While in rehearsals with Maestros del Joropo Oriental for the award-winning Smithsonian Folkways recording project ¡Y Que Viva Venezuela!, violinist Eddy Marcano discusses the influence of his maestro Alberto Valderrama and growing up with both traditional joropo music and European classical.

"Music that has roots, that has identity, has a powerful strength," says musician-producer Aquiles Báez about the joropo oriental of eastern Venezuela. Amid the anonymous global musical mix, masters of this string-driven, highly improvised, local music spin out endless threads of artful melody woven into a rich rhythmic fabric. This all-star group of Venezuelan masters applies a rainbow of sounds - guitars unique to the region, button accordion, violin, maracas, bass, and drums—to paint a panorama of a rediscovered, powerful musical tradition on the ascendance.

This album is part of the Smithsonian Folkways Tradiciones/Traditions series of Latino music, produced with support by the Smithsonian Latino Center.