In 1713, the King of Spain granted the village of San Basilio de Palenque autonomy, making it the first free settlement of black Africans in Colombia. In that location, Sexteto Tabalá was founded in the 1940s by José Valdez Simancas, a talented player of the marímbula (the Colombian variant of the African thumb piano). Besides the marímbula, the line-up consists of vocals, claves, drums and
… maracas. Incidentally, the 'sexteto' does not refer to the number of band members, but to a music style with that name, which originated from a mix of Cuban son and Colombian cumbia. Funny thing is that all songs first take a kind of run-up where the bass and the maracas are played very slowly before the actual, much faster tempo is set. (GO) _more
