Album Notes

The musical seeds of Central America burst in exuberance from the heart of a papaya. Using marimbas, turtle shells, African and pre-Colombian drums, guitars and violins, Papaya Orchestra expresses the spirit of the land bridge between two oceans, from the melancholy of a rural farmer to the soul of carnaval.

Central America is the Land of Sweet Longing. It is an ark –a vessel carrying trees and palm groves. It is a seed beached on the sand awaiting a bright future. The cover art painting by Cuba's René Martín symbolizes fertility and the feminine essence of the fruit for which the orchestra is named. It is an image that characterizes the purpose of this second disc: to find and record the talented female voices inhabiting this piece of the planet.

Central America is no longer a mythical place of blue jade, boundless gold and teeming jungles. It is a land with a convulsive and complex history, trampled by wars and hurricanes, yet still preserving patches of virgin forest and people capable of sweetening reality with their music, their work and their capacity to rise again. In the words of Honduran Guillermo Anderson, from a song that gives title to this disc: “I saw walls crack/ I saw dictatorships fade/ I saw mountains of fire/ I saw bitterness on faces. I know the wrath of men/ I know the calm of beasts/ My country is called the Land of Sweet Longing.

"Nanita", composed by the Guatemalan artist Magda Angelica, pays homage to the Cackchiquel woman who raised her. The song embodies the Indigenous soul of Central America and points us down the road towards an exploration of this musical landscape, in the company of various women, artists, composers
and singers.


Women in the Orchestra

Originally, Papaya Orchestra was made up of 14 musicians, all men. Now five female voices have been added, headed by Yomira John, an Afro-Panamanian with immense stage presence and a voice reminiscent of Toto La Momposina.

Yomira was born in Panama City and was raised in the area of Chiriquí, one of the great salt water lagoons on the Caribbean shore of Panama. At 14 she was touring the country in the company of folkloric groups; in Mexico she abandoned her teaching career to sing calypsos in an Acapulco bar with Haitian and Panamanian immigrants. Yomira has sung with Luis Miguel, Ricky Martin and Danny Rivera. She tried her luck singing pop and boleros, “but it was pretty discouraging. I had to go back to my roots to feel good about where I am.”

The Protestant churches in Costa Rica's Caribbean coast are a mine of choral treasures. These treasures include the Tucker sisters, daughters of an Adventist minister who shared his vocal gifts with the entire family. The Tucker sisters have shared the stage with several Papaya Music artists, including Manuel Obregón and Malpaís Group.

The orchestra's second disk is the fruit of a collective creation. Each theme was based on a musical idea created by one of the orchestra members, while the others built on the song with their improvisations, adding instruments or pieces of lyrics. At first Manuel Obregón did all the arrangements; now the orchestra members have come to understand one another and arrange their music together. They have found a common voice: the voice of this “Land of Sweet Longing.”