>> Blanquito Man, leader of the the Jazz Fest’s “main event” King Changó, does just about everything-except pause for breath

by ADAM GOLLNER

Existence: the mystery of mysteries. Why are we here? What is the answer to life’s ultimate riddle? Nihilists like Bobby McFerrin say, “There is no solution because there is no problem.” Still others (like Plato, or Oprah) spend a lifetime banging their heads against the cold, unyielding rocks of philosophy, God, and geometry.

What is to be done? From Baldesar Castiglione’s uomo universale renaissance man to Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s “whole man of the future,” one multi-tiered approach to this fundamental quagmire is simply to do everything and hope for the best.

That’s what Blanquito Man does. Venezuelan-born New Yorker Blanquito Man, aka Andrew Blanco, is the blond-dreadlocked leader of King Changó, the main outdoor event at this year’s Jazz Fest. His arsenal of talents includes soccer, political activism, graphic design (he’s done logos for the Toronto Raptors, New York Islanders and Rangers, Florida Panthers, Detroit Tigers) and visual coordination for their outdoor performance—not to mention the specially created photo-illustration work that graces the cover of this very paper.

Then there’s his music. As zingy as pabellon criollo, Venezuela’s national dish, the songs are a fusion of every single genre ever invented (or at least ska, salsa, reggae, cumbia, dub, hip hop, mariachi and rock).

“To me, as a scientist,” announces Blanquito Man, “I’ve always listened to all sorts of music. If I die tomorrow and say, ‘Oh, I was a guy who played cumbia,’ or ‘I was a rock musician,’ that would not be enough for me. Our duty with King Changó is to combine all the musics we love. Our song ‘Finalmente’ has looped breakbeats, a batucada samba, a reggae chorus and four-string Venezuelan guitars, all with a happy Caribbean feel. Experimenting creates magic.”

While some might argue that this schizophrenic dabbling is a perilous flirt with dilettantism, King Changó do have a lot of fans. Two-hundred thousand people are expected on the night of July 2 to witness the “magic” of songs like “What Politicians Say,” “I Don’t Care,” and “Brujeria” (which is on a wicked Serpent and the Rainbow tip).

“Brujeria itself is a kind of witchcraft, or Wicca, but different. The song ‘Brujeria’ is actually a comic send-up of Latin relationships. It’s about what it’s like when you break up with your girlfriend and she does brujeria on you.”

The magic of love, however, is a universal language. “Please Canada, don’t freak out! It’s okay to date Latin women, Canadian people. Just make sure that, when you break up, you don’t have weird stuff embroidered on your shirts or candles lying around your house.”

Rolling thunder
If you are a serious brujo or bruja, please don’t put a hex on Blanquito Man. Behind the façade of satire lies a genuine respect for all religions and ideologies. “In this world, you can believe in anything you want,” he says. “Brujeria is the same way.”

In fact, King Changó’s membership includes two practicing santeros (Santeria, which originated among the Yoruba peoples in West Africa, is today a widespread syncretistic religion). “I think that Santeria is so much fun, just like reading the Greek myths. I am not a completely brainwashed follower, but I do love it respectfully.”

The name of the group, King Changó, is itself taken from Santeria’s king of music and dance, the Afro-Cuban god of war. “Changó is the king of lightning and thunder and he is the owner of the drums. He is the first god you call when the music hits.

“He is also a total player. He always got in trouble for fooling around with his brothers’ women. There’s a story about Changó at a party hanging with his bro’s girlfriend. The angry brother rode in on a horse, but Chango got dressed up like a woman and hid from him and was okay.”

Like their namesake, King Changó are party animals, but that does not hinder them in flaunting a revolutionary stance in the tradition of Mano Negro, Fishbone, and Jamiroquai (you so know that “Virtual Insanity” is about FBI mind control). “Society is lying to us. It needs to evolve. There are a lot of taboos in our society that politicians are keeping alive. Jamaicans call it ‘politricks.’ For us, playing music allows us to express our anger at this. We need to get all the lies out in the open so we can see the important things in order to know what to focus on. Music is the way to know that you aren’t crazy.”

On their last release, The Return of El Santo, King Changó call for the U.S. Navy to “get out of Vieques.”

“Since the 1950s, the U.S. has had control of 80 per cent of the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico, an island that used to be paradise. They do their training there, and all sorts of confidential military activity. But people still live there, like farmers, fisherman, and villagers. Cancer has been increasing dramatically since the arrival of the Navy, due to the use of radioactive weapons that they are bombing everywhere. They have ruined the marine life and completely destroyed all the beautiful coral reefs.”

Coup bizarre
Another boiling topic is the recent political turmoil on Blanco’s native soil, Venezuela, embroiled in power struggles over the nation’s oil. Blanco cites the foiled coup attempt against president Hugo Chavez as a royal example of politricks. Amidst numerous rumours of U.S. involvement in the coup, Blanco’s hunch is that it might have been a political manoeuvre orchestrated by Chavez himself in order to clearly distinguish between his allies and his foes.

“I don’t want to speculate, but people are saying that this is a political strategy and that he orchestrated this. You have to remember that Chavez organized his own coup a few years ago. He is very close to Fidel Castro and is getting tips from him, which is bugging a lot of people.”

Chavez’s notorious anti-U.S. stance, not to mention his iffy mentor choices, have been catching up to him. It was recently reported in the Caracas daily El Nacional that the International Monetary Fund has offered to bankroll whomever wrests the power from Chavez. “A lot of people love him and a lot of people hate him,” says Blanco, “but one thing is certain. He is very smart.”

Chavez’s policies have made him a hero amongst the lower classes, while ostracizing him from the upper and middle classes. Blanco sees both sides: “At the point where we are, there is no Jesus and there is no superhero who is going to come and fix Venezuela. There are no good people and no bad people and Chavez is the same. How come there are billions of dollars of oil being sold, but the country is in poverty? That’s the real problem. People say the U.S. is the devil, but to me it represents a lot of good things also. That said, I’m more scared of President Bush than Chavez. How come nobody is talking about how he stole the election? Is this like a joke? How come nobody came on the streets to burn things? I didn’t see any riots.”

His Cup runneth over
Luckily for Blanquito Man, there are riots galore these days in the soccer world. “Man, soccer is so important to me. The World Cup is like family. It isn’t even so much about the competition. It’s just a great celebration.”

Does he have any insights into who will win Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final? “I just hope it isn’t Germany. I love the German people and all that, but I always want an African team, or Brazil to kick ass. Man, Pele is like Muhammad Ali to me. Like them, I believe that we can change the world. We should all try to push our governments to have better school systems where they teach us about being human beings instead of all these bullshit lies. Teach us how to love people.”

Which brings us neatly back to Blanquito Man’s philosophy on life. “I radiate energy by being open-minded and having a pure heart. Blanquito’s philosophy is following Bob Marley’s philosophy of one love. Of everything out there, all the music, everything, it’s all the same, at the end. It is all one. We need to unite the world again and have one language. Music is a language. There are three billion ways of communicating it, but it all comes down to one love, one heart, one God.” :

At the GM outdoor stage of the Jazz Fest ( Ste-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance) on Tuesday, July 2, 9:30pm, free

>> Blanquito Man on the many musical genres that make up King Changó