Entertainment Essentials: Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective - Watina

Sometimes you discover someone wonderful just too late. This week has seen a lot of media coverage about the death of Heath Ledger, an actor that I have to confess I've seen next to nothing of in films. That's largely because I've still never got round to watching Brokeback Mountain, and maybe when I've seen it I'll understand why Ledger was rated so highly. But while his death has gained masses of media coverage, it's another sad event recently that has inspired this blog.

Andy Palacio died on January 19th, and like Ledger he was on the cusp of getting real recognition, even if it was always likely to be a much smaller scale. You've probably never heard of him, and I hadn't until not so long ago when someone recomended his most recent album Watina to me. So now I'm recommending it to you, particularly those of you who are fond of really great 'world music' (terrible genre title though that is).

Palacio was a Belizean singer in the Punta style of Central America and he died in his home country - where he was also a government official and dedicated champion of the culture of his Garifuna people (they were ship-wrecked African slaves who formed an inter-racial community with the people of St Kitts before being expelled to Honduras by the British in 1797). Watina features a more acoustic-led and soulful form of his music, inspired by his Garifuna roots and it is nothing short of a masterpiece.

It's all in his native language, which means that you won't know what the songs are about beyond the English translations of the titles, but that hardly matters because it is the music that makes the emotional impact, particularly on tracks like Baba and Águyuha Nidúheñu. Palacio took inspiration from the Caribbean forms of reggae and soca, parts of Cuban son music and the unmistakable rhythms of Africa to come up with an album that is all about his roots and the roots of his people.

One of the aims of Watina was to ensure that Garifuna culture did not disappear and Watina's success around the world has certainly helped to revive it, with Palacio named as a Unesco Artist For Peace late last year and he and his Garifuna Collective set to be amongst the winners in the Radio 3 Awards For World Music. Sadly, when the award is handed over in April, Palacio will not be there to receive it, but hopefully his death will have one positive effect in that it might spread the word about the wonders of Watina. It's the power of music to inspire a whole people and that is an incredible thing.

Through that, he will continue to be a champion for his people, and if that is the case, then it is never too late to discover Andy Palacio.