Carlos Vives' new album Cumbiana, a search for the indigenous roots of Colombian music, sees him at his finest. It is exuberant, soulful, beautiful and important without ever sounding overbearing, a very difficult balance to achieve.
Featuring duets with Jessie Reyez, Ruben Blades and Alejandro Sanz, Cumbiana -- out Friday (May 22) -- treads that line between what’s commercial and what is artistic, with a slightly different premise (for Vives, at least). “I discovered a lost world.
That’s the truth,” Vives simply states, speaking from his home in Bogota, where he’s been in lockdown for the past two months. “We’ve always spoken about our African heritage in music,” he adds. “We’ve always thought that the most uplifting elements of our music