SXSW Wednesday Dispatch: El Cuarteto de Nos, Campo, Max Capote and more at Speakeasy

Two-time Latin Grammy winner El Cuarteto de Nos. (All photos by Guillermina Zabala) Here’s my quick take on the March 13 Sounds of Uruguay showcase at Speakeasy: Daniel “Tatita” Márquez Tatita Márquez is the lonely young king of Afro-Uruguayan candombe, the southernmost Afro-Latin rhythm in the world. It is a syncopated rhythm played with three drums: the piano (the bass drum, which serves as the rhythm’s heartbeat), the chico (the unchanging rhythmic pendulum that keeps the whole thing together), and the repique (which improvises over the other two). Working independently from the purist candombe mainstream, he has been doing his own thing for the last few years, mixing candombe with electronica, dance, hip-hop, and jazz. After his Haribol album, the initiated Hare Krishna devotee started a candombe/jazz project named Mukunda (“He who bestows liberation,” one of Krishna’s names), and quickly became the hottest Uruguayan percussionist (he’s one of two percussionists in Jaime Roos’ band, the most influential Uruguayan musician since the late ’70s). At SXSW, he had to open the show, and the usually calm Tatita (calm as in “Om”) didn’t mind showing his displeasure for not being able to do proper soundcheck. When told he had four minutes left, […]