World Music Festival -Sara Curruchich (Guatemala) and Menjunje (Chicago)

The annual World Music Festival Chicago features dozens of free and ticketed concerts with international and local artists performing music from all over the globe at venues throughout the city, including the Chicago Cultural Center.

Guests can experience the sounds of world music and its subgenres from diverse geographical regions including Brazil, South Korea, and Senegal.

Menjunje

In Puerto Rico, a menjunje is a healing drink made with ingredients typically improvised on the spot, often with whatever one’s grandmother has in her cupboard. A potent elixir that contains a variety of ingredients, a menjunje is a brew, a hodgepodge of items that are designed for healing.

Tenor-saxophonist’s Roy McGrath’s Menjunje had its genesis in 2017 when Chicago’s Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center hosted a tribute to the renowned Nova Trova singer-songwriter “El Topo” (Antonio Cabán Vale). They commissioned McGrath to arrange and perform some of El Topo’s works with his jazz sextet, including the four pieces that are included on this recent recording.

For Menjunje, Roy McGrath flew in two of his talented musical friends from Puerto Rico (pianist Eduardo Zayas and drummer Efraín Martínez) to join a group of top Chicago Jazz and Latin players consisting of: trumpeter Constantine Alexander, bassist Kitt Lyles, José A. Carrasquillo (on Puerto Rico’s national instrument, the five double string guitar called the cuatro) and two percussionists: Victor Junito González on punteador, congas and barril, and Javier Quintana-Oscasio on barril, requinto, bongo, quinto, campana, and congas. Menjunje uses the two percussionists to showcase the folkloric Puerto Rican styles called Bomba and Plena, featuring the handheld drums in Plena and the big barrel drums known as “Barriles” in Bomba. The group performs a repertoire consisting of four El Topo pieces arranged by McGrath and four complementary originals by the saxophonist.

Sara Curruchich

Guatemalan musician Sara Curruchich is a member of the Kaqchikel community, an Indigenous Mayan population. The Kaqchikel have a strong tradition of expressing themselves through art and also for fighting oppression, something that’s at the center of Curruchich’s work.

She often sings in her native Kaqchikel language, blending traditional Mayan musicality with modern folk and pop sensibilities. Lyrically, Indigenous rights, environmental issues, and social equality guide her messaging as she takes on the role of an ambassador for her people and for herself.

But as serious as that message is, Curruchich’s songs are full of light, with a sense of soaring drama and flair that break through barriers of language and culture. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a clear and melodic voice, and backed by marimba, bass, and percussion, Curruchich has many essential things to say and packages them in the most beautiful way possible.

Sara Curruchich Photo Credit - Josué Castro

Free admission.

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