Carlos Vives: Tiny Desk Concert
This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an 'El Tiny' takeover.Felix Contreras | September 23, 2025
Imagine the burden of not only being a well known and respected musician but also an indelible icon of your country's folk tradition. That is the mantle that Carlos Vives carries for his native Colombia. During his turn behind the Tiny Desk, he takes on the role with a deep sense of pride and musical mastery.
In 1995, Vives released La Tierra del Olvido, a landmark recording that introduced the world to Colombia's vallenato style. Thirty years later, this performance revisits some of those songs with a 12-piece band that barely fits in our space. The instrumentation of this band — featuring several members who have been with Vives for decades — reflects the influence of Europe (accordions), Africa (alegre drums) and Indigenous cultures (gaita). There's history in this music, all of which gets equal space during the fiery opener "La Cachucha Bacana" — there's even an electric guitar solo! Even when the music slows down, the deep-seated groove is impossible to resist.
SET LIST
"La Cachucha Bacana"
"Diosa Coronada"
"Ella"
"Agua"
"La Tierra del Olvido"
"Pa' Mayte"
"Fruta Fresca"
MUSICIANS
Carlos Vives: vocals, harmonica
Daniel Cadena: guitar
Andrés Leal: guitar, tiple, cuatro
Luis Ángel "El Papa" Pastor: bass
Mayte Montero: gaita, maracas
Kike Cuao Jr.: legüero, guacharaca, percussion
Darwin Escorcia: caja, alegre
Adrian Viáfara: cununos, clarinet, background vocals
Carlos Iván Medina: keys
Christian Camilo Peña: accordion
Melissa Mejia Flomin: background vocals, percussion
Paola Lacera: background vocals
Rashid "El Bombón" Zawady: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Felix Contreras
Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel
Audio Engineers: Josephine Nyounai, Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez
Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda
Photographer: Zayrha Rodriquez
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
#nprmusic #tinydesk #carlosvives
Support for NPR Music and El Tiny comes from Moises. Powerful AI tools created by musicians, for musicians. Learn more at Moises.AI Receive SMS online on sms24.me
TubeReader video aggregator is a website that collects and organizes online videos from the YouTube source. Video aggregation is done for different purposes, and TubeReader take different approaches to achieve their purpose.
Our try to collect videos of high quality or interest for visitors to view; the collection may be made by editors or may be based on community votes.
Another method is to base the collection on those videos most viewed, either at the aggregator site or at various popular video hosting sites.
TubeReader site exists to allow users to collect their own sets of videos, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others; TubeReader can develop online communities around video sharing.
Our site allow users to create a personalized video playlist, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others.
@YouTubeReaderBot allows you to subscribe to Youtube channels.
By using @YouTubeReaderBot Bot you agree with YouTube Terms of Service.
Use the @YouTubeReaderBot telegram bot to be the first to be notified when new videos are released on your favorite channels.
Look for new videos or channels and share them with your friends.
You can start using our bot from this video, subscribe now to Carlos Vives: Tiny Desk Concert
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. You can even create and upload your own videos to share with others. Originally created in 2005, YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web, with visitors watching around 6 billion hours of video every month.
