Inti-Illimani 50th Anniversary Tour Sunday, October 15, 2017; 8 pm www.harriscenter.net FALL/WINTER 2017 PROGRAM GUIDE 31 Few Latin American acts can rival this Chilean group in terms of the sheer beauty of sound. Much like a Zen affirmation, Inti-Illimani's music floats within your soul, filling it with calmness and hope. The Los Angeles Times Celebrating 50 years of Music, Activism & Education Inti-Illimani has transcended our idea of the musical ensemble and has become a cultural location, a liturgy expressing the essence of the Latin-American ethno-musical experience. Founded by Jorge Coulon in 1967, for 50 years Inti-Illimani has performed world- wide to hundreds of thousands of fans, collaborated with folk legends, earned awards and honors for their activism and masterful musicianship, and produced one of the richest discographies in Latin-American recording history. Indeed, Inti-Illimani’s premier album, Nueva Canción, or “new song,” spoke to their role in dreaming a new vision for Chile during the volatile socio-political landscape of South America during the '60s and '70s. They have endured political exile, embodied creative leadership through decades of transition and evolution, and enjoyed an invaluable, truly majestic career. Inti-Illimani’s poetry — a sound that captures memories of persecution, love, loss, revolution, social justice, and freedom — has enchanted the ear of legendary artists with whom they have performed and recorded, including Peter Gabriel, Patricio Manns, John Williams and Paco Peña. They’ve also shared stages with Mercedes Sosa, Emma Thompson, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Wynton Marsalis, Tracy Chapman, Arja Saijonmaa, Holly Near, Yousssou’n’Dour, and Pete Seeger. Most recently, Joan Baez invited them to perform with her at Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile.
Transcript
Inti-Illimani50th Anniversary Tour
Sunday, October 15, 2017; 8 pm
www.harriscenter.net FALL/WINTER 2017 PROGRAM GUIDE 31
Few Latin American acts can rival this Chilean group in terms of the sheer beauty of sound. Much like a Zen affirmation, Inti-Illimani's music floats within your soul, filling it with calmness and hope.
The Los Angeles Times
Celebrating 50 years of Music, Activism & Education
Inti-Illimani has transcended our idea of the musical ensemble and has become a cultural location, a liturgy expressing the essence of the Latin-American ethno-musical experience. Founded by Jorge Coulon in 1967, for 50 years Inti-Illimani has performed world-wide to hundreds of thousands of fans, collaborated with folk legends, earned awards and honors for their activism and masterful musicianship, and produced one of the richest discographies in Latin-American recording history. Indeed, Inti-Illimani’s premier album, Nueva Canción, or “new song,” spoke to their role in dreaming a new vision for Chile during the volatile socio-political landscape of South America during the '60s and '70s. They have endured political exile, embodied creative leadership through decades of transition and evolution, and enjoyed an invaluable, truly majestic career.
Inti-Illimani’s poetry — a sound that captures memories of persecution, love, loss, revolution, social justice, and freedom — has enchanted the ear of legendary artists with whom they have performed and recorded, including Peter Gabriel, Patricio Manns, John Williams and Paco Peña. They’ve also shared stages with Mercedes Sosa, Emma Thompson, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Wynton Marsalis, Tracy Chapman, Arja Saijonmaa, Holly Near, Yousssou’n’Dour, and Pete Seeger. Most recently, Joan Baez invited them to perform with her at Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile.
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From the group’s friendship with the late, great Victor Jara to their camaraderie with Nano Stern — considered by many the voice of Chile’s younger generation — Inti-Illimani’s song-line reaches across time, space, and nations, yet remains ever-grounded in Chilean roots.
Renowned for their humanity and arts-activism, they have appeared on Amnesty International stages, lectured extensively on Latin-American folk and indigenous music, culture and social change, and most recently, founded an arts-centric charter school, Sol Del Illimani, which the group saved from closing in one of Santiago’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Inti-Illimani has toured in dozens of countries at prestigious concert halls, festivals, and benefit concerts. In 1992, the City of Minneapolis proclaimed a greeting to Inti-Illimani and called for a return to peace and democracy with its sister city, Santiago; and in 1997, UC Berkeley honored Inti-Illimani with a Human Rights Award.
They have recorded 36 studio albums, most recently Teoria de Cuerdas (2014) and La Maquina del Tiempo (The Time Machine) (2012), for which they gave two legendary, sold-out concerts at Teatro Caupolican alongside Chile’s most important artists.In 1978, Inti-Illimani recorded Canción para matar una culebra in Rome, which became a gold record in Italy. A highlight from that record is "Vuelvo," one of the most powerful songs the group ever recorded.
