Ozomatli brings rhythms of fire and dance

By Jack Beeson
Adelante Staff

KYLE MCDANIEL/Adelante
On April 26, Ozomatli rocked the Blue Note in Columbia. For the finale, the band joined the audience on the dance floor.

Ozomatli band member Ulises Bella summed up the band’s April 26 show at the Blue Note in Columbia pretty well when he said: “I think it’s hard to keep your body still when you watch Ozomatli, and that’s for sure — it's one hell of a party.”

Song after song, the band from Los Angeles kept the energy up and the crowd moving with a mélange of music that defies categorization. With lyrics in English and Spanish, and music ranging in style from reggae to salsa to hip-hop, Ozomatli — which shares its name with the Aztec god of fire and dance — has a sound all its own. After 10 years of making music, the band draws on every possible musical style, Bella said, but produces a sound derived mainly from what he calls “roots music.”

“All the music that we blend, whether it be hip-hop, reggae, cumbia, salsa, it all started in a neighborhood somewhere,” Bella said.

Launching into an up-tempo start with “Dos Cosas Ciertas,” a track from its 1998 self-titled debut album, the 10-man ensemble created a sound party of trumpets, trombones, drums, guitars, and just about any other instrument imaginable. It was irresistible even to the most dedicated of wallflowers.

With exhortations to “Clap it up, y’all,” the band got the crowd’s hips swaying, heads bobbing and hands clapping.
The carnival-like atmosphere was interrupted only once during the show, taking a slower, more mellow tone during “Cuando Canto,” one of the band’s gems from its most recent 2004 release, “Street Signs.” The lyrics highlight one of the band’s trademarks — a social conscience.

Bella said the band has supported various causes over the years, with its main focus now U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and the “Minute-man” project in border towns in Texas and Arizona.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t share the politics of the band but love it for the music. Any way that we can connect, I’m all in favor of,” Bella said.

That connection became real at the end of the show. Instead of exiting from the stage’s sides, the band came down into the crowd. The performance culminated in a drum line that ended on the stairs leading to the Blue Note’s balcony.