Aurelio Martínez, who has died aged 55 in a plane crash off Roatán island in Honduras, was a musician and politician who became the leading cultural ambassador for the Garifuna people.
Known simply as Aurelio, the name he used for his recordings with Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, he kept alive, and updated, the music and stories of the Garifuna, descendants of African enslaved people who trace their history back to a 17th-century shipwreck on the Caribbean island of St Vincent.
There they lived with local Arawaks, forming a distinctive community until they were forced out by the British in the late 18th century, settling along the Caribbean coastlands of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras – where Aurelio was born.
Their music, a mixture of African and Caribbean styles known as Paranda, was popularised in Europe by Andy Palacio, the first international Garifuna star. Aurelio shared his love of the songs of their heritage, and came to the attention of Palacio, who lived up the coast in Belize. He invited Aurelio to take part in a Garifuna music festival and introduced him to Ivan Duran, a Belize-based producer who runs the Stonetree record label.
Duran, who had been “struggling to find young Paranda musicians, because no one was playing that kind of music”, brought the two singers together for his 1995 compilation set, Paranda.
In 2004 he also produced and released Aurelio’s solo album, Garifuna Soul, in which he sang and played acoustic guitar on a set that included traditional and self-composed songs – with Palacio singing on one track and Duran adding electric guitar. It was the first time a Paranda album had been released by a young, up-and-coming Garifuna artist, and, an instant classic in Belize, it launched Aurelio’s musical career.
Soon afterwards Aurelio began to move into politics. He had already been a councillor in La Ceiba, a port city in northern Honduras, and in 2005 became one of the first people of African descent to be elected to the Honduras national congress – though even as a politician he kept playing music, saying, “I don’t make music to make money, I play to support my culture.” In 2007 he played on Palacio’s classic album Wátina.
The death of Palacio in 2008, at the age of 48, made Aurelio rethink his career. He left a congress session to travel to Belize for Palacio’s funeral, then began giving concerts in his honour. After discussions with Duran, he decided to record a new album, continuing Palacio’s legacy but exploring new approaches to Garifuna styles. Music, rather than politics, now took up most of his time – obviously to the annoyance of his constituents, for in the 2009 poll he failed to get re-elected.
By that time Aurelio had begun recording a new album in a Garifuna community on the Honduran coast, with the aim of mixing traditional styles with influences from across the Caribbean. He then added in African influences, after travelling to Senegal, (with Duran), as one of the three finalists in a Rolex mentoring scheme.
The winner would work with the Senegalese star Youssou N’Dour – and N’Dour chose Aurelio. He was mentored by N’Dour for a year, travelling several times to meet him in Senegal and elsewhere.
N’Dour and members of his band contributed to the album, Laru Beya, as did other Senegalese stars, including members of Orchestra Baobab, and it was hailed as one of the best world music recordings of 2011, with songs that ranged from lilting, languid pieces to a lament on the horrors of slavery. It even included a song by Aurelio’s mother, Maria, who also made a brief appearance on the album.
Now recognised as a worthy successor to Palacio, Aurelio followed up with concert tours and two further albums, Lándini (2014) and Darandi (2017). The latter was a rousing set recorded live at the Real World studios in Wiltshire, soon after he had played at Womad in the UK.
Thereafter Aurelio continued performing for the Garifuna community in Belize, Honduras and the US, to where his mother had relocated. “We took it easy,” said Duran. “We had done such great work and were at a loss as to what to do next without repeating what we had done – which was an evolution of Paranda from raw styles to something more sophisticated.”
Aurelio was born in Plaplaya, a village of farmers and fishermen on the Honduras coast. His father, Sinforiano, was known locally as a fine Paranda singer, while his mother, Maria (nee Suazo), was an accomplished musician and composer. The first songs Aurelio learned were from his parents, and as a child he learned to play Garifuna drums, also making himself a guitar. He began performing at Garifuna ceremonies, and when he left home at the age of 14 to attend secondary school in La Ceiba he expanded his musical range.
He worked with pop groups, playing punta rock (Garifuna-influenced songs with electric guitars), and founded a Garifuna ensemble, Lita Ariran, with whom he recorded Songs of the Garifuna (1994) before meeting Palacio and Duran, and taking the music he had loved since childhood to an international audience.
Aurelio is survived by 10 children, his mother, three sisters and four brothers.
• Aurelio Martínez Suazo, musician amd politician, born 26 September 1969; died 17 March 2025
