ILUYENKORI, written by Aviva Gabriel, posted on March 14, 2009 to two websites, Last.fm and Soundunwound.

com Iluyenkori was co-founded in 1987 by French percussionist Roger Fixy and French singerdancer-actress Daniela Giacone. Their mission was to perform sacred Afro-Cuban cantos y toques a los orishas, the music of Cuban Lucumi (also called Santeria, or Regla de Ocha). Iluyenkori collaborated with an internationally-diverse group of musicians to release three albums between 1992 and 1999. Although there was significant turnover of its members, Iluyenkori always retained an international character, with musicians born and raised in various European and South American countries, including Italy, France, Argentina, and French overseas region Runion. The death of Roger Fixy in September 2008 marked the end of the group, although an offshoot, Alafia, continues to perform secular Cuban music in Paris. Iluyenkori performed sacred, ritualistic Afro-Cuban chants and rhythms. The new groups name was reputedly inspired (in part) by one of Havanas early rumba orchestras. However, the larger inspiration, according to Iluyenkoris web page, was derived from the Cuban dialect of African Yoruba used by devotees of the Lucumi religion; ilu means drum, yen means dance, and kori means song. Lucumis rituals and ceremonies depend on the interplay among drum, dance, and song as a mode for communicating with the orishas, or deities, and the name evokes that interplay. The toques (rhythmic songs directed at specific orishas) are played on the bata, which are double-headed, hourglass-shaped drums. The three different sizes of bata drums each play a unique role in the Yoruba-based Lucumi ceremony, and must be played as an interactive ensemble of three. The basic, stabilizing rhythm of any given toque is played on the smallest of the bata, the onkonkolo. The middle-sized drum, or itotele, also plays complementary foundational rhythms, but has some freedom to enter into circumscribed but improvisational conversations with the largest bata, the iya. As lead drum, the iya has considerable freedom to improvise (within the structure of the liturgical arrangement), and to induce conversational responses from the itotele (and sometimes the onkonkolo), thus orchestrating a complex call-and-response rhythmic arrangement which is intended to attract attention from the orishas so that they will come down and mount the devotees. According to the blog Echu Aye: Yoruba Music of Cuba, Roger Fixy was born in the small village of Marigot, Martinique. He later moved to France to create what was to be the first French group performing folkloric Afro-Cuban music. Roger Fixy had initially encountered the bata in 1975 during a performance by percussionist Bill Summers, at that time a member of jazz pianist Herbie Hancocks ensemble. In 1984, Fixy traveled to Cuba to pursue his interest in the bata, and finally stumbled upon a rehearsal by a group of bataleros and other musicians playing Afro-Cuban music in a suite at his hotel. This afforded Fixy the opportunity to meet and study with several professional percussionists who had mastered AfroCuban rhythms. During his five return trips to Cuba, Roger Fixy continued his bata studies with Alberto Vilarreal, Alexandro Publ, Daniel Alfonso, Pancho Quinto, Ernesto Gatell, Romn Daz, Sandi Garca Prez, Jess Alfonso, Mario "Aspirina" Juregui, and the renowned Changuito (Jos Luis Quintana). Roger Fixy, passionate about the sacred rhythms of Cuba, was forced to work in something of a vacuum as he attempted to create the first folkloric Afro-Cuban ensemble in France. In 1987, none of the central Afro-Cuban sacred music groups had recordings available in Fixys country. Without being able to refer for authenticity to recordings of top-tier, folkloric groups such as Clave y Guaguanc, Yoruba Andab, and the Conjunto Folklrico Nacional, Roger Fixy had to rely on his intensive studies in Cuba, and forged ahead with his own recordings and performances.

In 1992, Roger Fixy became a fully consecrated omo-a, or olubata, officially able to play in Santeria ceremonies, and was honored with a set of fundamento (anointed) bata that were made in 1954 in Cuba. One of the bata is named Airakr and is dedicated to the orisha Shango, Yoruban god of thunder. Having achieved this honorable status, Roger was able to record sacred Lucumi music with Iluyenkori, which released their first album in 1993. During this decade, Roger became known as the Ambassador to France of sacred Afro-Cuban music from Matanzas, Cuba. Before his death in 2008 at the age of 56, Roger Fixy had succeeded in facilitating muchneeded information flows between France and Cuba regarding the complex liturgical bata repertoire, thus paving the way for todays second-generation musicians performing this Afro-Cuban music in France. CITATIONS: 1. Iluyenkori: http://www.iluyenkori.com/, accessed March 14, 2009. 2. Echu Aye: Yoruba Music of Cuba (blog): http://echuaye.blogspot.com/2008/09/disparition-deroger-fixy.html, accessed March 14, 2008. 3. Ritmacuba, by Daniel Chatelain: http://picasaweb.google.com/ritmacuba, accessed March 14, 2009. 3. National Geographic (NAT GEO MUSIC): http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/artist/content.artist/iluyenkori _45977, accessed March 14, 2009. WRITTEN by Aviva Vogel Gabriel, Norwich VT, March 14, 2009 POSTED March 14, 2009 to Soundunwound.com http://www.soundunwound.com/sp/contributor/view/Iluyenkori?contributorId=13342553&ref=AMDP POSTED March 14, 2009 to Last.fm http://www.last.fm/music/Iluyenkori