Episode #155: "I Have SOMETHING To Say" with special guest, Dimas Sánchez

<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb="white">By day he’s a Computer Science and Engineering Professor. The rest of the time, my good friend Dimas Sánchez is a Master Percussionist and a steward of music that’s been passed on from generation to generation by descendants of the African diaspora.  In this episode of I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, we talk about the upcoming release of a book he co-authored entitled “Ritmos Afro Puertorriqueños” through which he and Jesús Cepeda, of the family that is world-renowned for preserving the tradition of Bomba music in Puerto Rico, document the history of this music genre and provide written music for people to learn how to play the rhythms of Bomba.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb= "white">The importance of this book is astronomical. It anchors our ancestral music into modern times because Dimas shares how when he traveled to Africa, he became aware that some of the rhythms being played there today are being played in Puerto Rico as well, unaltered, despite the violent efforts to strip the identity of enslaved people brought to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. As a skilled “primo” drum player (the principal drum in a Bomba ensemble), Dimas mentions that during his travels he also recognized the tradition of “marking” the movements of dancers when they engaged with the “primo” drum during the Puerto Rican Bomba, in various African regions.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb= "white">The book also documents Bomba music in written form for people of all backgrounds to have access to the infectious sounds of the drum and moving lyrics so it never ceases to exist (within the book there are QR codes that lead to pre-recorded demonstrations of how to play the drums – EPIC idea!). Dimas highlights that the Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba was about to die a few decades ago, but there was a resurgence because families like the Cepedas – with whom he studied Bomba – were determined to not let