Cumbia Clandestina

Soul Cocina's Cumbia Clandestina Mix brings together many types of Cumbia into one mix. There's music from Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Venezuela, USA, Cuba and beyond. Two or three cumbia digital tracks, plenty of cumbias clasicas, some cumbia sonideras, villeras, guarachas, porros, chicha.... Some of the sonideras come from mix CDs from Mexican and US sound systems like Grupo Kual and other Sonidos from Puebla, DF, and Monterey, Mexico. A few come from mixes from DJ's like Alex Perez from Chicago. The cumbias clasicas mostly come from records I have picked up over the years in the US, Latin America, and Europe. The cumbias digitales come from internet downloads from sites like Muy Bastard. I did not include too much nueva cumbia digital, but there is a lot available on the world wide web for downloads. Just search blogs for Chico Sonido, Sonido Martines, Villa Diamante, Oro 11, and the Zizek crew from Argentina and the Tormenta Tropical crew from the SF Bay. I like the Nueva Cumbia that stays close to the original music.. but the experimental stuff is fun too. Some of my favorites are La Super Cumbia Futurista, Chico Sonido and Los Wendys

Wayne and Wax has some words about cumbia.

El Hijo de La Cumbia, Fantasma, El Remolon and Chancha Via Circuito are some other interesting artists from the boom in Buenos Aires.

A lot of sound systems in Latin America are called Sonidos, some sound systems in Colombia are called Picos (Pico Soul Cocina has a nice ring to it)
I made this mix to listen to at work.. then I decided to post it here.. so I did not make a tracklisting. With all the requests... I am revisiting the cds, records, and mp3s to put together a tracklist. Some of the tunes come from unlabeled street CDRs. If anyone can help with the few unknown tunes, please drop some knowledge in the comments. Tracklist for Vol I is complete.. Vol II and III coming soon.

Big shout out to Salvador, Celso, El Chilango and DJ Rolond from 26 Mix for the Guatemala, DF and Puebla Sonidera Mixes that inspired this Cumbia Clandestina Mix.

Tune: Cumbia Clandestina Mix Vol I

Tracklist for Vol I
1. A Adorar Antonio - Group from Guapi, Colombia recorded in Spring of 1968 by David Lewiston from Black Music of South America - In Praise of Oxala and other Gods
2. La Gallenera Cumbia from Cumbia Soledena vol III LP written by Pedro A Beltran
3. Cumbia del Carnaval by Los Caribes from from their self titled 1979 Disco Gas LP
4. Cumbia Sampuesana from the Disco Fuentes LP called Cumbias y Porros, written by Joaquin Betin
5. El Cazador by Rodolfo y Los Idolos from their Lo Maximo LP on Disco fuentes
6. La Mochila Tercia by Lisandro Meza y Su Conjunto from Las 10 Calientes de Colombia LP on Disco fuentes 1978
7. Juanita Bonita by Los Olimpicos 5 from Pachanga Tropical LP on Mex Sound/ Arriba Records 1978
8. Porro Sabaneros by Orquesta Ritmo de Sabanas feat Lucho Perez y Isaac Villanueva from Las 10 Calientes de Colombia LP on Disco fuentes 1978
9. La Subienda by Gabriel "Rumba" Romero from his Grandes Exitos LP on Disco Fuentes
10. Cumbia del Bajo by Lisandro Meza y Su Conjunto from Las 10 Calientes de Colombia LP on Disco fuentes 1978
11. Cumbia Cienaguera by Luis E Martinez from Disco Fuentes LP Cumbias y Porros
12. Cumbia De El Salvador by El Orquesta Hermanos Flores from their El Mentiroso LP on the Dicesa label.
13. La Chica de Los Ojos Cafe by Los Canoneros de Colombia from the Cumbias de Oro '89 LP from Musart records Mexico
14. Gaita Franetica - from Grupo Kual mix CD (btw the intro is the instrumental source for the San Pancho mix of Arana Hindu on my East of El Rio Dolores Mix)
15. Te Pico de Abeja by Alberto Pedrazo
16. unlabelled song from a street cd that I call "Get Back Cumbia"
17. Chambacu by Aurito Castillo y su Conjunto
18. Cumbieton Rutero by Axel K Soundsystem
19. Juana La Cubana by Fito Olivares
20. Traicionera by Celso Pina
21. Cumbia del Amanecer maybe by Los de Bohio?
22. El Crack by Los Canoneros de Colombia from the Cumbias de Oro '89 LP from Musart records Mexico

