Pazyflora LIVE! Miami Beach Bandshell’s North Beach Social

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In my last post, I featured photographs from the Miami Sound Choir who headlined the North Beach Social at the historic Miami Beach Bandshell this past Thursday night. Miami based cumbia outfit Pazyflora kicked off the evening, but they really didn’t just open the show as much as they blew the door off its hinges and stormed in like a category five hurricane.

Pazyflora | Miami Beach Bandshell

Pazyflora describe their music as “ritmos del Caribe colombiano” – a blend of sounds: drums with Afro-Colombian rhythms, gaitas (flutes), and bullerengue, traditional Afro-Colombian dance. The origins of cumbia can be traced back to the 16th century, when African slaves were brought to the Caribbean coast of Colombia by Spanish colonizers. These slaves mixed their traditional rhythms and dances with those of the indigenous people and Spanish settlers, giving birth to the cumbia we know today.

And when you watch Pazyflora, you don’t just hear the music, you pretty much feel it down to your bones. I was fortunate enough to catch them almost exactly a year ago when my ladyfriend Serena brought me along to catch them at Zey Zey in Miami last June (CLICK HERE to view the gallery). You can read more about them, as well as the reemergence of Cumbia in Miami in this recent post in the Miami New Times.

The evening was all part of Miami Beach Bandshell’s North Beach Social which takes place every third Thursday of the month. Rhythm Foundation, a non-profit cultural organization and leading presenter of international music in the US, in partnership with the City of Miami Beach, present a free (that’s right, FREE!) night of music featuring some of Miami’s finest music makers and artists.

With Pazyflora turning up the heat on an already hot and humid evening and the whole Miami Sound Choir enjoying the show in front of the stage (including my ladyfriend and choir member Serena), I was starting to wonder how on earth would they ever compose themselves to carry out their closing act performance. But compose themselves they did, somehow managing to close out the evening with deeply moving songs of faith, love and devotion. A truly wonderful evening. I was happy to have been a part of it. Nuff said.

Enjoy the full gallery…