Grupo Naidy

Grupo Naidy, based in Cali, Colombia, play a marimba and drum music known as currulao, a strikingly African-inflected style that has flourished on the Pacific coast of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador (the group's repertoire also embraces juga, arrulo, salve, bunde, alabao, and canto de boga pieces). Led by percussionist Irlando "Maky" Lopez, Grupo Naidy include marimba virtuosos Jose Antonio Torres and Budilo Cauma Renteria and cantaora singer Juana Maria Angulo. Grupo Naidy had just finished recording their first album in 2004 (Arriba Suena Marimba: Currulao Marimba Music from Columbia, released on Smithsonian Folkways in 2006) when two other members of the group, brothers Alex Cuama Valencia and Jiminson Cuama Valencia, were shot and killed in Buenaventura. ~ Steve Leggett