Las Llamadas

As explained above this is one of the oldest and nowadays most visible drumming performance in Montevideo. There are two types of llamadas. The first is the informal neighborhood llamada that arises from rehearsals and similar, and the second are the official state organized parades. The most important would be the Desfile de LLamadas during the carnival season. (Sutton 29).

Today, the desfile is often being criticized for its commercialization, which leads to the loss of the traditional elements representing Afro-Uruguayan heritage. Critics say that the different calls have less differentiation nowadays (Lewis 47).

With the playlist above we invite you to listen to the distinct rhythm of Candombe. Maybe you can determine the call and response practices of the different drums as they were described above. The playlist contains traditional llamada examples, but also songs that shall show the diversity of Candombe within Uruguay’s music.