In 1981, the band recorded Palimpsesto in Rome, its title track based on a poem written by long-time collaborator and co-lyricist Patricio Manns, earning them another gold record. That same year they created the soundtrack for the BBC TV series Flight of the Condor, and were nominated for a British Academy Award (1982). In 1984, Inti-Illimani was nominated for a British Academy of Music Award for the platinum album El Vuelo del Condor; and made their first digital and instrumental recording, Imaginación, in Germany.
Inti-Illimani means “sun of the mountain,” taken from the indigenous Aymara dialect. As they approach their 50-year anniversary, we celebrate the incredible light they have deposited into the world’s treasury of exquisite, enduring, and activated musical artistry.
Brothers Marcelo & Jorge Coulon
ABOUT
For nearly five decades, Inti-Illimani has intoxicated audiences around the world. A cultural icon, Inti-Illimani is famous for their unique poetic and socio-political history. Their music, wedded in traditional Latin American roots, captures at once the very personal colors of their experiences while simultaneously appealing to the universal in us all. They have performed in over a dozen countries worldwide, bringing with them timeless themes and an inclusive spirit which unites us in our common humanity. Playing on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments, Inti-Illimani’s compositions are a treasure for the human spirit. Their mellifluous synthesis of instruments and vocals captures those secret places in our hearts, journeying us out of the mundane into a respite for the soul. Sacred areas, colorful carnivals, daily lives, love lost and found again, vistas, defeats and triumphs all play out in the extraordinary cultural mural that is an Inti-Illimani performance.
Known for their open-minded musical approach, Inti-Illimani continues to allow for its own evolution while staying true to its musical roots. Over the past two decades, the Inti legacy has strengthened as some founding members retired, and new members joined. Manuel Meriño, its musical director and member since 2000, sees Inti-Illimani’s 2002 release Lugares Comunes (Common Places) as the point at which the present ensemble came together. Daniel Cantillana (violin, vocals) posits that the classic repertoire, which the younger Intis have mastered, is not a constraint but rather that it “establishes an intangible aesthetic framework that lets us know whether a song can fit…It is our identity, and if it determines what we do, it does so very subtly.” And, founder Jorge Coulon remarks, “What pleases me about this group today is that the creative risks it is taking are very much in keeping with our history while opening us up to many perspectives, many possibilities.”
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With their 2006 recording Pequeño Mundo, Inti-Illimani continued their exploration of Latin American, Afro-Latin, and Italian sounds and includes the group’s first foray into jazz-flavored composition. Pequeño Mundo also features appearances by several special guests, including former founding member Max Berru, past members Pedro Villagra and Renato Freyggang, and longtime collaborator and dear friend Patricio Manns.
In August 2012, Inti-Illimani launched their 45th anniversary tour with La Maquina del Tiempo (The Time Machine): two concerts held at the traditional Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile. Joining Inti-Illimani for these concerts were some of the most important figures in Chilean music: Illapu, Luis La-Bert, Andrés Perez, Nano Stern, Joe Vasconcellos, Alexis Venegas, and Fernando Ubiergo. A few days later Inti-Illimani and their guests got together at the Universidad de Chile radio station’s Sala Master for a live recording of this encounter. This landmark double CD and DVD named for the tour, La Maquina del Tiempo was released in 2013.
In 2013, Inti-Illimani performed a tribute concert to honor the 40 year anniversary of the death of Chilean folk singer, activist, and beloved guitarist Victor Jara, who was killed during the coup orchestrated by Augusto Pinochet. Inti-Illimani also took responsibility for a closed, public high school in a vulnerable neighborhood in La Florida, in Santiago. The school, now called Sol del Illimani, is attended by 260 students and strongly features music and art in its curriculum. All members of Inti-Illimani teach at the school. Of art-centered education, Jorge Coulon states, “We think that a significant exposure to art and culture will lead to stronger students and, eventually, better professionals.” The school features many instruments, personalized classes, and individualized support for students and their unique talents. In 2014, a story on the school was broadcasted on Chilean national television (channel TVN). Based on their musical expertise as well as their socio-political past, Inti-Illimani offers residency partnerships and is launching a student exchange program with its new school Sol del Illimani.
In March of 2014, Joan Baez invited Inti-Illimani to perform with her at her concerts at Teatro Caupolican in Santiago during her South American tour. A week later, Inti-Illimani performed at Lollapalooza Chile. In August 6, 2014, Inti-Illimani performed at the National Day of Bolivia in Chile, which is also the date that Inti-Illimani first performed under its current name. In September, 2014, Inti-Illimani was the honored guest at Omara Portuondu’s concert in Santiago, the legendary Cuban performer known best as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club. In November 2014, Inti-Illimani released Teoria de Cuerdas the ensemble’s 36th studio album.
