Barrio bouillabaisse

>> The spicy mix of L.A.'s Ozomatli

by CHRIS ROLFE

The city of Los Angeles, California, is a hard thing to define. Vast, sprawling, full of strange contradictions and stranger collusions. The same could well be said of L.A. natives Ozomatli.

Their music is equal parts salsa, hip hop, funk and jazz. Spanish singing, English rapping, tablas, turntables and a three-man horn section make the mix even spicier.

It's an unconventional sound, but as rapper Chali 2na explains, Ozomatli (named after the Aztec god of dance) was not devised under conventional circumstances. "Wil-Dog, the bass player, and I were working together for a place called the L.A. Conservation Corp.," he says. "Thirty of its workers went on strike to unionize and to get better wages. They formed a sit-in to hold the doors and, finally, through a litigation process, they won custody of the building."

Cool! Of course, they were also out of jobs. The building became a squat, a rehearsal studio and a place to throw parties--often benefits to keep the place open. Wil-Dog began inviting musician friends over to participate and a loose collective soon emerged.

"From the beginning," Chali says, "it was a concept of Latin music, hip hop, reggae--everything that each musician could play. Wil-Dog wanted to form a band that could play at any kind of place, whether it was a hip hop spot, a jazz spot, a Latin spot--he wanted a band that could play anywhere."

They were soon playing anywhere... and everywhere, including a stint on the Warped tour and an opening slot for Latin-rock legend Carlos Santana. He's recently taken Ozomatli under his wing, personally introducing the band before an 11,000-strong audience, telling the crowd that they'd better listen up. Ozomatli's music, as Santana put it, is "the future."

"When they told us we were playing together, we were just ecstatic," Chali recalls. "To our guitar player, he's like a mentor. In my family, [Santana] was the way I got exposed to Latin music, because my father was a Santana fiend. Carlos was one of the coolest people I've ever met. And we got a lot of good feedback. People thought we were really representing, that we were there to carry the torch."

Despite the band's activist origins, though, Chali asserts that there is no political agenda--at least not a planned one. "It's not like we're all left-wing," he says. "Everyone has their own political beliefs. I think the structure of our band is like what America should be--I believe what I believe, you believe what you believe, but we find a common ground to meet at."

Ozomatli open for Cherry Poppin' Daddies at Metropolis, Wednesday, November 4, 8pm, $17.50+taxes