Tune: Cumbia Clandestina Mix Vol II

Tune: Cumbia Clandestina Mix Vol III

I didn't include Cumbia de Obama, but you can see the video, read the lyrics and download the song here.

In April Soul Cocina will present a Cumbia Brunch in San Francisco. We will feature the cuisine of the cumbia diaspora in a prix fix menu, a cumbia dancefloor, and of course, cumbia music.

In san Francisco we have plenty of Peruvian and Salvadoran restaurants, but there are very few Colombian restaurants. I picked up some sancocho de gallina with arepas and chorizo to go with the Cumbia Clandestina Mix at Majahual Restaurant in my neighborhood. Arepas are South American tortillas. They are different from Mexican and Salvadorean tortillas because of the special type of corn flour. I learned how to make arepas and empanadas in Venezuela. I was taking a nap on a park bench and a street cleaner woke me up and told me it was not safe for tourists to nap in that park. We began to chit chat, and when she found out that I was a chef looking for recipes and records.. she invited me to her home for a lesson in arepas and empanadas. Her daughter was studying tourism, so she was excited to show me her city, Caracas, and help me find vinyl records and cassette tapes. I still remember my Un Solo Pueblo tape that I bought on that trip.. I need to convert it to digital sound. This was in 2000. Hugo Chavez had just taken office, and my hosts were strong supporters. Turns out Marisa (the street cleaner) was working for a program under Chavez's Plan Bolivar besides arepas and empanadas, I also learned how to prepare a glorious condiment used for the late night street hot dogs called Guasacaca (nice name?!)
The guasacaca sauce that I learned to make and that I tasted all over Caracas is made from avacados, parsley, hot peppers, green pepers, oil, vinegar, and garlic.
The recipes I see in books and on the web are all very different from this. They are more like guacamole. The guasacaca I grew to know and love is pureed up to a smooth sauce. I like guasacaca with plain or cheese arepas, but in Caracas, guasacaca seemed to be used as a condiment for hot dogs.

Arepas are made from a dough made from peeled corn kernals (maiz pilado) that are ground and par-cooked, then mixed with water. Today, most people buy arepa flour, which is cornmeal made from a specific part of the corn kernal (cotyledons) that has been partially cooked. There is no Nixtamalization process for arepa corn flour. Once you get the arepa flour, it is just like making fat tortillas or stuffed pupusas. many recipes call for oil or butter and even milk in arepas, but I learned to make arepas with just water and salt. They can be stuffed with cheese or meat.

I am excited to try out the Pica Pica South American restaurant in Napa at the Oxbow Public Market

Quiere mas Colombian cuisine?

What are the kids of Colombia up to today?

While I was making this mix I heard Hellicopters swarming above our house. I looked out to find a 4 alarm fire a few blocks away, down the hill, in a building we used to live in a few years ago. Here is what I saw from our back door.

