Jorge ´Pito’ Perea is a Chocoano composer, arranger, percussionist and vocalist, born in La Loma, Bojayá municipality.
His latest musical production ‘Sabor de Bojayá Pacífico’ includes eleven songs of his own, where he mixes old-school salsa rhythms with rhythms from the Pacific: 1. Timbalaye 2. Suena El Tambo 3. Con La Salsa Me Quedo 4. Salsa With Samba 5. Women Of The Coast 6. Owner Of My Love 7. Explanation 8. Pa’l Pueblo 9. The Old Vegajo 10. For You 11. Satua.
Between the humid tropical forest, beautiful sunsets and rivers with restless paths in La Loma, Bojayá, the sounds with which Jorge Perea lived from a very young age and with which he had fun resounded: gallons of oil and plastic jars; However, between games, these became his bongos, timpani and bass drums.
Everything has a beginning His mother kept musical wisdom and over time she taught him to understand it, starting him on this exciting adventure. “Once we were in the room and my mother says to me: ‘Lend me that bongo’, and I, surprised, say to her, “Go, you know what it’s called. And she began to play. Then she answers me: “What do you think? When I was a girl we had a musical group and I was a bongo player”.
To the rhythm of Carmen, Norita and María
Carmen, Norita and María, that was the name of the boats that allowed her to travel the rivers of her homeland, and that, when crossing its waters, detonated with natural harmony the sounds of birds and amphibians.
Arriving from La Loma to Quibdó, currently a journey that takes four hours by boat, a young Jorge and his friends turned the afternoons into parties. “I would take the timbales with me, conga and bombón, and in the patio of the house, and in the afternoons, we would do rumbas with the boys who came from all over, they came to see us play and they also learned from us”, he comments enthusiastically. .
His first official instrument was the conga, which he played in the ‘Piedmont’ tavern, where magic happened, together with the marimba and the charrasca, forming a set of rhythms, dances and traditions.
Perea currently claims through his musical knowledge the ancestral sounds that over time have merged, a reminiscence of what has gradually faded: “Roberto Roena, La Fania, Cheo Feliciano have been my source of inspiration and I try to make my music in that style”, says Perea wistfully.
Folklore in the classroom
In 1982 he arrived in the city of Bogotá hoping to start his musical career, he began playing in taverns, discovering groups like Guayacán. His talent and the forcefulness of his ‘tasty’ led him to do the choirs and play the maracas, for great friends and accomplices like the singer Nicogembe.
In his long career, he has also been a singer and Timbalaye, his first album, amply evokes its meaning: a musical genre of Afro-Spanish origin that emerged with power in Cuba at the end of the 19th century; In short, a gathering of Caribbean musicians playing percussion masterfully. Songs like Suena el tambor and Con la salsa me quedo pay a well-deserved tribute to the ancient rhythms of this genre.
Being a professor of folklore at the National University of Colombia, cumbia, currulao and chande were always present in his classes, as honorary ambassadors of the diversity of sounds, immersing his students in a path of recognition of the musical knowledge of their ancestors.
Perea will continue with his passion in music, being the teacher and apprentice of this fine fabric between rhythms, harmonies and melodies that merge into an unparalleled magic, demonstrating love for his true roots and intertwining the authenticity of his sounds in an exceptional way. melancholy and cultural roots, such as the memory and feeling for their land La Loma-Bojayá.