La Rueda de Candombe: Uruguay's Beating Heart

0:00On April 20th, every Monday night in Montevideo, Uruguay, hundreds packed plaza de Espania for La Ruida de Candombé, a lively circle of drums, guitars, and voices pulsing with the city soul. This group just wrapped their season finale on Sunday, with six musicians jamming out Candombé rhythms that UNESCO calls an intangible cultural, heritage of humanity. Inspired by Brazilian music circles called Rodas, founders Caleb Amado and Rollo Fernandez brought the vibe home after a trip to Rio last fall. They started small with four friends around a table, blending Uruguayan drums, guitar and accordion into something fresh yet rooted deep. Word spread fast on social media, pulling in crowds that overflowed from a tiny bar into the square, even drawing tourists in vans. They've shared stages with stars, like Jorge Drexler at the Centenario Stadium, dropped an album, and repped Uruguay at the Con Film Festival this.

1:00Candombé traces back to the 18th century, born from African traditions of enslaved people right at that historic plaza. It evolved through jazz fusions into a voice for culture and politics in the 60s and 70s, peaking during February carnivals with parading, comparsis. As winter hits, the crews not fading out, they're gearing up new projects to spin their Ruida into more Montevideo squares, keeping that ancestral. Eat a live and growing. That's your update from Entertainment and Celebrity News today, Power by AI. I'm Corey with The Story.