Monday, October 25, 2010

Ozomatli - Capturing the sound of Los Angeles

"You drive down Sunset Boulevard and turn off your stereo and roll down your windows and all the music that comes out of each and every different car, whether it's salsa, cumbia, merengue, or Hip Hop, funk or whatever, it's that crazy blend that's going on between that cacophony of sound is Ozomatli, y'know?"

Yup, we know.

Ozomatli band members Jiro Yamaguchi and Ulises Bella used those perfect words to describe their group - a seven to ten piece band from Los Angeles playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music with heavy salsa, jazz, funk, arab and reggae influences.

Ozomatli take their name from the Nahuatl word for the Aztec astrological symbol of the monkey, which is also a god of dance, fire, the new harvest, and music.

The members of the band met through their affiliation with the Peace and Justice Center of Los Angeles, and their first performance was for picketers during a strike. So needless to say, in all their music they maintain a politically and socially conscious message - while still delivering the funk!

We've been fans for years, and we featured the Ozomatli track Guerillero on the ¡GLOBAILE! Podcast this month.

Check out this dope music video for their song Can't Stop. They utilize that stop-animation, moving collage type imagery that we can't get enough of!

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