Inti-Illimani on stage offers passion and poetry that is a mantra for peace in the world and within us. As Coulon remarks, “We are not political in [the propaganda] sense, but we have always been politically engaged. We have a concept about society and about the relationship between human beings, and we try to translate our ideas into our sound, not to be part of one political party or another, but in the sense to bring about a better world.”
HISTORY
Inti-Illimani (Inti-E-gee-manee), from the Aymara dialect, means “Sun of the Illimani,” in reference to the mountain at La Paz, Bolivia. It is therefore a kind of paradox that the history of Inti-Illimani began underground, in a dark canteen of Santiago’s Arts and Trades School of the Technical University of State. It was there in the 1960s that the founding members met and began playing music together. Originally on the path to engineering, they would soon discover that their true destinies lie not in trade, but in the arts. This love of music encouraged their restless souls to explore the indigenous cultures of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina. In these poorest, purest and ancient cultures, they discovered not only Andean music and therefore their roots, but corners of the world in need of voice…Inti-Illimani’s music quickly became Latin America’s visceral link between pueblo and people, vivified in Nueva Canción.
Nueva Canción (new song) is not only the name of the early Inti-Illimani recording which propelled them into global recognition and popularity, but is also the name of the socio-political, artistic movement of the '70s and '80s throughout Latin America, seeking to resurrect and celebrate the traditional folk sounds of Latin culture while delivering messages of social change and revolution. It played a powerful role in the many uprisings against oppressive governments during these times, and many of its messengers faced censorship, exile, forced disappearance and worse. Inti-Illimani was no exception. In 1973, Chilean president Salvador Allende was deposed during a coup d’état when Augusto Pinochet took control of the country; overnight the democratic atmosphere of Chile disappeared. The Intis were on tour in Europe, and found themselves without patria or passport, in sudden political and artistic exile. Italy became their home for the next 15 years. Separated from beloved family members, friends and their homeland, the coup d’état and their subsequent exile dramatically changed their personal stories, as well as the story of Inti-Illimani, forever. Inti-Illimani became, and remains, South America’s ambassadors of human expression.
In 1988, they were unexpectedly allowed back into Chile by the same military government which had banished them. They were warmly welcomed home by the Chilean people, with 6,000 fans greeting them at the airport; their arrival was symbolic of the end of a tragic, stifling era. They soon after gave a homecoming concert, attended by 130,000 people for whom
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Inti’s music had become a common voice, a communal place for the dispossessed as well as for the Chilean spirit. They moved home permanently in 1990, coinciding with the official resignation of Pinochet.
What followed were many performances and collaborations inspired by and born out of their own struggle, and the struggles of the bereaved across the world. In honor of slain guitarist, poet, and singer-songwriter, Victor Jara, Inti-Illimani gave a “purifying” concert at Victor Jara Stadium, to heal the residue of atrocities committed there. This was followed by various Amnesty International Concerts in South America as well as the UK, where Inti-Illimani appeared on stage with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracey Chapman, Youssou’n’Dour, Mercedes Sosa, Wynton Marsalis, and others.
In February of 1989, Inti-Illimani performed in the Berlin Song Festival just weeks after the demolition of the wall. On September 21, 2008, Inti-Illimani gave a concert in celebration of the 100th birthday of former president Salvador Allende, at the Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Square) in front of the presidential Palace. They played 100 songs in his honor, without pause, in this historic performance.
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In advance of their 50th Anniversary tour, Inti-Illimani will release El canto de todos (Song of All) celebrating the centenary of the birth of Violeta Parra, the most important Chilean artist of all time.
Ten compositions by Violeta Parra are the basis of El canto de todos, with original arrangements inspired by the search for more modern sounds that update these songs and bring them closer to our times.
To this end, they invited some of the luminaries of the Chilean, Latin American, [Canadian, and Spanish] artistic scenes: Silvio Rodríguez, Isabel Parra, Tita Parra, Joan Manuel Serrat, Pablo Milanés, Roberto Márquez of the group Illapu, Pancho Sazo of the group Congresso, Francesca Gagnon of Cirque du Soleil, Raly Barrionuevo, the Mapocho Orchestra, and Mon Laferte, among others.
This year, Inti-Illimani celebrates the 50th anniversary of its formation in 1967: a long history that has established them as one of the most influential Latin American groups the world over, a cultural reference across borders. Its celebration coincides with the centenary of the birth of Violeta Parra, a figure with whom Inti-Illimani has been intimately linked from the beginning, and to whom they wanted to pay homage through a series of activities, among which the launch of this album, El canto de todos.
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