This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover.
The song that opens Chuwi‘s Tiny Desk is quick, coy and questioning. In staggered vocals, keys and percussion, the Puerto Rican band gently tells a story about a life well-lived, but something lingers. “Que me faltara,” they all sing. What am I missing? This is a common theme throughout Chuwi’s music — that the members love their family, their island, their home — but, like many Puerto Ricans, they still seek something better: “un guarapo de jengibre y un Puerto Rico libre.”
Chuwi is a collection of family and friends from Isabela, Puerto Rico. (If you caught any of Bad Bunny‘s historic residency, Chuwi was the backing band every night for “WELTiTA.”) They come from the western side of the island where bomba, plena and salsa are injected into people’s veins. The band harmoniously incorporates all of these influences into its sound, trading ocean blues and sunset pinks for playful jazz breaks and tasteful synthesizer effects. Chuwi’s members build a landscape of their home wherever they go, making it feel as though the something missing is and always will be irrefutably theirs.
SET LIST
- “Falta Algo”
- “Tikiri”
- “Tierra”
- “Guerra”
- “Chuwi Navidades en Cataño”
MUSICIANS
- Lorén Aldarondo: vocals
- Wilfredo “Willy” Aldarondo: vocals, bass, tres cubano, percussion
- Wester Aldarondo: keys, piano, percussion, background vocals
- Adrián López: percussion, background vocals
- Jan Angelo Marrero Báez: French horn, background vocals
- Jorge Gabriel López: percussion, background vocals
- Abneris Jasmin: background vocals
- Carolina A. López Soto: background vocals, electronics
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Anamaria Sayre
- Director/Editor: Kara Frame
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant
- Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
- Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda
- Photographer: Grace Raver
- Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson