggeration, the greatest living interpreter of Garifuna music. Specifically, he is a master of the paranda, a style based around the acoustic guitar that often draws comparisons to the blues for its often bittersweet melodies and sharp social commentary concealed within songs about everyday life. Although not as well known as Cuban son or Colombian cumbia, it is without doubt one of the continent's great music traditions; a style deeply African and Latin American at once.

"I feel like the main cultural representative now of the Garifuna community of Central America," he says. "And I think I can do more with my music that I ever could as a lawmaker."

Over the course of his three studio albums (Garifuna Soul, Laru Beya, and Landini), Aurelio set out to make a difference for the Garifuna people. By sharing Garifuna music with the wider world, he could bring attention the challenges that his people are facing. For instance, the Garifuna in Honduras and beyond have been undergoing a fierce struggle over land ownership. As it happens, their seaside villages are located on postcard-perfect beaches. As Honduras seeks to grow its tourism industry, those lands are coming under pressure from powerful business and government interests. Garifuna leaders have been harassed and ev.......
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Daandi to kolekcja ulubionych piosenek Aurelia w całej swojej karierze, które uchwycają dźwięk i atmosferę jego koncertów. Na albumie towarzyszą mu najlepsi artyści z nurtu Garifuna. Rytm miesza się tu z melodią, a ta tworzy spójną całość ze smutkiem rozstania zawartym w owych dźwiękach. Aurelio Martinez jest, bez wątpienia, jednym z największych żyjących muzyków z nurtu Garifuna. Mimo, że nie aż tak znany jak kubańska czy kolumbijska cumbia, z pewnością jest mistrzem w uchwycaniu tradycji muzycznych Ameryki Łacińskiej i Afryki na raz.


Since childhood, Aurelio Martinez has been performing the music of his Garifuna ancestors. Descended from shipwrecked African slaves and the Island Caribs of St Vincent, the Garifuna faced imprisonment and exile in the late 18th century, eventually finding home in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Darandi is a collection of Aurelio's favourite songs from his career recorded to capture the sound of his incendiary live performances. Accompanied by some of the Garifuna world's brightest musical talents, pairing upbeat, dynamic rhythms with melancholy, heartfelt melodies, this music is both deep and danceable.

Aurelio Martinez is, without exaggeration, the greatest living interpreter of Garifuna music. Specifically, he is a master of the paranda, a style based around the acoustic guitar that often draws comparisons to the blues for its often bittersweet melodies and sharp social commentary concealed within songs about everyday life. Although not as well known as Cuban son or Colombian cumbia, it is without doubt one of the continent's great music traditions; a style deeply African and Latin American at once.

"I feel like the main cultural representative now of the Garifuna community of Central America," he says. "And I think I can do more with my music that I ever could as a lawmaker."

Over the course of his three studio albums (Garifuna Soul, Laru.......
more