Kombilesa Mí: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

For the second consecutive year, NPR teamed up with globalFEST in January 2021 for a thrilling online music festival we call Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST: three nights, nine bands, and a world of musical traditions hosted by African pop star Angélique Kidjo. Now, we're posting all the sets from our festival as individual Tiny Desk (home) concerts.

Born from the rich musical and historical heritage of San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia (the first free Black town in the Americas), Kombilesa Mí fuses the traditional sounds of the community with urban pop. The band's members experiment with the instruments created by their ancestors (and introduced to them when they were young) by layering them between new sounds.

Over traditional percussion, metal handmade drums of their own design, and marímbula, Kombilesa Mí rhymes and raps in Spanish and the traditional Palenquero language, a fusion of African Bantu, Portuguese, French and English. During the performance, you'll hear them call their music "RFP," which means Rap Folklórico Palenquero, a combo of cumbia, son de negro, mapalé and son palenquero. --The globalFEST staff

SET LIST

• "I Tando Pa Palenge"
• "I A Piyá Bó"
• "Kumo Kusa Tá"
• "Los Peinados"
• "Asina Gue"
• "Ma Nduse"
• "Ata Uto Begá"

MUSICIANS

• Andris Padilla Julio: vocals
• Keila Regina Miranda Pérez (KR MP): vocals
• Alí Fernando Navarro (MCPM): vocals, tambor alegre
• Martín Elias Maza: tambor llamador
• Kendri Cassiani: tamboras
• Orlys Reyes: marímbula
• Edwin Valdes: maracas

CREDITS

• Production: Guillermo Camacho
• Audio: Fernando Manzur
• Video: Guillermo Camacho
• Camera: Royman Reales Martinez
• Special thanks: Real Films Cartagena, Viviana Benitez, novaproducciones

Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST

Tiny Desk Team

Producer: Bob Boilen

Video Producer: Maia Stern

Audio Mixing: Josh Rogosin

Tiny Production Team: Bobby Carter, Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis

Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins

Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

globalFEST Artistic Team

Co-Directors: Shanta Thake, Isabel Soffer, Bill Bragin

2022 Curators: Shanta Thake, Isabel Soffer, Bill Bragin, Gabrielle Davenport

globalFEST Production Team

Event Producer: Ian Thake

Producer: THE OFFICE performing arts + film*

Video Producer: Karim Tabbaa

Special Thanks

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, JanArtsNYC, Valerie French (social media), Yuri Kwon of Pitch Perfect PR (publicity), Tamizdat (legal services) and Duane Morris (legal services)

*THE OFFICE performing arts + film consists of Rachel Chanoff, Laurie Cearley, Olli Chanoff, Erica Zielinski, Nadine Goellner, Lynn Koek, Noah Bashevkin, Catherine DeGennaro, Gabrielle Davenport, Chloe Golding, Kyla Gardner, Tess Peppis, Zion Jackson, Scout Eisenberg and Jose Alvarado

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.