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Rumbarroco Adds a Latin Twist to Early Music

rumbarroco.org

“Unique” may be too mild a term to describe what the group Rumbarrocco performs. The group’s music and performances combine Venezuelan, American jazz, bluegrass, early European music and African drumming traditions.

It all adds up to a fusion of instruments, styles and interpretations that are really heard nowhere else.

"The further you go back in time the more freedom you have to substitute instruments, to come up with unique interpretations," says cornetto player Nathaniel Cox.

Laury Gutierrez, the group's founder, thought of Rumbarroco's concept when she was contemplating how South America, its culture, and its music from the past could be re-created for modern audiences.

"There was a time when I was trying to figure out how do we, South Americans, fit in and what is our place in the twenty first century," Gutierrez explains. "And then we're not in South America or Europe, now we're in the United States. So how does it all come about in this country?"

Diverse instrumentation, spontaneity and merging of various folk traditions created the Latin-Baroque fusion Rumbarroco thrives on.

Rumbarroco will perform in Milwaukee Saturday evening at the Zelazo Center as the opening performance of Early Music Now’s 2015-2016 season.

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.