Balimaya Project meets Discos Pacífico All Stars - Calima

A powerful encounter between UK Mandé jazz and Afro-Colombian marimba 15 musicians exploring shared African roots through rhythm and improvisation Balimaya Project returns with a bold new collaboration alongside Colombia’s Discos Pacifico All Stars. Together, they present a cross-continental performance fusing West African jazz and Afro-Colombian tradition in a boundary-pushing exchange of rhythm, heritage, and sound. Facilitated by UK jazz tastemakers Jazz re:freshed and the prolific Colombia-based label Llorona Records, Balimaya Project and Discos Pacifico All Stars bring together 15 musicians connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts exploring experimental Afro-diasporic soundscapes. Blending Mandé jazz with Afro-Colombian folkloric music, the collaboration explores the deep rhythmic and cultural ties between African and Latin American traditions. Balimaya Project, known for their powerful fusion of Mandé rhythms and contemporary jazz, brings a strong foundation in West African musical heritage, incorporating instruments like the djembe and balafon to craft complex, emotive compositions rooted in community and storytelling. Joining them from Colombia’s Pacific coast, the Discos Pacifico All Stars—featuring members of Bejuco, Semblanzas del Rio Guapi, and former members of Agrupación Changó—focus on marimba music and Afro-Colombian rhythms, channelling the energy of their ancestral sound into something fresh and globally resonant. 'Calima' centres on an international exchange, shaping a new musical narrative in real time. Together, the artists will bridge continents and generations—drawing on deep-rooted traditions while forging new sounds through collaboration, composition, and live experimentation. Reflecting on the significance of the album’s title; “Calima” is a natural phenomenon where Sahara Desert dust travels across the Atlantic, bringing nutrients that fertilise the Amazon and tropical rainforests in Latin America and the Caribbean. Like this dust, the African diaspora crossed oceans by force, but through cultural resistance kept their heritage alive – recognising each other, sharing traditions, rooting themselves, and creating new forms of expression that transform dispersal into fertile encounters of memory, beauty, and renewal.