Real World Sessions: Totó la Momposina, 18 August 1991

Totó la Momposina, often heralded as the original Queen of Cumbia, has spent her life singing the music of her ancestors to audiences across the world. Her music combines aspects of African, Indigenous Indian and Spanish cultures. As a young woman, she travelled from village to village researching the various rhythms, dances and art of the Colombian cantadora.

Gradually, Totó’s voice and performance technique matured, until in 1968 she formed her own group and began to pursue a professional career, though still delighting in playing at family fiestas, street parties and other roles enacted by ‘la cantadora del pueblo’.

“What I’m trying to do today is to come up with an orchestral setup that will give me both the intimacy and the communication that she has with the musicians. I’m not going to record it in the usual way with a lot of separation and try to be cute and clever. I’m going to capture whatever appears to me in that room.”

“I don’t want them to feel like they are restrained, playing to a mic. I’d rather have them play to an audience. What I’d like to capture is both the essence and immediacy of what happens in a group like this. The drums talk to each other. There is intricate stuff happening all the time. For whatever lack of knowledge I have, I hope to find out what they are saying, and I’m going to try and make those drums appear in such a way that they are hypnotic and they do what they are supposed to do on tape.”

Phil Ramone

“I can remember now the shivers going up my spine. Just drums and vocals, a beat that sounded Caribbean, a bit like reggae, but somehow deeper, wilder and a whole lot looser. There were many things I didn’t know then, among them that the lead hand drummer was a guy called Paulino Salgado, better known as Batata, a legendary musician whose influence is still felt here in Colombia. They were obviously playing cumbia, which I didn’t know either, and he was repicando, or popping off solo licks and making that drum bark and shout. I was transfixed. It was one of those quantic moments when everything explodes into fragments and reveals a whole new world.”

“Something began that day that’s still going on for me. I’m writing this in my flat in Bogota, having just finished a new Sidestepper record, using those hand drums I heard Batata playing that afternoon. I’ve spent the best part of the last 20 years in Colombia, having a lovely time. I’ve just felt at home here, welcome, and amongst good spirits. The call went out that afternoon and I’m so grateful I listened— it changed my life.”

Richard Blair

Following the 1991 session, Totó returned to Real World Studios again in 1992 for a session in The Work Room with producer John Hollis, recording a selection of songs with a more layered approach and featuring additional instrumentation. The fruits of both sessions were finally released as La Candela Viva in 1993. The international success of the album, and the subsequent releases Carmelina (1995) and Pacantó (released on MTM/Colombia), would ignite Totó’s career in Colombia and finally see her recognised as a star in her own country.

In 2015, as part of the Real World Gold series of re-issues, John Hollis and Real World engineer Oli Jacobs undertook the mammoth task of revisiting the original 1991/1992 multi-tracks in order to present the music in fully-restored, high resolution audio. The original album was remixed and ‘re-imagined’, opening up the warm sound of the tambores and incorporating additional backing vocals by Totó’s grand-daughters Maria del Mar and Oriana. It was renamed Tambolero as a tribute to the musical contributions of the late tambores player Batata, whose wonderful performance and presence was such an essential part of the album.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Totó la Momposina’s album La Candela Viva, we have released Fuego: an EP of four previously unheard tracks recorded at the 1991 and 1992 Real World sessions.

Listen to the Fuego EP