A decade ago, I found myself having lunch in a San Francisco restaurant whose windows opened out onto a courtyard that was filled with a kind of music that I had never heard before. I couldn’t see the group that was playing five stories down, but I was entranced by the soaring flutes and the simple rhythms of the instrumental melodies. I later learned that I was listening to traditional Andean Peruvian music and I was hooked.

While doing my research for this week’s Saturday Morning Music post, I learned that there is so much more to Peruvian music than what I had heard all those years ago. Steeped in native Andean, Spanish, and African influences, the music of Peru is a lovely combination of soul, song, and rhythm, and it’s a great way to spend this Saturday Morning.

Enjoy

 

Andean-Peruvian Music with pan pipes, guitar, and native drums:

 

Afro Peruvian artist, Eric Kurimpski performs New York Titan for congahead.com

 

The Afro-Peruvian dance of Chincha

 

And finally, I found this video which lead me to finding so many other great artists including Carlos Hayre, Pepe Villalobos, Freddie “Huevito” Lobaton. Amazing stuff!!!

 

If you need to brush up on some of your Spanish in order to sing along, go to the Livemocha Spanish page and start to practicing!

Happy Saturday everyone.

 

You can also see this post translated into Spanish here.