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<\/p>\nGenre-blurring band Ozomatli has long been recognized for its socially and politically conscious music. Combining rock, Latin music and hip-hop with positive messages, the Los Angeles-based collective has earned both commercial success and critical plaudits. And an important part of the group\u2019s work continues to be its outreach to young listeners. In many cities on Ozomatli\u2019s current tour, the group has scheduled additional matinee Ozokidz concerts aimed squarely at its youngest fans.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, Ozomatli was selected to take part in the U.S. State Department\u2019s cultural ambassador program. The request came as a surprise to the band members; they didn\u2019t think their brand of progressive politics lined up well with the goals of the George W. Bush administration. \u201cIt was kind of strange,\u201d says Ulises Bella, Ozomatli\u2019s saxophonist and clarinetist. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Are you sure you really want us?\u2019\u201d Bella says that the request \u201cdemonstrated that, in any government, there are going to be tons of different opinions; not everybody is gonna toe the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The band enjoyed the experience. \u201cThe people who chose us to do this work really wanted to represent some beautiful things that came out of this country,\u201d Bella says. \u201cWe got to demonstrate that, and we also created our own story, connecting with people through the language of music.\u201d<\/p>\n
One characteristic of the project with the State Department influenced the band\u2019s future direction. \u201cWhen we were doing cultural ambassador work, we were playing for kids all the time,\u201d Bella recalls. \u201cWe\u2019d go to schools, orphanages and homes. And we noticed that some of our material really resonated with kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in the U.S., Ozomatli was asked to open several dates on the kid-focused Yo Gabba Gabba tour. Bella says that the band began to realize that its fan base was getting older, and many fans now had children. \u201cWe thought, \u2018Let\u2019s create an album that will not only be cool for kids \u2014 with subject matter that\u2019s appropriate for them \u2014 but at the same time, we\u2019ll make the music quality enough where the parents don\u2019t want to stick things in their ears after a hundred listens,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The idea bore fruit, and in 2012, the band released Ozokidz<\/em>, a collection of songs about germs, skateboarding, spelling, the environment and the benefits of exercise. As hoped, the lyrics connected with young listeners, and the music showcased Ozomatli\u2019s winning multicultural\/multigenre sound.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really fun making that album,\u201d Bella says. \u201cHaving had lots of songs that are really heavy on sociopolitical things, now we were writing songs about washing our hands and how important trees are.\u201d He says that the move \u201clightened things up stylistically, too. We were doing things [musically] on the Ozokidz<\/em> album that we probably wouldn\u2019t have done on a regular Ozo record.\u201d<\/p>\n On the heels of Ozokidz<\/em>\u2018s success, the band began scheduling concerts aimed specifically at children. But Ozomatli experienced a few minor missteps while finding its way with the younger audience. \u201cI remember once, at an Ozokidz show, we didn\u2019t play \u2018Moose on the Loose,\u2019\u201d Bella says. \u201cAnd this kid started crying. We thought, \u2018Is this important?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The band quickly changed its set list. \u201cWe expanded our stage presentation, costumes and things like that,\u201d Bella says.<\/p>\n The\u00a0saxophonist explains that Ozokidz shows are high-energy. \u201cA regular Ozomatli show is like 90 minutes long, but an Ozokidz show is 35-50 minutes, tops,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to give the kids a bang for the buck.\u201d<\/p>\n Through its outreach to young listeners, Ozomatli has expanded, not changed, its focus. And the social themes that characterize much of the band\u2019s music remain at the collective heart of the group. At first glance, the band\u2019s all-covers, Spanish-language 2017 album Non-stop: Mexico to Jamaica<\/em> might seem a retreat from the gritty street perspective of earlier Ozomatli songs like \u201cVocal Artillery\u201d from 2001\u2019s Embrace the Chaos<\/em>. Not so, says Bella.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t thinking about it from a political or social standpoint,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there\u2019s a song on there, \u2018De Paisano a Paisano,\u2019 that narrates and documents the struggles of the immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n Bella says that the album\u2019s existence is, itself, a kind of political statement: \u201cHere\u2019s this band from LA, taking music that\u2019s classic from Mexico, and giving it a Jamaican spin. It demonstrates the beauty of multiculturalism.\u201d Describing the album as \u201cvery multi-culti,\u201d Bella sees Non-stop<\/em> as Ozomatli\u2019s response to the recent rise of xenophobia. \u201cThere\u2019s this whole \u2018build the wall\u2019 vibe. And the last thing we want to do is build walls, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n With its twin focal points of socially conscious music for adults (\u201cthe politics on next album will be more in-your-face,\u201d Bella promises) and fun, positive music for its younger fans, Ozomatli prefers to puts its<\/em> emphasis on building bridges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genre-blurring band Ozomatli has long been recognized for its socially and politically conscious music. Combining rock, Latin music and hip-hop with positive messages, the Los Angeles-based collective has earned both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,41,62],"tags":[3426,3425],"class_list":["post-14591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-ozokidz","tag-ozomatli","cat-36-id","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14593,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions\/14593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}