Photo by Piero F. Giunti
Ozomatli
Ozomatli
Anyone who’s spent 30 seconds with Ozomatli’s high-energy, groove-oriented, stylistically diverse catalogue knows the group makes body-moving music based in Latin rhythms like salsa, cumbia and merengue that are fused with reggae, samba, funk, hip-hop and second line jazz. Ozomatli will perform Friday, Aug. 22 at Vivarium.
For 30 years, Ozo’s six founding members—Raúl Pacheco (guitar, vocals), Wil-Dog Abers (bass), Ulises Bella (saxophone, vocals), Asdru Sierra (trumpet, vocals), Jiro Yamaguchi (percussion) and Justin Porée (percussion, vocals)—have been bringing people together and starting parties with their global sounds, something they’ll continue to do on the celebratory “30 Revolutions Tour.”
With more than 40 shows booked from coast to coast, Ozomatli’s biggest tour in years “is not just a celebration of the past—it’s about reconnecting with communities and cultures that shaped us,” Porée says in a press release.
“Our whole lives were committed to the first 15, 16 years,” Pacheco added in a recent interview. “That’s really when we traveled the most and toured the most.” From hometown clubs in Los Angeles to touring several continents as U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors, to earning three Grammys, it’s been quite a run.
In going so hard for so long, there wasn’t a lot of time for reflection. Looking back “is something I don’t think we have a tendency to do,” Pacheco said.
But when 30 years officially hit on April Fools’ Day of this year, the guys in Ozomatli paused and realized, “Oh, wow. This is kind of a big deal. We looked at each other and [said] it’s worth recognizing that we survived for this long and appreciating one another and appreciating the history we’ve experienced. And the love we have felt, the love we’ve given.
“The joke is: This is the longest relationship that we’ve ever been in. It’s worth taking the time as a bunch of men to thank one another, but thank everybody else too for allowing us to have a life as musicians, which is what we always wanted from the beginning,” Pacheco said.
Of course bandmates have come and gone (most famously emcee Chali 2na and turntablist Cut Chemist, who were featured on the group’s 1998 self-titled debut, but ultimately decided to focus their energies on their rap group, Jurassic 5); meanwhile the core of Ozomatli has been able to stick with it for so long because while music is how the six players (plus drummer Mario Calire, currently in his 13th year) express themselves, it may not be their highest calling.
“We love to play music, so we had committed to that as individuals. We were gonna do that for our lives,” Pacheco said, adding that in 1995, bassist Abers was the one who made the first call “to see if we wanted to support some workers that were on strike. We’re the ones who showed up.” It was not just an opportunity to play music but “a cause that we felt compelled to support.”
“We’re all very different,” he continued. “It’s why our songs go from one style to the next, depending who brings the idea and who is spearheading that particular idea that turns into a song. We’re all into different music…You don’t have to be the same or like the same things in order to make something special and good.”
This statement could serve as a broader metaphor for how we all can live our lives: You don’t have to share the same opinions to collaborate, or meet in the middle. “Our creative process is a real negotiation,” Pacheco states. “I think that’s one of the reasons why we probably don’t have more records out, but it’s also one of the reasons why we’re still together. None of us are forcing stuff down each other’s throat.”
The band’s eclectic sound was also born of necessity. The early months saw Ozomatli playing chaotic but fun free shows (where “anybody could show up—there could be 15 people on stage”) to support “lefty social justice causes.” As for what to play at each gig, “everyone just put their two cents in and then it would evolve into something, because we were under pressure to have music to play the next day or that night,” Pacheco said.
Whether singing in Spanish or rapping in English, Ozomatli’s lyrics have consistently spoken out about injustices and pushed for global equality. It’s always been music with a message.
While rehearsing and preparing for all the songs that could appear on this anniversary tour, Ozomatli is also making new music. True to themselves, “Red Line” is “an ode to the workers of the world,” Pacheco said. The new song’s chorus goes, “They say, ‘Don’t take the red line.’”
“It’s about working-class people having to [travel] two hours on a train to go to work, not really being able to integrate. How we often don’t integrate, whether we’re rich or poor or whether we’re from different races, and how we encourage that people should. You know, we think that the world would be better if we were a little bit more open to one another.”
