Popular and Unpopular Music From Around the World (Visit homepage.)

January 30, 2021:
Los Wembler's de Iquitos Tribute + More Family Bands


Los Wembler’s are a band from Iquitos in the Amazon region of Peru, the world's largest isolated city (only reachable by boat). The band was founded by Solomon Sanchez with his sons in the early 1970s. Los Wembler's helped establish a style of music called chicha - kind of a surf and psych guitar driven mix of cumbia and other rhythms popular in their region. They recorded many albums during that decade, and two of their songs became popular throughout Peru - although the hit were versions recorded by another band, Los Mirlos, who were based in the more media-accessible capital, Lima.





In recent years Los Wembler's have had a revival thanks in large part to the work of our friend Olivier Conan of legendary Brooklyn bar / venue (and sister record label and artist management companies) Barbés. Olivier had spurred a revival of interest in the chicha genre (see his highly influential compilations Roots of Chicha 1 and 2 and his band Chicha Libre) and convinced the band to re-launch its career. Father Solomon had died many years ago, but five brothers were still around to form the core unit that started touring and recording. Until, sadly, three lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic, most recently Elmer Alberto Sanchez who passed away just this week. We pay tribute to the band with a set of old and new songs and we'll follow up with a more abstract tribute - a show full of music by family bands from around the world.

Listen to this show:  Pop-up player!

WFMU and WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise denounce explicit and implicit racism; condemn the culture of white supremacy, which enables the brutalization of black people and other communities of color, and support Black Lives Matter and the movement it stands for.

Here's a link to WFMU's Public Service page with links and info for / related to racial justice issues, coronavirus testing, food and economic assistance, musician aid, voting rights organizations and lots more: https://wfmu.org/psa/.

Also: BRIC has an extensive and regularly updated pandemic crisis resource list on its website with artists, performers etc. in mind but relevant for everyone. See it here: https://www.bricartsmedia.org/blog/resources-artists-during-public-health-crisis.

For a list, with links, of organizations supporting the rights of immigrants and refugees. click here.

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Check out the Transpacific Sound Paradise World Covers YouTube Playlist at http://tiny.cc/youtube-worldcovers.

Here's a video from our World Covers YouTube playlist:



I have a few other world musicky YouTube playlists under construction including an intriguing "World Music 70s" playlist - you can see them all and subscribe at: http://tiny.cc/wfmu-tsp-youtube.

Also check out our all-time African popular music faves Spotify playlist at: http://tiny.cc/wfmu-tsp-african-faves

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If you want to be on an email list for special ticket and music giveaways and to hear news about upcoming specials and special events send an email to Rob W here and be sure to write "list" in the subject line.


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