Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Today we shall enjoy a timba classic, originally by Bamboleo, but performed by a different, yet not any less wonderful, artist.
Sixto Llorente Terry, most well known as “el Indio”, is a true Sonero singer that started his professional career in his home town of Santa Clara in 1973.
He started by performing traditional Cuban music such as Son, Guajira, Cha Cha and others, later also expanding his repertoire to more contemporary genres such as Songo, and later on, Timba.
Together with Orquesta Aliamen he participated in various music festivals throughout the country, such as the “Adolfo Guzmán” festival, “Festival del Cha Cha Cha, “Creador Musical”, “Al Son de Mayarí” and the “Benny Moré” festival, where he received the Grand Prix.
This wonderful singer is a great example of a talent in high demand, and has worked with many leading groups such as Manolito y Su Trabuco, Tumbao Habana, Pupy y LQSS, Habana de Primera, Mamborama, Azucar Negra and in recent years, the grand Orquesta Reve.
He also won a Latin Grammy in 2001.
In march 2010, el Indio founded his own group, Son del Indio, which since then has released the CDs Lo que Sucede Conviene and Caminanado Voy.
Today we shall enjoy the wonderful timba classic “Ya No Hace Falta” which el Indio performed with Las Nuevas Estrellas de Areito in 2001.
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers.
Today I present you a nice, Timba-like composition which is actually by a Dutch artist that rose to fame… in Colombia!
Granddaughter of musician and composer Andre Hontele, Maite Hontele born at Utrecht, Holland, in 1980, and has been playing the trumpet since the age of 9.
She played at a local band, trying different instruments before settling upon the trumpet.
At her parent’s house you could always hear Cuban and other music, especially Son and Salsa, being played, and thus later on Maite decided to study Latin & Jazz trumpet at the Rotterdam conservatory.
Her first international tour was in 2003, and included Colombia.
This would be a life changing experience, feeling how the Colombian crowd accepts, feels and adores the music.
Visiting the country several years later, Maite moved from Holland to Colombia in 2009, marrying a Colombian musician and also moving her family to the country.
Since that fatal tour in Colombia, Maite got nominated for the Latin Grammy’s best salsa album, played with the Buena Vista Social Club, Isaac Delgado, Ruben Blades, Oscar De Leon and Yuri Buenaventura among others.
Since 2009 Maite released 4 albums – Llego La Mona (2009), Mujer Sonora (2010), Dejame Asi (2013) and Te Voy a Querer (2015).
The composition presented here today is a single, a collaboration with the Colombian band Herencia de Timbiqui, and shares the great vibe often found in contemporary Cuban music.
Disfruten!
P.S:
I wish to express my gratitude to my friend Guy for introducing me to this song and the artist.
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Today we have a special post, dedicated to yet another, the 47th, anniversary of the founding of the legendary Los Van Van (December 4th 1969) !
But before we get into the history of the band and its tremendous impact on contemporary Cuban music, I would like to dedicate today’s post to gran maestro Juan Formell, who passed away on May day 2014… this is the 3rd time that the band’s anniversary is celebrated without its founding father, which is indeed quite sad… so let’s take a minute of silence in his memory…
Today’s post will be by far an incomplete analysis of Van Van’s discography, history or style, and thus doesn’t even attempt to be any of that; on the contrary, it is a humble attempt to look at the band’s development over the years, taking notes of compositions that I find influential from a historical point of view… or just personal favorites of mine for Van Van’s long long discography 😉
So now, let’s get to it!
Los Van Van was founded on December 4th, 1969, by Juan Formell, Cesar “pupy” Pedroso, Miguel Angel Rasalps “lele” (yes, his son is one of Van Vans’ lead singers in recent years) and others.
Before starting his own band, Formell worked for several years as the musical director, arranger and bassist for Orquesta Reve, where he first concocted what was initially called “Changui 68”, then “Changui Shake” and later “Songo”, a unique highly innovative, sophisticated and revolutionary personal musical style, which will change contemporary Cuban music forever in the years to come…
A good example of this early Formell style is Reve’s “el Martes”, that would later also appear on some of Van Van’s collections and compilations
Formell’s musical style had several features which make it unique and influential.
First, it was, for the time of its creation, another step in the long lasting musical tradition found in Cuban music – mixing various sources and traditional Cuban musical styles, incorporating elements of different authentic directions creating something new which is “the same but different”.