Tea and roti

Making parathas and chai on the streets of Calcutta




Tea stall on the streets of Calcutta

Making rumali roti

Rumali rotis are very nice to eat. At Bademiya restaurant (a street stall on a small street between Colaba Causway and The Taj in South Bombay) they make Rumali rotis late night on the street to go with all the wonderful kebabs. There are two guys who are constantly pulling, stretching, and tossing dough next to the long grill on the side of the road. They have big trash cans filled with fire topped with upside down woks (kadais). They cook the giant thin flatbread on top of these burners for seconds, and fold them up then toss them into a basket whose supply is constantly being depleted by the waiters serving kebabs to people on the street and to the people in the dining room across the road. I asked the chefs at the Cidade de Goa kitchen to show me how to make the dough. It is just like tossing pizza dough. In the video below, you will see rumali rotis being prepared in the Cidade de Goa kitchen
then out on the streets of Bombay and Calcutta. The kebabs on the grill are from Bademiya. Then you will see the making of other Indian breads like tandoori naan in the kitchen of Cidade de Goa and Malabari parathas (flatbread from Kerala that is stretched super thin and then rolled up with oil before being flattened out and cooked).

Rumali Roti

3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
warm water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and add milk and yogurt. Mix together with enough warm water to make a soft dough. Knead for ten minutes. Allow to rest for 30 minutes in a warm place, covered with a damp towel. Cut into small balls and allow to rest for another 10 minutes. Heat a wok upsidown over medium heat. Roll out into thin disks and pull, stretch and toss to form a super thin sheet. Lay the sheet on top of the inverted wok and cook until it begins to bubble. Flip over and cook second side breifly. Fold like a handkerchief.

Tea snacks on the streets of Calcutta

Making kati rolls on the streets of Calcutta

Tune: Uptown Top Rankink by Althea and Donna from Lightning Records 7"

Tune: Calico Suit is the Version on the backside of the Up Town Ranking record.



Tune: I'm Still In Love with You by Hortense Ellis from the Conflict records 7"


Tune: Still in Love with You by U-Roy alongside Alton Ellis

Tune: Tupac Rockin Steady finds Tupac alongside Mr Ellis on his hit Rock Steady.


Tune: Bam Bam by Sister Nancy

Tune: Original Badman by Gorilla Black and Beenie Man on the Stalag Riddim with Sister Nancy in the background.

Tune: Fed Up is a missive tune by Bounty Killer over Dead Prez's Hip Hop Beat.




Tune: Hip Freak Hop Riddim Beatwalla Mix is a Soul Cocina Sound System Mix from a while back that features Bounty Killer and ends with the Fed Up cut. You'll also find M.I.A. up in the mix. And my favorite crazy Jamaican diva Macka Diamond chats a few lines.




Tune: Killer in Tunisia has Elephant Man singing over a version Dizzie Gilespies classic Night in Tunisia done by La Sonora Poncena Elephant man was born on 9-11 in the wonderful year of 1975.

Tune: Sonaremos El Tambo by Celia Cruz y La Sonora Poncena from the LP La Ceiba from Vaya records

Tune: Night in Tunisia by Dexter Gordon who is Lars Ulrich's Godfather. Lars (along with John Bonham) was of course a huge influence on the drum maestro James "Jimmy" Schanz.

Tune: What Am I to Do by Nigger Butler and Barber Brown from the Record City Label 7" is based on the Staple Singer classic I'll Take You There

Tune: What Am I to Do Version by R Butler

test the streamable chune

01 Styl Tala Pa Tay by soulcocina

Cashew Harvest in Sindhudurg

SOUL COCINA MOTION PICTURE Cashew Harvest in Mutt

I was lucky to visit Mutt in Sindudurg, Maharashtra (home of Malvani Cuisine) with Sachen, one of the students from ACE during cashew season last year. The cashew fruit is a great treat when it is ripe. You can't eat too much though because they make your mouth tingle and sting a little. There are many theories about cutting one end or the other first, or just adding salt to the fruit to take away the sneaky astringency, but I didn't find it to make much of a difference. A small price to pay for such a treat.

