2008 Woodie Awards
Ozomatli Seeks To Inspire Both Mind And Body With Eclectic Repertoire
Adam Kosan
Issue date: 11/19/04 Section: Arts & Features
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First semester's Colgate Activities Board (CAB) music series comes to a close on Friday when reputed Latin hip-hop performers, Ozomatli, play a show in the Hall of Presidents.
Fresh off the release of their first full-length album in three years and a recent appearance on Last Call with Carson Daly, Ozomatli (or Ozo as they are known to their fans), is highly anticipated on campus, currently being touted as "the biggest show Colgate has seen in years" in CAB advertisements.
This kind of hype has come to be routine for the eleven-piece outfit over the last nine years, in which they have grown from a rag-tag coalition of impromptu performers to Grammy winners.
The group formed in 1995, when the founding members, who were in a variety of different bands in the L.A. area spontaneously came together to perform a fundraising show for the local Peace and Justice Center. They all agreed that something special had emerged, and soon thereafter began to play club dates, eventually developing a strong local following. Word-of-mouth spread about what many considered to be an invigorating young band with a fresh, new sound and eventually major record labels came calling. Tenor saxophonist Ulises Bella recalls, "This band did not start, at all, to get a record deal. It started out of love for the music we made."
But what made Ozo so special was that they lived what many other bands only dream of, rising rapidly from being casual performers to underground sensations to major record label residents.
A quick visit to www.Ozomatli.com will reveal that they pride themselves on utilizing a wide variety of musical styles and offering socially-conscious messages in their songs. The group's name is culled from that of an Aztec God of Dance and they seek to make good on this namesake by incorporating funk, hip-hop, salsa, rock and Middle-Eastern styles in their tunes. Bella believes, "The songs venture off to a lot of different areas. That's the beauty of Ozomatli, being able to do things really differently than everyone else."
Fresh off the release of their first full-length album in three years and a recent appearance on Last Call with Carson Daly, Ozomatli (or Ozo as they are known to their fans), is highly anticipated on campus, currently being touted as "the biggest show Colgate has seen in years" in CAB advertisements.
This kind of hype has come to be routine for the eleven-piece outfit over the last nine years, in which they have grown from a rag-tag coalition of impromptu performers to Grammy winners.
The group formed in 1995, when the founding members, who were in a variety of different bands in the L.A. area spontaneously came together to perform a fundraising show for the local Peace and Justice Center. They all agreed that something special had emerged, and soon thereafter began to play club dates, eventually developing a strong local following. Word-of-mouth spread about what many considered to be an invigorating young band with a fresh, new sound and eventually major record labels came calling. Tenor saxophonist Ulises Bella recalls, "This band did not start, at all, to get a record deal. It started out of love for the music we made."
But what made Ozo so special was that they lived what many other bands only dream of, rising rapidly from being casual performers to underground sensations to major record label residents.
A quick visit to www.Ozomatli.com will reveal that they pride themselves on utilizing a wide variety of musical styles and offering socially-conscious messages in their songs. The group's name is culled from that of an Aztec God of Dance and they seek to make good on this namesake by incorporating funk, hip-hop, salsa, rock and Middle-Eastern styles in their tunes. Bella believes, "The songs venture off to a lot of different areas. That's the beauty of Ozomatli, being able to do things really differently than everyone else."