Carlos Vives Biography

In 1993 Carlos Vives changed the Colombian and Latin music panorama. He did it with an album titled CLÁSICOS DE LA PROVINCIA. It featured vallenato, the accordion - and percussion-rooted dance music that percolates in Colombia’s Caribbean provinces. Carlos grew up with these festive songs, which have been passed down from generation to generation and recorded by dozens of artists.

But Carlos went further, fusing elements of both modern and indigenous Colombia into his music. He’s influenced by the city of Santa Marta, a diverse Caribbean coastal city founded in 1525 (it’s the oldest Colombian city founded by the Spaniards still in existence). He lived here until he was 12. Santa Marta belongs to a region historically known as New Andalusia and is influenced by a certain kinship with Caribbean islands such as Cuba and the larger Colombian coastal city of Barranquilla. Santa Marta is known for its location on the banks and at the mouth of the great Magdalena River, which with its mestizo tradition has been the focal point of the city’s annual Carnival. To the east is the grand La Guajira desert, an area long visited by Carlos’ family and populated by the nomadic Wayúu peoples, for whom Carlos has always maintained great affection and respect. To the south is the progressive city of Valledupar and the Padilla provinces, but between Santa Marta and Valledupar are Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains, the largest coastal mountain range in the world, comparable in altitude only to the Himalayas. The Sierra Nevadas are home to the Ikas and the Koguis, Native American tribes that have made great contributions to popular Colombian music.

These were the early influences that surrounded Carlos Vives. But when he was 12, Carlos moved to Bogotá, the Colombian capital located at an 8,000 ft. elevation, on the highlands outside the Andean mountains. In Bogotá, Carlos discovered other musical styles that would become key elements of his project, a project that would go on to open new doors for young Colombian artists and those keeping local music alive. It was there, in the cold and foggy city of Bogotá, where Carlos expanded his musical panorama. Although he started out as a singer of ballads, only some of which still sound good today, he was already searching for a new sound that would make “commercial music” more authentic, more real.

At the time, Carlos was already friends with the Bogotá rock band Distrito Especial, which comprised Bernardo Velasco on guitar, Carlos Iván Medina on keyboards and Einar Escaf on drums. Through them, Carlos found an open door to the small universe of “local music.” “It was a new current in Colombian music. They weren’t the first urban group to delve into it but they had something that made them different. They worked traditional music patterns into some of their songs – for example, fusing blues with cumbia. But they didn’t do it in a conventional way – in their guitars, keyboards and drums they’d laid down a rock all their own.”

But Distrito Especial wasn’t Carlos’ only musical collaborator. He also had the unconditional, unwavering support of Ernesto “Teto” Ocampo, Tito Ocampo, Iván Benavides, Lucía Pulido, Richard Blair, Bernardo Osa and Gilbert Martínez, several of whom played in his band during the early years. “At times we seem different, but we’re the same. With my band I want to be part of my country’s music. I want the veteran musicians and composers, artists like Alejo, Leandro, Luis Enrique, Lucho Bermúdez, Los Corraleros, Los Gaiteros, the maestro Morales, Barros, Peñaranda, Salcedo and Galán, to feel at ease and to know that their work and dedication haven’t been in vain.”

Carlos was convinced that the cumbia, Magdalena River-style, should be the base for all his music. “The vallenato is the cumbia’s son and the porro’s brother – music of the highlands of the Córdoba and Bolívar states and so on,” he says. He would have to try out the patterns he’d discovered in the traditional music that had already made him famous in Escalona. At first some record execs doubted his project’s commercial viability and even some of his friends laughed at him. But with each new record, Carlos has shown the deep connection he maintains with his country and with his fans in every corner of the world.

LOS CLÁSICOS DE LA PROVINCIA, the album that put Carlos on the map, was best known for its percolating cover of Emiliano Zuleta’s “La Gota Fría.” The song was a big hit in Spain and helped Carlos and his band fill the country’s bullrings to the rafters during their concerts. Billed as Carlos Vives y La Provincia, the group was suddenly being courted by major labels. His next album was LA TIERRA DEL OLVIDO, best known for its hit “Pa’ Mayté,” which still garners plenty of recurrent airplay and remains in rotation on MTV en Español almost a decade after its release. Carlos’ message to fans on LA TIERRA DEL OLVIDO was: “this local-music movement is here to stay.”

His next album TENGO FE was at once his most interesting experiment, one of his most intimate records, and yet the most commercially disappointing. However, he says it’s the album that most helped him grow musically. And although I believe it’s never too late, the six Grammy nominations Carlos received for his album EL AMOR DE MI TIERRA and the American Grammy and two Latin Grammys he won for DÉJAME ENTRAR have been great pats on the back and a motivation for the Colombian artist. In the last 10 years, he’s given us much to talk about – not only for his successful musical fusions but also for being one of the most charismatic and affectionate artists with the press and the public in general. He’s far more substantive than a pretty boy, but the attractiveness that’s made him popular with female fans and earlier turned him into a soap-opera star is undeniable.

Now Carlos Vives presents us with EL ROCK DE MI PUEBLO, which appears to me to be an album of impeccable quality in all its aspects – starting with the concept and the graphic design, and continuing through each and every song. Carlos shows his maturity as a composer, writing all the songs on the album. He has a flair for simple but deep lyrics and stories that avoid melodrama and pretentiousness. In sum, they’re songs that once again demonstrate the artist’s commitment to his country and his people.