Varios artistas y videos - Tt: Various Artists And Videos - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2001 by Rudy Mangual

(Orisha Productions)

Today's high-tech satellite communications systems can bring hundreds of television signals, movie channels, sports channels and music video channels into a person's home, regardless of their location on the globe. Music video channels like MTV and VH1 are being broadcast in some areas in Spanish to attract more Hispanic viewers. Puma TV from Venezuela is a Spanish video channel dedicated primarily to Latin music but also airs mainstream contemporary English videos as well. Joining Spanish networks, top video shows such as Control and Caliente (whose target audience ranges from 12-22 years old) are HBO Latino's music video programs, featuring top Latino acts--Ricky Martin, Jennifer López and Marc Anthony. Even with the high state of technology and more outlets than ever, commendable Latin music videos that are glamour-and-sex-free are a rarity.

Orisha Productions is a video company producing Afro-Cuban music videos filmed in Cuba, plus instructional videos for those who want to learn to play or dance to Afro-Cuban rhythms, or study the ceremonial art of batá drumming and chanting. With a growing catalog of a dozen different videos to their credit, a viewer can enjoy (in the privacy of their own home), performances by master drummers and dancers such as Los Papines, Afro Cuba de Matanzas, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Grupo Ita Oru-mi, Yoruba Endabo, and La Familia Taquechel and Degara (families that have maintained the traditions brought to Cuba by the African slaves). A look into the world of Santería (African-based religion formally known as Regla de Ocha or Regla Lukumi) is also available in the videos Un Toque De Santo by Familia Taquechel, Batá Para Ochos, and Danza a los Santos by Afro Cuba de Matanzas. The music and dances performed in these videos to the African deities (orishas), later identified with Catholic saints (santos), reflect a way of life that has survived for over 5,000 years, from West Africa to Cuba and to the rest of the Caribbean and the New World. There are no Hollywood actors or doubles in these videos; only authentic practitioners of the folkloric forms performing the ancient chants, rhythms and dances. Through these videos, one can experience the evolution of Afro-Cuban music from its basic rhythms of palo, yambú and columbia, to the subsequent mambo and guaguancó. Many of the performances in these videos were filmed in Cuba for the very first time, with the producers striving to bring you the best quality video possible, under the existing conditions. Overall, Orisha Productions' catalog of videos is a folkloric and cultural collection of authentic Afro Cuban rhythm roots and Yoruba music.