Darandi: Track by Track

1. Dondo

Written by Junie Aranda

Sagü ariebu lasarun dono aragua lilama nu gadilian funasanra ah ida nuba

‘Dondo’ is a Garifuna classic, written by late Belizean paranda musician Junie Aranda, who famously carried a guitar slung over his back wherever he went. Like many of the great paranderos of his generation, Aranda didn’t have an international career and wasn’t able to make much money from his music. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a powerful man— anybody who crossed him in Dangriga Town, Belize, where he lived, would get a song written about him in revenge. “When someone does bad things to you, we don’t start fights, we get back at them in a song,” Aranda once said. He reportedly had songs about former lovers, past employers, and people from town that owed him money. Aurelio’s version of this Aranda classic is spruced up with some gorgeous tremolo electric guitar lines.

3. Yange

Written by Aurelio Martinez and Ivan Duran

Budiñayebe aluaguina bungua yagura baranaha adeiraugu bounwen

‘Yange’ is one of the most deeply personal of Aurelio’s songs, as well as one of the most beautiful. It tells of the tragic death of his older brother, José Ángel, nicknamed ‘Yange.’ With their father away in the U.S., José Ángel often took the role of the male head of the household, and helped raise Aurelio. They played together in Aurelio’s first band, Lita Ariran. One day, José Ángel got sick—Aurelio says he was poisoned by a jealous co-worker on a ship they worked on. Their mother took him to doctors in Honduras and Mexico, looked for medicine everywhere, but couldn’t save him. This song is written in tribute to his spirit, which lives on in Aurelio’s life and music.

4. Laru Beya

Written by Aurelio Martinez, Ivan Duran and Rudy Gomis

Laru beya rabaunni weyo lidan limaniga narumugu

‘Laru Beya’ is the title track from Aurelio’s second studio album, partially recorded in Senegal while Aurelio was taking part in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, which paired Aurelio in a mentorship with Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour. The original recording of this song included Senegal’s legendary Orchestra Baobab, whose West African take on Afro-Cuban music infuses the track’s slick, reverbed-out guitar arrangement. It’s a love song, about the women in Aurelio’s hometown who would stand at the edge of the sea before holidays, waiting for their husbands to return from long fishing trips out at sea.

5. Sielpa

Written by Andrea Sambula and Aurelio Martinez

Niagusan hun luagu nuragule niagusan hun luagu nuragu le tugurabuga

This song is a tribute to Sielpa, one of the most important bands in the history of the Garifuna paranda, and major inspiration for Aurelio’s music. The more pop-dance oriented genre of punta rock brought many Garifuna bands into the Honduran (and Central American) mainstream, but fewer bands were more popular in the community itself than Sielpa. The living band members, now old in age, have relocated to The Bronx, New York, but their albums still can be heard blaring out of homes in Garifuna towns. This song is an adaptation of a classic Sielpa hit, and it has a more traditional harmonic progression and feel than many other Aurelio songs.

6. Dugu

Traditional arranged by Aurelio Martinez, Ivan Duran and Ramon Cedeño

Añatego do chuluhaño haburugañon waragama gayo

Most Garifuna communities are Roman Catholic, but that doesn’t stop them from also participating in the older “mother religion,” as Aurelio calls it. Just as family is of supreme importance in Garifuna culture, worship of ancestors is the fundamental element of Garifuna religion. The dugu is the most important traditional ceremony, which Aurelio evokes in his song of the same name. The ritual involves communication with the spirit world, through singing and dancing, with the goal of healing the living through veneration of the dead.

7. Sañanaru

Traditional, arranged by Aurelio Martinez, Ivan Duran and Sofia Blanco

Sañanaro tigaburime tura jaña sañanaro me tifava asansera e

The conflicts between men and women, Aurelio says, are common fodder for Garifuna songs. Using the bouncy rhythm of the traditional coropatia dance, “Sañanaru” tells the story of a canoe, as a metaphor for an independent-minded woman. It’s about a canoe that fills with water, no matter what its owner does. He decides that if he can’t repair it, he should just ground it on the riverbank and not take it back out onto the river. “If he can’t govern the canoe, better to park it,” says Aurelio. “The power of a woman is sometimes so great that the man can’t control it, and this song reflects that power. ”

8. Lándini

Written by Aurelio Martinez and Ramon Cedeño

arijabana ya namuleluwarado laru duna, laru duna agurabaja

The title track first recorded on Aurelio’s third studio album, Lándini paints an image from Aurelio’s childhood in Plaplaya. During the day, he would go off to school, and his mother and grandmother would go off into the forest beyond town to tend crops and gather wood — the work traditionally done by women. After school, the kids would head down to the lándini, or boat landing, and wait for their mothers to return down the river in their canoes. This song is about that moment: waiting at the dock for his mother to come gliding down the river, enjoying the silence of the town with the adults all gone to work, listening to the fluttering birdsong of the rainforest at dusk.

10. Nari Golu

Written by Aurelio Martinez and Maria Martinez

ca banuguna nun barriuguiñe tugurabuga (bis) biome nari golo nari falestipo

“Traditional songs,” Aurelio explains, “often are about somebody trying to tell another person something in an indirect way.” For example— ‘Nari Golu’ (which means “my gold tooth”) is the story of a woman from a village who asks her man to bring back a gold tooth for her from the city, to make her more beautiful. The hidden meaning is that she’s telling him subtly that she has another lover, and she actually wants to be more beautiful for the other man. On the musical side, Aurelio says this song is a good example of how his music harmonically expands on the paranda tradition, which typically uses just a few basic chord progressions. Plus— it features one of the most memorable guitar melodies from Aurelio’s catalogue in the introduction.

11. Lumalali Lumaniga

Written by Aurelio Martinez

On Aurelio’s first album, Garifuna Soul, he sang ‘Lumalali Lumaniga’ with his friend and fellow Garifuna music star, the late Andy Palacio of Belize. The song is a message to the various NGOs that represent Garifuna interests, reminding them that they must be accountable to their people. “Many times these organizations are irresponsible, and they use the Garifuna people as an excuse to raise funds that they end up keeping themselves instead of improving the community,” says Aurelio. Lumalali Lumaniga translates to “the voice of silence,” referring to the unheard voices of children, the old or the sick—the people who suffer when community leaders pocket money meant for all.

12. Naguya Nei

Written by Alfonso Palacio

NATI NUGUYA MERUMAYATINA WANWA NUGUYA MERUMAYATINA

This is Aurelio’s version of ‘Naguya Nei’— the most iconic song by paranda legend Paul Nabor, and a Garifuna standard if there ever was one. Born Alfonso Palacio in Belize, Nabor performed throughout Garifuna towns for years, and is considered by many to be the forefather of the modern paranda. The song’s refrain says “When I die, bury me with my band.” Nabor passed on in 2014, at age 86. In many ways, Aurelio Martinez is carrying on the torch that Paul Nabor lit. They participated together on the Paranda album from Stonetree Records, released in 2000.