The Birth of Jungle Cumbia

-"A great album."  Alt.Latino, NPR
-"Fresher than almost anything else."  BWW Music World
-"Psych-funk brilliance."  Inside World Music
-"Jungle with attitude."  Perceptive Travel
-"Beautiful compilation."  Afropop Worldwide

In 1970, nine young men from a small Amazon jungle city in Peru made Latin music history. They didn't know it at the time but what Juaneco y su Combo were playing would come to be known as cumbia selvática: Jungle Cumbia. To them, it was roughly the same music they had always played, except faster and with newly amplified instruments. Raw, rough-edged, energetic, rhythmic, distorted, mysterious: The Birth of Jungle Cumbia is the sound of Juaneco y su Combo inventing a new genre.

Culled from two near-extinct vinyl releases from 1970 and 1972, this CD makes those historic recordings available for the first time in more than four decades. Shortly after these recordings were made, Juaneco y su Combo were discovered and signed by legendary cumbia producer Alberto MaravÍ, who tamed their sound in order to appeal to a larger audience. But this is the legendary band in all their raw Amazonian glory. The CD comes with a deluxe 28-page full-color booklet with rare photos, contemporary Amazon visionary art reproductions, and in-depth commentary on the history of the group and their songs by Amazon historian James Matos Tuesta.

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