Session Live

Música mixteca refers to the traditional and popular music of the Mixtec (Tu'un Savi) people from the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla in southern Mexico. It encompasses indigenous ritual pieces, sones and jarabes with sesquiáltera (2:3) rhythmic interplay, 19th‑century waltzes and polkas adopted via brass bands, and coastal chilena rhythms that arrived in the mid‑19th century. Repertoires are performed by community bandas de viento (wind bands), string ensembles (violins, guitars, requinto/bajo sexto), and, in modern practice, sierreño‑style guitar trios with tololoche or electric bass. Vocals often alternate between Spanish and Tu'un Savi, featuring strophic, narrative forms, responsorial passages, and ornamented, modal melodies. The music is central to mayordomía cycles, patronal feasts, weddings, homecomings, and regional dances; it also carries a strong diasporic sentiment, with songs that remember the Mixteca homeland and migration experiences.