CMA Ohio City Stages

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  • Press Release
Monday June 15, 2015
exterior of the CMA building

Contact the Museum's Media Relations Team:
(216) 707-2261
marketingandcommunications@clevelandart.org

CLEVELAND (June 15, 2015) — Cleveland Museum of Art’s Ohio City Stages returns for a weekly summer block party in front of the Transformer Station during the month of July. The museum’s acclaimed global music series will bring international artists to this neighborhood stage on select Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

CMA Ohio City Stages

Wednesday, July 8: Los Wembler's
7:30 p.m.  

Los Wembler’s, the legendary band from Iquitos, Peru, will be traveling to the US to perform for the first time. The five Sanchez brothers, who make up the band, are Amazonian Cumbia pioneers who helped launch the Chicha explosion of the 1970s. Rarely leaving the Amazon, their performance during Ohio City Stages will serve as a unique opportunity to enjoy the alluring sounds of this group. The brothers are still faithful to their original sound, incorporating electric instruments that generate a certain Anglo exoticism, and haven’t lost a bit of their passion and enthusiasm. Los Wembler’s will be performing an original repertoire that spans forty years and includes some of their hits, including “Sonidio Amazonico” and “Danza del Petrolero,” which were featured on the Roots of Chicha compilations released by Barbès Records.

Wednesday, July 15: Ondatrópica
7:30 p.m. 

Colombian musician, Mario Galeano, the force behind the band Frente Cumbiero, and English producer Will Holland (A.K.A. Quantic), have joined forces to create the Ondatrópica project. This project exists to explore and expand the tropical sound of Colombia in its rawest form, and combines it with the cool sound of London. Ondatrópica brought together a group of top musicians representing both classic and modern styles of Colombian music including, Fruko, Anibal Velásquez, Michi Sarmiento, Alfredito Linares, Pedro Ramayá Beltran, Markitos Mikolta and Wilson Viveros, to regenerate the excitement that positioned Colombian music as one of the most influential of the continent in past decades.

Wednesday July 22: Tamikrest
7:30 p.m.

Ever since the release of their first album, Adagh, in 2009, Tamikrest has been regarded as the spearhead of the new Tuareg generation; these legitimate heirs of Tinariwen have long been opening up new paths between desert blues and Western rock. Their third album, Chatma, reminds us of that, with strong beats in “Djanegh Etoumast,” then melodies sublimated by djembes, a goblet shaped hand drum, and calabashes in “Adounia Tabarat.” The album also includes sandstorms traversed by burning-hot guitars in “Itou,” then intimate laments, resounding in the freezing-cold nights of the desert in “Timtar.” In the studio, Chris Eckman of the Glitterbeat label, who has been the group’s accomplice since they began recording, channels their spirit in the excellent “Tisnant an Chatma,” before reproducing a sort of desert dub on the slow, heavenly “Assikal.”

Wednesday July 29: Los Cojolites
7:30 p.m.

Los Cojolites was born in 1995 as part of a project dedicated to recover artistic expressions and cultural rights of indigenous people in the ancient town of Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico. The group’s sound ranges from an influence of Arabic and Flamenco music, mixed with the various afro rhythms and Indian celebrations in Veracruz, to the Son Jarocho, a musical genre that has identified the region for more than three hundred years. The group has released four albums, two of which have been nominated for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Their first album, El Conejo (The Rabbit, 2001), was also included in the soundtrack of Frida, the Oscar-winning film music directed by Salma Hayek. Though the group travels around the globe to perform, Los Cojolites continues to be a part of the biggest festivals in their native country.  


The series is sponsored by Dominion Foundation and Ohio City Inc. Special thanks to Patron Sponsors: Black Hawk Resources, Ltd.; CLV-Lofts, LLC; Great Lakes Brewing Company, and the Sears-Swetland Family Foundation.