Where the real damage comes is from the shell of the nut. When you break the shell it lets off a bitter juice that can burn your finger... or as I found out the hard way, your mouth and tongue. There are people in the village who specialize in opening the shells of cashews. They grow their fingernails specifically for the annual process, and it leaves the fingers stained for weeks. You can see in the video above how hard it is to open a single nut.
The young greener nuts are soft and vegetablelike, almost like a fresh pea or bean. But if picked too young, the nut is bitter. These young green cashews would make a great salad. But it is the fully matured ripe nut that is highly prized. As soon as the fruit is harvested the nut is seperated from the fruit by hand and the fruit is sold to makers of Feni, while the nut is taken back to the village to be opened by hand. Everyone knows the going rate for cashews and mangoes in Sindhudurg.

Seperating the fruit from the nut is a family affair.

Tune: Family Affair by Doctor L and Antibalas from Mind Records 2006 7"

Sachen cuts the cashew fruit for an afternoon snack in the shade.

Cashew nuts, attached to the fruit at a market in Goa

Next to the cashew orchard, which has hundreds of trees, is a mango orchard just as vast. I was visiting just a month too early for mango season. These are the trees of the mighty Alphonso mango.

Tune: Wylin Out (Kutmaster Kurt Remix) by the Mighty Mos Def and Chitown's Diverse from the BBC 12" EP vol 2 from Bobby Friction and Nihal

Tune: Botallan Sharab Diyan by Bally Sagoo also from the BBC 12" EP vol 2 from Bobby Friction and Nihal

Here is a view of the well behind Sachen's family's home seen through a mango tree.

Talking a break from the heat, a cup of water from the well can't be beat.

Tune: Water No Get Enemy by Fela Kuti from the LP Expensive Shit

Tune: I Thirst by Dillinger from the album Cup of Tea

Exclusive Mix: Estoy Seco After 12:12AM Thirsty MIX in the Soul Cocina

This mix starts off with Estoy Seco by Conjunto Los Bucucos off the Salson LP then moves on to more salsa dura with La Reina Celia Cruz backed by La Sonora Poncena from the Lp La Ceiba released in 1979, the year of Chicago's great blizzard. Then the mix moves on to two modern cuts, the first is Mi Swing es Tropical by Nicodemus and Quantic then onto a song called Julieta by Oreja remixed by Seiji from Bugz in the Attic on a Candela label 12". From here we move on to the big song Magalehna by Sergio Mendes from the Brasileiro LP as the triangle takes us to the opening triangle from Willie Colon's Ghana E from the Gran Fuga LP. Then we drop a fun 7" from the glorious year of 1975. This '75 gem is a cover of Fela's Shakalao by Lizandro Meza y Su Conjunto from Colombia. The African vibe gets stronger and stronger as we cross the Atlantic to Ghana for a song from the Hedzoleh Soundz LP produced by the mighty Hugh Masakela. Then Back to Brasil for some beats from Marcelo D2's instrumental LP of A Procura Da Batida Perfeita. Next up- More beats with flavor.. this time from Spain with a little vibraphone action for all the newborns from Zeta, off of the 1999 LP Guateque. next a tune from Orishas Emigrante LP before we move into Mala Rodriguez chatting on Jota mayuscula's LP Hombre Negro Soltero Busca. Then we step into some heavy duty old school hipi hopi from Brasil by Filosofia de Rua and Duck Jam with nacao Hip Hop. The mix ends nicely with a tune from the Nia LP by Blackalicious

There are also jackfruit trees in Mutt.Jackfruit for sale in Mumbai above, and below in a market in Goa

They got chiku too!
Bells on the road back to Goa

Tune: Road to Goa from Vijay Raghav Rao's LP Festival Time
This song is typically Goan. It has that friendly childlike sound that I associate with a lot of Goan music. Similar to the instrumentation that backs Lorna or the music of Alfred Rose.


But pt Vijay Raghav Rao's music on Festival Time is not all so soft and simple.
Check out this tune from the record:
Tune: Sarod Dhun also from Vijay Raghav Rao's LP Festival Time