One can see this tradition back centuries with the “Contradanza Criolla” (Habanera), and later Danzon, which had implicit elements of Afro Cuban tradition in them at times when this was socially unacceptable.
Another good example is the trend of early urban Son compositions, like those made by Sexteto Habanero during the 1920s, and later Son Montuno and Guaguanco-Son that were created by Arsenio Rodriguez in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
All those incorporate more and more elements of Afro-Cuban traditions in popular, Son and Danzon based music… without calling them that, of course, as this was socially unacceptable, and could even get you in trouble during those days of racial segregation enforced by American authorities in control since 1898.
Other notable examples would from the 1960’s, with the first 2 styles of Cuban music made after the revolution; Pacho Alonso’s Pilon and Pello el Afrokan’s Mozambique, that also were mixes of modern styles and instrumentation of Mambo and Son Montuno with various (especially percussive) elements of different Afro Cuban rhythms such as Bata, Congo, Guaguanco and Conga de Comparsa.
In his style Formell did exactly the same, bringing together more and more elements of Rumba and later Yoruba into one huge mix that already included elements of Danzon based music, mainly played by Charanga type orchestras but also included some elements drawn from Son based music, typically played by Conjunto type orchestras (one should recall that the 2 types were already mixed to an extent, as I explained at a previous post on the subject of Charangas and Conjuntos).
The 2nd, and maybe most important, innovation that Formell and Los Van Van are responsible for is the introduction of new, never heard of before, musical instruments, into contemporary Cuban music.
This includes electric and amplified instruments such as electric guitars, bass and synthesizers.
Also, Jose Luis Quintana, better known as “Changuito”, who during the early 1970s created a unique, personal version of the drum kit, as these were not available in Cuba at the time.
Changuito was also one of the first to include the use of Bata drums in contemporary Cuban music, and with both those “inventions” created the new percussive sound of Songo, which would later be very influential in Timba music.
The 3rd important contribution of Formell and Van Van to future Cuban music was, just like the traditions of authentic genre mixing mentioned above, use of layered harmonies, at times also played by rhythm instruments (and this, especially for the bass, is also an element that would be greatly amplified by many musician during the “epoca de oro” of Timba later on…) and also lyrics with social context reflecting the occurrences of the time in Cuba.
And now, after understanding the importance of Los Van Van a bit better, let’s get to the “historic countdown”.
The first decade, 1969 – 1979
Los Van Van’s first album came out in 1969, and was simply called “Los Van Van”.
Later it would be called “Volume I”, as the band (like most other bands in Cuba at that time, for some reason) would not release any albums until the early 1980’s.
It was a direct continuation of Formell’s personal unique charanga style, created during the late 1960’s, a representative song for which can be “el Martes” mentioned above, and also “Yuya Martinez“.
My personal favorite composition from that album is not a songo or a Changui 68 (although both “Fracase” and “la Lucha” would be honorable mentiones), but rather a lyrical Bolero-Son called “Marilu”, whose mellow and romantic style really caught my ear, and from what I know, will be one of the audience’s favorite in the band’s concerts for many years to come (especially later on, sung by the amazing Pedrito Calvo…) :
As the 1970s progressed, Van Van released more and more singles, that over time were united into compilations, or volumes, going from II to IV as the decade went on and the Songo musical style developed along with it.
During that time some of the most well known, loved and influential Songo compositions came into existence, and can now be found on the various volumes released during that time.
If one wishes to truly hear the early Songo in its finest, and can only choose 2, one should listen to “Aqui se enciende la Candela” (also covered by Pupy y LQSS last year) and Chirrin Chirran; these 2 are as representative as Songo gets, with electric bass, piano and guitar, great Rumbaesque percussion mixed with Changuito’s unique drum set and topped with the wonderful catchy harmonies of flutes and violins that are all over the place (in a good sense!)…
An interesting piece from that time also worth mentioning in my opinion is a 9 minute + medley called “Llegue llegue \ Guararey de Pastora”, which combines an original Van Van Songo composition (the first part) with a traditional Changui classic (the 2nd part) infused with Van Van’s style of that time…
A last honorable mention for this time would be a less known one… well, maybe until recently… and that is a great Songo called “Es Mucho”, and features the amazing flute playing of Jose Luis Cortes and the great vocals of the young Pedrito Calvo among other strong points.
