Palos is considered the true Dominican Rural roots/ Pop religious type music and an extremely important genre. This type of music may eventually disappear, or just be heard on a few recordings as the cultural practices that support this type of music die out too. We want to keep up all the old traditions in Dominican Republic so as we find information on this old type of music we will post it.

Palos (tree in colloquial Spanish) music, also known as Atabales (from the Arabic tabl),  Bambula and Quiyombo.  The music is mainly drum music made with drums made of hollowed-out logs. These drums normally have a single cowhide head (there are variations in which both openings are covered with hide). The groups normally consist of two to three drummers with optional accompaniment. If they are accompanied it is by the metal  cylindrical scrapers known as güiras, maracas, or a stick beaten on the outside of the drum. The largest and deepest of these drums is called palo mayor or the master drum. The lead drum is many times accompanied by two smaller drums called alcahuetes which interpreted means pimps.

Grupo Sabor, located in Vermont, plays traditional music along with merengue and salsa. Thanks Alejandro Torrens for the info.!

These drums are played for saints’ festivals or cofradías, for more personal vow type festivals and for the dead. Each type of festival commands a different type of rhythm. These rhythms are mainly distinguished by the words of the song. Really it is not a song as we know it but more like a call and response type of improvisational style of song with the lead singer changing spontaneously. The caller refers much to death and dead ancestors.

Drum dance or baile de palos, is a couple dance that symbolizes ritual pursuit. The dance has a balancing step that is alternated with a circular step. First going in one direction then changing to the other direction. It is said during the death ritual dances that the spirit of the dead person will enter an heir and dance.

Religious music that is usually heard at ceremonies of private brotherhoods. It was performed by singers who carry on old family traditions. There were Palos, summoning African deities cloaked as Christian saints, from Claudio Fortunato y sus Guedeses, and salves, fervent call-and-response songs, performed by Dona Chicha with nine other singers and three percussionists. Dona Chicha had an extraordinary voice that harked back to West Africa: strong and cutting, with improvisational phrasing that grew ever more elaborate. The impassioned quaver of her sustained high notes

Recorded by Verna Gillis and Ramón Daniel Pérez Martínez.

“Lying mid-way between Puerto Rico and Cuba in the West Indies is the Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern two-thirds of an island, the other of which is Haiti. The aboriginal name of the island was Quisqueya, which means ‘mother of the earth.’ When Columbus discovered the island in 1942 he renamed it ‘Española.’ In Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, one still sees the remains of the first church built in America. Here is the house where Cortés kept the court records before he had even heard of Mexico. From here Ponce de León set out in search of the Fountain of Youth…”

TRACK/PERFORMERS

These are custom made albums with some lost music from Dominican Republic. If you would like to listen to samples of the songs click on the album cover/picture and it will take you to that recording. Also if you are interested in purchasing the albums just click on the cover art and it will take you to that album on the Earth CD web site. Tell Larry we here at Colonial Zone-DR sent you! Also available are DVD's (including the one above) or various music and events that are very interesting

The aboriginal name of the Dominican Republic was Quisqueya, which means ‘mother of the earth. When Columbus discovered the island in 1492 he re-named it 'Espanola'.

Work songs, feast celebrations, popular music, and religious music including Palos are documented here.

Diverse collection with a range from children's songs to heavy spiritual ritual music. Lot's of good African influenced drumming/dance called 'calenda' that was always associated with religious festivities. It was prohibited in the 18th century and was forced to become syncretized. We also can hear a 10 minute track of a very bizarre British tradition called 'Mummies'.

Recorded by Verna Gillis and Ramón Daniel Pérez Martínez.

Check out Earth CDS for more great music that you won't be able to find anywhere. Thanks Larry for the info.

Miguel Fenton, originally from Dominican Republic studied music at the Santo Domingo Conservatory. Miguel took instrument making classes and studied in a variety of percussion workshops in Cuba, Haiti and with Alto Moreida (Brazillian Percussion). In 1975, he was a percussionist with the Santo Domingo Music Conservatory Orchestra, the Dominican Folk Ballet, and played in the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival.

Mostly interested in his country’s musical roots, from 1982 to 1985 he lead the band Raices. They focused on Jazz,  Dominican folklore influenced music, and they had many concerts using experimental blends of percussion. He has become very popular in Canada.

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AsaDife, performing the rural carnival music called gaga

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This video from Earth CD's is an exert from DVD 'The Culture of Palo'," It is an archival collection of all the marvelous musical-religious expressions encountered in the course of filming 'MISTERIOS'. This footage is presented as a valuable and long-awaited addition to the scarce material available on the subject of religious music and traditions in the Dominican Republic. Anthropologists, ethno-musicologists and the general public will find this work entertaining and educational. It will also offer them a new and valid teaching tool, but most of all, help preserve at least a small part of this rapidly disappearing and mutating oral tradition."

          More interesting videos about Palos music.

Luis "Terror" Dias, one of the most versatile Dominican artists with the "Palo Mayor" video. More information on Luis Dias here.