Pombo Musical
Pombo Musical is a children's album produced by Colombian recording artist Carlos Vives, as a musical tribute to the Colombian writer and poet Rafael Pombo. It was released on August 13, 2008, under Vives' label Gaira Música Local. The album came into fruition when Rafael Pombo Foundation president Juanita Santos asked Vives to craft a musical that uses Pombo's most iconic poems and fables he created. Its music incorporates a variety of Colombian folk genres and mixes in contemporary genres like Latin pop and pop rock. Among the 14 tracks present in the album, only one was released as a single, "El Modelo Alfabético" (). All the lyrics were written originally by Rafael Pombo, and produced by Vives. Pombo Musical was well-received, and was certified platinum in Colombia by the Asociación Colombiana de Productores de Fonogramas (ASINCOL). It also won some accolades, including a Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Children's Album, and a Premio Shock for Best Compilation. Background After finishing the promotion of his previous studio album El Rock de Mi Pueblo (2004), Vives ended his music contract with EMI Latin and took a hiatus, for concentrating on supporting local artists as a producer and songwriter. He then met Juanita Santos, the president of Rafael Pombo Foundation, who asked them to present a proposal for a musical that uses the most iconic poems and fables created by Pombo. Motivated by this, they began to study many books about Pombo and his works. The creation of Pombo Musical began as a studio project in house between old friends, Carlos Ivan Medina, Carlos Huertas and Ernesto "Teto" Ocampo. He stated: "Before we worked musically on some of Rafael Pombo's works, without thinking about making a record, but because somebody had done a melody of Rin Rin". Together with Medina, Vives made a melody for "Modelo Alfabético". On July 24, 2008, Vives released "El Modelo Alfabético", a song based on a poem by Pombo, with influences of cumbia and rock as the album's lead single. The recording of the album took two years, due to the number of artists contributing to it, namely, Juanes, Aterciopelados, Fonseca, Santiago Cruz, Verónica Orozco, Dúo Huellas, Ilona, Eduardo Arias & Karl Troller, Andrea Echeverri, Lucía Pulido, Iván Benavides, Carlos Ivan Medina, Bernardo Velasco, Ernesto Ocampo, Fundación Batuta Chorus, Distrito Especial, H2 El Guajiro, Adriana Lucia, Guillermo Vives and Julio Navas. The music launch was held in Gaira Café Cumbia House bar in Bogotá, Colombia on August 13, 2008. Composition The record was produced by Vives under the executive production of his wife, Claudia Elena Vasquez. The recording of Pombo Musical took two years in four music studios in Colombia. The album comprises songs from a variety of Colombian folk genres like vallenato, bambuco, joropo and cumbia. Some songs mix genres such as Latin pop and pop rock. Opening track, "El Modelo Alfabético" ("The Model Alphabetical"), is a rock-stylized cumbia and vallenato song performed by Vives, the Dúo Huellas, Eduardo Arias and Karl Troller, about being