During the last decades, the cumbia -in all its aspects- has been taken up by the new generations that have reimagined, reinvented and merged it with many styles, to take it throughout the American continent and beyond.
Thus, we have heard all kinds of proposals, many of them made with the help of sampling and produced with the facilities provided by software and others. digital toolsand sometimes presented by one or two artists, in keeping with the times of practicality and immediacy that we live in.
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But what happens when we suddenly hear a band again? musicianswith real instruments, whether in a recording or on stage? That the magic of live music is reaffirmed as a unique and irreplaceable language.
The members of Delio Valdez (LDV), an Argentine ensemble that also has the luxury of performing with a format of up to 16 musicians who enrich their sound with the integration of saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, güiros and timbales, among other instruments that make them more of a a orchestraas they are actually presented.
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Since its foundation in 2009, LDV resumes the great orchestral tradition of the continent, based on a cooperative organization reminiscent of the orchestras of tango from the fifties and which is inspired by the great Caribbean orchestraswhich shine for their “powerful and overwhelming” display, as they call it.
In all these years, the group has been conquering more and more spaces, first in the Southern Coneafter other points on the American continent, including Mexicoand more recently some european citieswho have also been conquered by the power and color of their proposal.
And three of its members told us about all this: Pablito (trumpet), Pablo Broide (sax) and Ivonne (voice)starting with the pros and cons of being such a large group in times where practicality is privileged:
“Well, since it started, La Delio has always been a large band, having at least ten members, which always made us a kind of rarity, but for us it is an advantage, because we are many heads pulling in the same direction and thus we have a much stronger drive than if it were a band in which There is only one leader and the others only follow him; We understand that this format It does not fit into the logic of the market from now, where what would matter most would be to lower costs and distribute everything among fewer people, but we privilege work in a different way; we prefer to do it our way and that is something that is also reflected in the sound, because we are many people committed to a project that belongs to everyone.”
From the beginning they chose to have a sound more related to traditional orchestras, mainly with acoustic instruments, which gives them the possibility of sounding without plugs.
A band that can sound without plugs
Although they agree that musically, the market favors those proposals in which a track is pulled from a computer and there is only one face that is the most visible, if any They choose to have a sound more related to traditional orchestras and mainly with acoustic instruments, which gives them another superpower: They are a band that can sound without plugs.
“In fact It has happened to us, that the power suddenly goes out and nothing, we continue playing because the vibration of the air and acoustic instruments allow you that,” they add.
This 2024, the orchestra returns to Mexico to have a special participation in the Pa´l Norte Festival and visit Puebla, Guadalajara and CDMX, where they will play alongside Son Rompe Pera
Pablito emphasizes the fact that LDV stands out for being a band in which the winds predominateunlike many cumbia groups on the continent, whose sound is based more on the guitarhe accordion or the synthesizers:
“That comes from the references we have of the orchestras of the fifties and where you can blow hard, as much as you want, especially if you are young… And of course, LDV has bass and electric guitar, drum and other instruments that we incorporated, because that was how we found our sound that emerged inspired by part of those orchestras.”
About “collaborationitis”
The band is no stranger to the current trend of collaborate with other artists in the recording of several songsbut they argue that for them the most important thing is always Maintain your own style.
“There are many artists that we admire and with whom we feel super privileged and proud to be able to share music, but we are always very careful so that any collaboration we do maintains the LDV seal, which don’t miss the orchestral sound and that it continues to make sense for us, both in the human as well as the artisticwe always try to make the flow flow energyso that it is not something forced.”
In LDV the winds predominate, unlike other cumbia groups on the continent, whose sound is based more on the guitar, accordion or synthesizers.
About his arrival on the European continentthe group members say that They like the idea that their music not only reaches Latin American people. who lives there, but also to the public originally from that area:
“We do not only target the Argentine community or to the latin communitybut to to be able to reach the European public with our musicbecause we feel that we have a product that is up to the task and that can represent our country on other continents, although of course we feel very accompanied and very supported by our compatriots, because what happens to all of us is that you listen to a song popular from your land and that immediately takes you back to your childhood, that’s why it’s nice to go there and share a little of our cumbia.”
The classics that cannot be missing in your shows
“There are some classic classics that will always beas “Black, rum and candles“, “Innocent” and “The little song“, which are classics that we always have to play, although later that changes and also over the years we give ourselves the opportunity to rotate some songs and make new lists to connect with each country.”
Thus, the band keep getting listenswhether in the virtual field – just in Spotify They have the not inconsiderable amount of 3 million monthly listeners – as on stages, offering presentations that they define with terms such as: dance, passion, family, celebration and catharsis.
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“On these tours we are doing a lot friendships and knowing a lot people of music and cultureso every time we leave a country we really get a lot richer and that too It helps shape our sound all the time.it is something that also happens to us in our country, when we see the landscapes again, the way people speak, their music, everything that makes LDV like a catalyst or a bottleneck where all of this is found. and that makes a constantly evolving sound come out,” they conclude.