#PickoftheWeek | The NY Son Jarocho Festival Ends in Grand Style with a Monster Concert in Queens

It’s time for a serious fiesta with La Bamba, El Coco, and La Bruja!

The NY Son Jarocho Festival will conclude with two days of tremendous musica at Flushing Town Hall this weekend.

The fun begins with a free album-release party with Tapacamino Colectivo Musiquero on Friday, Nov. 10, at 7 pm.

The Oaxaca-based ensemble has just produced, Vientos del Cerro, which features Grammy-winning poet Fernando Guadarrama and guest artists who mix South American rhythms to create musical landscapes that range from Afro-Colombian marimba to Andean flute artistry.

Then things will get a bit crazy with 10 local bands – including Los Guachinangos, Son Pecadores, and Juntas Chicas — and the Veracruz-based Ik’Balam with Helio Martín del Campo on jarana, Juan Galván on leona, and guests from the New York Latin jazz scene, on Saturday, Nov. 11, starting at 1 pm.

Tickets are $15.

The musical genre known as “Son” has origins all around Latin America. Mexican Son has three major styles: Huasteco; Jalisciense; and Jarocho. Son Jarocho combines indigenous Mexican, Spanish Baroque, and West African elements with often humorous lyrics about love, nature, and folklore. The most famous Son Jarocho songs are “La Bamba,” “La Morena,” and “La Bruja.”

The 13th annual NY Son Jarocho Festival began on Nov. 6. Practitioners and audiences get together at various NYC venues to share, learn, and celebrate their love for the 300-year-old genre. Workshops, concerts, fandangos, book readings, exhibitions, and documentary screenings are all in the mix before the culmination at Flushing Town Hall, which is located at 137-35 Northern Blvd.

Images: Tapacamino Colectivo Musiquero