{"id":42582,"date":"2017-09-15T14:44:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T12:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/ife-post-rumba-from-puerto-rico-on-a-spiritual-level\/"},"modified":"2020-04-27T03:38:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T02:38:38","slug":"ife-post-rumba-from-puerto-rico-on-a-spiritual-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/ife-post-rumba-from-puerto-rico-on-a-spiritual-level\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00ccF\u00c9: post-rumba from Puerto Rico on a spiritual level"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rumba as a bridge between Africa and Northern America via the Caribbean:\u00a0\u00ccF\u00c9 is the musical and spiritual project of the Afro-American DJ, producer, percussionist and composer Otura Mun, born Mark Underwood in the US, and turned priest of the Yoruba’s religion If\u00e1 when he settled in Puerto Rico 18 years ago. If it’s not electronic rumba they’re playing, could it be post-rumba then?<\/b><\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

July 2017. It’s 8.30 in Sines, Portugal. The sun still lazily occupies the horizon above the sea, and will light the sky for another hour. Five musicians dressed in white minimalist clothes appear on the “beach stage” of FMM Festival, facing the ocean [read our report of the festival here<\/a>]. They sit behind white sheets that cover acoustic percussions and electronic machines. <\/span>“And breathe in… And let it out! Raaah! One, two, three\u2026”<\/span><\/i> and then enter handclaps, synth blips, drum beats, and five voices harmonizing around repeated lyrics. The rhythm clearly sounds as cuban traditional music, and for the specialist, it has this rumba feeling you can’t miss, provided by the specific <\/span>2-3 clave<\/span><\/i>: ta-ta… ta, ta-ta. Still, the electronic sounds and a few added percussions change the feeling from time to time, thus appealing the music both to rumba fans and to r’n’b lovers. Lyrics in English, Spanish and Yoruba add a large scope of emotions and levels of understanding. And the sunset on the Atlantic Ocean just makes the whole show a deep and sweet travel to the Caribbean.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Three hours earlier, we had a chat with \u00ccF\u00c9<\/strong>‘s main man, Otura Mun<\/strong>, in the backstage after soundcheck. He gave us a deep and detailed insight into his own mix of Cuban rumba, dancehall, r’n’b and Yoruba spirituality.\u00a0\u00ccF\u00c9 is the Yoruban word for “Love” and for “Expansion”.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Puerto Rico, you became a babalawo priest. Can you tell us about the way spirituality enters your compositions?
\n<\/b>Otura Mun:<\/b>\u00a0What you hear on the album, lyrics-wise, is me going\u00a0through changes in the way I understand the world from a different perspective. Seven years ago I was starting to be into yoruba religion where the sacred pieces are stones you need to pray to. But I couldn’t see a stone having life and I couldn’t pray to a rock! A friend of mine told me: <\/span>“why not?” <\/span><\/i>This very simple answer just convinced me! This chair I’m sitting in could be expressing itself right now. I understood that things could be different from what I thought they were.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I also try to write lyrics that have various levels of engagement, like on the song “Umbo (Come Down)”: the drums themselves are playing a pattern for an orisha called Olokun, during the whole song. You don’t have to sing because the drums are already talking about this orisha that lives in the bottom of the ocean. So when I heard the rhythm I tried to imagine what it would be like if I was diving into the ocean and sink to a medium point where I could see the light refracted from above and the deepness of the ocean below. To me, that mid-way point is like the mid-way point between Heaven and Earth in the idea of spiritual position. The drumming’s purpose is to bring the spirit to the ground so we can communicate with them. This point symbolizes the moment when you are in the moment of need and you need one particular person to help you get to this next place, whether it is your girlfriend, best buddy, or father\u2026 So in this song I wrote the lyrics <\/span>“Umbo, come down, come down, only your love can turn me round, I feel you all around”<\/span><\/i> where “umbo” is Yoruba for “bringing down”. I’m asking the spirit to come down. Someone who doesn’t understand the orisha practice is just hearing me acknowledging the fact that I’m needing somebody. And the day you start to know about orishas, you realize the drums were talking to you the whole song! At the same time, I believe that even if you don’t speak Yoruba, Spanish or English, you can still feel what I mean in my music.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How did you end up in Puerto Rico from the US?
\n<\/b>I grew up in a small town in the Midwest (Indiana), only 15 000 people. The closest major city was Chicago, about three hours away. The world around that we saw through media was like Fantasyland to me: L.A., New York\u2026 I had the same mentality about Caribbean before going there: palm trees, reggae… I did not even know Porto Rico was in the Caribbean! I had a free plane ticket when I was studying in Texas, and as I was really into Jamaican music at the time, I asked the plane company for Jamaica. But they only had Porto Rico. And that’s where life directed me, by chance!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n