Ayó

Many Songlines readers will remember Andy Palacio, whose 2007 album Wàtina has become as much a classic for Belizean music as Buena Vista Social Club is for Cuban son. Fewer, perhaps, will remember that Wàtina was credited not just to Andy but to ‘Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective'. But they should. Ayó, the first album the band have recorded since Palacio’s tragic early death, is a belated but more than worthy follow-up, and a sure indication that the Garifuna Collective were as much a part of the magic as their front man.

The CD kicks off with ‘Ayó', a goodbye to Palacio, with a melancholy paranda melody as dripping with mournful sadness as Palacio’s stunning ‘Baba’. Paranda music in general is underscored by the sacred pulse of Garifuna heart drums – which hang in dugu temples in Belize. Their rhythms are passed from generation to generation by the keeper of the temple; these drums hold the rhythmic ritual memory of the Africa the Garifuna were exiled from back when Belize was but a flea biting blood-red logwood out of the flank of the Spanish main. The pulse of the heart drums, lilting African-tinged melodies and a jangle of guitars mingled together to make Wàtina one of the greatest records in the history of Belizean music. They do the same on Ayó, lulling us into a sense of loss on gorgeous ‘Gudemei’ (Poverty) and the haunting and hypnotic ‘Alagan’ (Legacy), lifting our spirits and our bodies on up-tempo tracks like ‘Ubóu’ (The World). One of a handful of puntas on the album it’s an example of an age-old call-and-response Garifuna dance style resurrected by Pen Cayetano and by Palacio and the Garifuna Collective in the 90s. I could have plucked any examples of the album’s greatness out at random. Every track’s a gem.

This is a CD it’s hard to speak too highly of: beautiful songs beautifully played, soulfully sung, and masterfully crafted by the great Ivan Duran. Palacio may have died, but Garifuna music is alive. And it is very, very well.