Music FridayLive!

Ozomatli was founded in 1995 when the core members worked together on organizing a farmworkers union in Los Angeles.  They didn’t win recognition for the union, but the band that came out of that effort, named for the Aztec astrological symbol for the monkey, has been recognized worldwide for its joyous, high energy, activist, multi-genre music. The band's first album, Ozomatli, was released in 1998 on Almo Sounds with the band's trademark mix of bilingual lyrics and Mexican music styles like norteño, along with Jamaican ska and reggae, a heavy dose of American hip-hop and funk, merengue and cumbia, often mixed together in the same song.   That album charted and led to tours with Santana and Maná. And they have not stopped. They just released a new single, “Libertad”, their 2107 album Nonstop Mexico to Jamaica  has gone global, and their 2019 tour dates are already booked into March for performances from Colorado to Cuba.