Celso Duarte
Presented with Celebrate Mexico Now Festival

Show Description

Celso Duarte, harpist for Lila Downs, began his studies of the harp and Latin-American music at a very early age with his father, a world renown Paraguayan harpist. Charismatic, talented and deeply profound, Celso Duarte has been recognized as a virtuoso of the harp by main international critics. His expertise extends mainly to the Paraguayan harp, Celtic harp, and Mexican Jarocha harp. Celso Duarte presents the main exponent of the music of Veracruz "the harp". Since the 1950s when Son Jarocho erupted on the world scene, the harp has had an important role in bringing to the audiences the most representative melodic sounds of this style of music which originates from Veracruz and Mexico. At the concert level and as solo instrument, the harp is presented for the first time as it interprets the songs in the old way like in the jaranero movement. Celso's band is a mixture of great traditional and classical musicians with jazz players. The beauty of this ensemble consists of both, the execution of traditional music which comes from the baroque and African roots, and the experimentation of fusion between jarocho rhythms and jazz, in which the instruments acquire an extraordinary versatility rarely seen.

Celso's new CD "South to South" marks the debut of a musical career, diverse in exploration and rich in tradition. In "Petenera", we hear the Andalusian roots as manifested in Mexico in the son huasteco violin. "Apolonita" features Celso's virtuoso playing of the Paraguayan harp as he evokes distant lands by integrating the warm and expressive sound of the udu drum, a percussive clay pot found throughout Nigeria giving this south american jewel a distinct East-Indian flavor. "El Coco", drawing upon the power of batá drums, immerses us in the polyrhythmic African flavor of son jarocho. "Samba-Bamba" explores and recognizes the affinity between the Brazilian genre and Mexican son, a confluence of the black presence on both ends of the continent. Celso opens wide the window of possibilities and invites us to embrace the vibrant musical landscapes of Mexico and Paraguay. With his first recording as a leader, he compels us to keep the window open to the winds of the south, eagerly awaiting what is to come.

This event is part of Celebrate Mexico Now, a citywide festival of contemporary Mexican art and culture produced by CD Management.