Planetario

planetario is a livestream series that explores world music one country at a time

I kicked off my Planetario series with a livestream on Cuban music, because it’s one of my favorite places for music. The mix includes Cuban folkloric music, son, changüí, bolero, timba, rap and electronic music. Listen here.

I’ve been obsessed with Brazilian music most of my life, to the point that I decided to study Portuguese in college just because I loved the music so much. Brazil has so much amazing music, so many different genres that it’s impossible to really do it justice in a comprehensive mix. I focused on samba, pagode and mpb. Listen here.

Puerto Rico wasn’t first because I didn’t want to be predictable, but being from there means that all of this music has deep significance to me. These mixes are strongly grounded in African roots so there is bomba, plena, and salsa, but there is also nueva trova and música jíbara. Listen here.

I have been exploring the music of Colombia for over twenty years, and it’s a country that never ceases to amaze me. One of the things that I find very special about Colombia is that, despite the fact that it has a rich and varied musical tradition, unlike some of the other countries that I feature it is not as insular. It seeks out music from other countries, even music in other languages and soaks it in like a sponge. My mix features cumbia, vallenato, bullerengue, currulao, salsa, and more. Listen here.

I didn’t discover Haitian music until relatively recently, but I’ve made up for lost time. For the past 5 years, I’ve been seeking it out assiduously in record stores and have become a big fan. The mix has several classics of kompa, kadans, meringue, and rara. Listen here.

The Dominican Republic is not just close to Puerto Rico physically, it is a sister island with a strong cultural connection to us. Of course my mix features merengue, but also palo, gaga, bachata and salsa. Listen here.

It was hard to decide what the first African country in the series would be- but Nigeria felt right. The mix includes highlife, afrobeat, juju, fuji, and afrobeats. Listen here.

To be honest, I felt intimidated by Jamaica. It has produced such an enormous volume of terrific music, and there are so many great vinyl DJs with deep collections, that I didn’t know if I would do it justice. Researching for this mix was super enjoyable and I learned a lot. The mix includes mento, calypso, ska, reggae, and dancehall, among others. Listen here.

Some of my closest friends are from Venezuela. Living in New York I’ve come to learn about how similar Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans are. But before this livestream, I had to do a lot of research to really scratch at the surface of Venezuelan music. My mix includes joropo, salsa, merengue, pop, parranda, and more. Listen here.

Part of my mission as a DJ is to expose people to music they don’t know. Although I love a lot of US music, since it is so ubiquitous I tend to focus on music from other countries. But putting together this livestream and mix, which focuses mainly on black N. American music, was a real blast. The mix includes blues, gospel, zydeco, funk, soul, R&B, rap, and also some Native music. Listen here.

Mexico was another country I was intimidated to cover. It took a lot of research to feel comfortable doing this livestream, and the resulting mix is one of my favorites. Most of the mixes were somewhat chronological, but I decided to switch it up with this one. It starts with rock en español, and then explores other genres such as cumbia, electronic music, banda, and son jarocho. Listen here.

I would have liked to do separate shows on Cape Verde and Angola, but I felt like I didn’t have enough music to do separate shows, much less on Guinea Bissau or Sao Tome and Principe. So my livestream was on all of these countries, and the mix features funana, coladeira, morna, rebita, semba, tabanka, kizomba, kuduro and more. Listen! 

Ever since I spent a year living there, I developed a special affinity for Spanish music. Although the mix focuses on the Andalusian flamenco tradition, I tried to represent other genres and languages of Spain. Listen here.