Combo Chimbita

Chimbita formed in 2016 as a loose combination of friends and bandmates, many of whom had played together in other groups, all of whom were products of the Colombian diaspora who ended up as first generation New Yorkers making their way in the city’s fertile music scene. Through a year-long residency at Brooklyn’s iconic venue Barbès, an incubator for countless musical talents, the group’s sound evolved, mutated, and gradually came into focus. What had once been a casual jam session now clearly showed signs of real synergy, the kind of thing that demanded a dedicated approach to reveal where it would go. El Corredor Del Jaguar, an EP recorded in the infamous hangout known as El Bunker, was the result, and it showed the roots of all that would come ahead: the crackling rhythms of Dilemastronauta, Niño Lento’s razor sharp guitar, Prince of Queen’s cosmic synths, and above it all the mesmerizing vocals and propulsive guacharaca of Carolina Oliveros. 2017’s full length Abya Yala followed, with successive LPs dropping bi-annually after that (2019’s Ahomale and 2021’s Ire). Throughout it all, the band has toured relentlessly, developing a live show that is impossible to ignore. Whether it is the individual musicianship of the band, an evolving and intricate interplay of instrumentation that manages to be both tight and laser-focused as well as expansive and psychedelic, often in the space of a single song — or the shamanic intensity of Oliveros’s performance, always theatrical and fierce to the utmost, Combo Chimbita is forging their own unique musical path, one that is well worth following.

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