Music |
Putumayo World Music
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
World
Putumayo World Music
When Dan Storper graduated from college in 1974, he recalls, “There were a tremendous number of disenfranchised Americans, and I was one of them.” But he wasn’t one of those kids who took refuge in music: “I was in the rat race, not paying attention.” Anyway, his thing was travel.
Fortunately, when Dan Storper was growing up, he had the good fortune to hear eclectic music: Harry Belafonte, Sergio Mendez, Miriam Makeba. And as he traveled in South America, buying clothing and crafts for his small New York shop, he was exposed to more. In 1991, he heard an African group that stopped him cold. He made tapes of that music and played them in what were now seven stores. Customers responded. A light bulb went off. In 1993, he launched Putumayo. (The name is of a river and valley in southern Colombia.) Four years later, he sold his clothing stores and dedicated himself to world music.
Putumayo CDs were how many of us first encountered this music. We heard it in health food stores and bookstores, often with incense and a New Age vibe in the air. When we took the music home, though, we discovered that it was just as satisfying in less freighted environments — and that our friends loved it too.
What was the appeal? Putumayo cherry-picked the best songs from each region or style, so its CDs were like a “greatest hits” anthology — but of music you’d never heard before. No filler, no duds. Just great music, start to finish.
A decade-and-a-half after its founding, Putumayo has almost 150 releases, with sales of about 20 million CDs; it’s the “little engine that could” of world music. Given the explosion in its category, it’s been easy for me to overlook Putumayo — until I checked my shelves and saw all those brightly illustrated CDs. Then I realized that Dan Storper was a major force in music — and someone we all ought to know. So I called him.
JK: Those records you listened to as a kid — they really were that influential?
DS: It was weird stuff from out of left field — but everyone loved them. Looking back, I would posit that, at any one moment, if you pulled l00 random people together and played them great Reggae or African music and then played music you hear on radio today, more than half would prefer the African and Reggae.
JK: You heard the most exotic music in the world’s most exotic places. But when you came home and listened to your tapes — without benefit of Afghani hash or Jamaican ganja — was the music as good?
DS: I never got caught up in the drug culture. And I was far too paranoid to do drugs in those places. I found that the experience of travel opens you — travel is the drug.
JK: These days, Putumayo music strikes me as bittersweet. Music encourages you to travel — but at the same time, Americans who venture abroad are not universally loved.
DS: I’ve always looked at the world as complex — America isn’t any one thing, It’s nice when people around the world like what Putumayo does. And I don’t like the way so much of what America creates is homogenized. I feel like we’re heading towards an America we could call ‘generica’.
JK: In a time when record companies are faltering, you’re profitable. How much of the credit goes to CDs displayed between the granola and the latest Dalai Lama book?
DS: Non-traditional markets — gift shops and health food stores — gave us a base. And it gave those businesses some revenue they could use to upgrade their CD players and earn extra income.
JK: Is that important?
DS: In a retail environment, music really enhances the experience.
JK: From my appearances on NPR, I see NPR as the single biggest proponent of this music.
DS: Ah, the power of NPR. That “All Things Considered” audience is connected. “World Playground,” for example. They did a review and played Manu Chao’s “Bongo Bong” on it — and that week, it sold more than anything we’d ever done.
JK: Is there a political message in Putumayo’s CDs?
DS: I see our role not just as introducing Americans to other cultures, but also as introducing people around the world to other cultures. I love when people from a region tell me they love the CD of that region — they didn’t know of some of those artists. And I love the format of our CDs. There is an idea of an introduction. It starts as a musical journey. The liner notes take you deeper. And if you’re interested, you can buy the whole album by an artist you like.
JK: Why are CDs for kids coming on so strong?
DS: This has been developing for awhile, as kids TV shows and movies have spawned hit albums. It had a peak in early in 2007, when 4 of the top 5 CDs on Billboard were for kids. It’s a moment —- but a huge market. On our side, I see the same issues for kids as for adults; it’s important to introduce kids to other cultures in a positive way. As music, this attraction to world music among children is natural — they have to be trained to like top 40 pablum.
JK: For the neophyte, what Putumayo CDs are best to start with?
DS: Acoustic Brazil and Acoustic Africa for the mellower side. From the groove and lounge series: Arabic Groove and Latin Lounge. An upcoming release, “World Hits” is a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I joke there will one day be a radio format called “world oldies.”
JK: Surely you have offers to sell the company.
DS: I think they’ve given up — I don’t even respond. When you’ve found what you love….
Love? From a music executive? Just one more reason why so many collect this music in this format.
To buy “Latin Lounge” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “French Cafe” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Arabic Groove” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Acoustic Africa” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Acoustic Brazil” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Putumayo Kids Presents: Sing Along With Putumayo” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Dreamland" (bedtime music for kids) from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Women of the World” from Amazon.com, click here.
To go to Putumayo.com, click here.
