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Music for the Masses: Champeta Therapy (Audio)

Nov 28, 2021

Champeta, also known as terapia or therapy, first emerged in the mid-1970s from the Afro-Colombian communities of Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast. Influenced primarily by guitar-driven African rhythms such as soukous and makossa, this joyful dance music has evolved over the decades, as these rhythms, guitar, and bass lines have become sublimely integrated into Colombia’s musical vocabulary. Today’s bands, DJs, and producers continue to create new variations, pushing the genre of champeta ever forward.

"Music for the Masses" invites you on an excursion of sound and rhythm. Discover the music of established and emerging artists, both signed and unsigned, on the international music scene. For the avid globe-hopper and armchair traveler alike. You might want to pack a map and a sandwich. Catskill resident "DJ Neva" is an ethnomusicologist, producer, and long-time cultural activist, specializing in music from the entire African continent, as well as the Caribbean and Latin America, the Maghreb, and the Middle East, and the Roma (Gypsy) diaspora. Formerly the producer of "Continental Drift" on WBAI-FM and New York International on Haitian community station Radio Soleil in NYC. The show is broadcast live from Catskill, NY.

Playlists and more information here.

Selection of original DJ mixes here.