Ten years ago a loosely knit group of friends started hanging out on a regular basis at a local community center in East L.A. They had no money (and still don't by any reckoning), but they cared about their community, and counted on it for inspiration and support. The cultural diversity of East L.A. is what moved them to make their music, and through their songs, they are immortalized in the annals of the area's history.
Like the multi-ethnic urban sprawl of L.A., Ozomatli's music lacks clear-cut boundaries. On the one hand, they've always had an effective arsenal of standard Latin tunes sung in Spanish that can keep your feet moving all night: Songs like "Como Ves," which builds into a frenzy of percussion and vocal chants or "Pa Lante," a Cumbia-based composition off their second album, "Embrace the Chaos" are fire-starters that instantly ignite any audience.
But, in addition to numbers rooted in familiar crowd-pleasers, Ozomatli has a lot of more thought-provoking songs. In the course of their decade together, the band has created an entirely new and original category of music. Think "funky neo-Latin urban-soul rap-hop" inspired by the world they live in.