The quena is a traditional bamboo or wooden flute used in many kinds of music found in the Andean mountains. A common quena has six finger holes and one hole for the thumb. The musician controls the airflow with both his or her mouth and fingers, creating a naturally rich tone.
COUNTRY: Andes (Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela)
KEY GENRES: Cumbia (Andean Cumbia), Nueva Cancion
FEATURED ON: Niño Colla (AATW: Latin America), Tambobambino (AATW: Latin America)
In the ’60s and early ’70s, Chilean songwriters like Victor Jara and Violeta Parra used the tonada as a foundation of the “Nueva Canción,” explicitly political music that blended Chilean folk with progressive politics, similar to the way Bob Dylan and Joan Baez led a political folk revival at the time in the U.S. The Nueva Canción movement spread quickly all over Latin America and even back across the Atlantic in Spain and Portugal, providing leftists movements of the time with a melodic yet explicitly political soundtrack.
COUNTRY: most prominently Chile, but all over Spain, Portugal and Latin America
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Guitar
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