The first album decade, or Los Van Van during the 1980s (1980-1989)
This is the time when most Cuban bands started releasing complete albums once more, and boy, there sure are some great albums from that time!
But let us focus on Van Van, as it is their birthday week…
Our first hit comes right from 1980, from Volume IV, and is one of the first releases of that era containing strong and very noticeable Rumba influences, with about half of the song being a Guaguanco from A to Z.
This song will be covered several times later, will become a dance floor favorite, and will be the opening shot of a “genre” nicknamed “orchestrated Rumba”, also setting the stage for the resurgence of Rumba and Afro themes in popular Cuban music during that decade and ever since… for those who haven’t yet guessed, I’m talking about “De la Habana a Matanzas”!
The next album, released in 1982, was Van Van’s great “rise to fame” of the decade, with the album’s title track “el Baile del Buey Cansao” (the album is also sometimes called “bailando! eh! ah!), a mix of conga and son that will quickly become a hit for decades to come, skyrocketing the band to the top of Cuba’s charts… and it even had its own dance!
More in the Songo & casino friendly vein is the next song, which will also be covered several times later.
This is Hoy se Cumple Seis Semanas, featuring the unique vocals of Israel Kantor Sardinas, who will sing with the band for only a couple of years before defecting to the USA…
The year 1983 brought with it the album “Que Pista“.
Except the fine title track and one major hit I will mention shortly, it also contains an interesting injection of Palo tradition into Songo in the form of the composition named “Que Palo es Ese”
The hit song I mentioned above, that instantly became one of the “anthems” of Songo and contemporary Cuban music as a whole, is, of course, Sandunguera, also known as Por Encima del Nivel.
This song is considered to be one of the band’s greatest songs of all times, containing fascinating Clave manipulations, Pedrito’s wonderful vocals, Orlando Canto’s emotional flute parts and Pupy’s amazing piano solos & catchy riffs, to name a few major points.
The song will be covered several times later (surprise surprise! 🙂 ), but I like the original version best…
Next in line is yet another piece to remember (they just keep coming!), from 1984 – Anda, Ven y Muevete, being the hit title track of a hit albums containing many wonderful compositions such as the lyrical and melodic Sera que se Acabo, the socially oriented La Habana no Aguanta Mas and of course, the title track:
The next few years brought with them many hits, some of which will often be quoted by other bands later on, during the Timba era, as the musicians of those days grew up with the music of Los Van Van from the 1980s.
The most popular and well known of these include El Carcinero, El Buena Gente (considered to be one of Pupy’s major hits of all times) and Se Muere la Tia.
Next in line is the 1986 Eso Que Anda, containing many dance floor hits such as y ya tu Campana no Suena, No es Facil, que no que no (a personal favorite of mine, by the way…) and the title track of the album…
Before we get to the 1988 masterpiece titled “Songo”, a few honorable mentions:
1) a song that would become a Van Van classic, and also one of Pupy’s trump cards, later covered by Timba virtuoso Isaac Delgado.
This is La Titimania, which even has a nice video clip 🙂
2+3) from the funnily named “el negro no tiene na” of 1988 come yet another Songo classic, Se Acabo el Querer and the super romantic hit Este Amor que se Muere (and yes, these 2 are also high on my favorite list!)
Songo, which came out in 1988, is an album not known for any innovative compositions;
It actually has nothing new to offer in that field.
It is rather known for the fine quality of the New York studio equipment where it was recorded, and the wonderful chemistry ever so evident in the re-recorded versions of such hits as Sandunguera, Anda Ven y Muevete, La Titimania and Ya Tu Campana no Suena.
This album was the first step in introducing Los Van Van to US and many other audiences outside of Cuba, and is definitely not the last time for the band to come to the USA.
Here is an example that you can compare to the 1983 original:
The last album of the decade is also a great one, and things just keep getting better and better as we move on to the 1990s and the Timba era… but before that, when Timba was still in its infancy, Los Van Van created an unfortunately little known masterpiece called “Rico Son” or “Cronicas”, that came out in 1989.
This album should be known by any Timba fans out there, as it can be considered one of its roots, with such compositions as the wonderful descarga “Yo Se Que Van Van“, the witty and hard hitting “Tranquilo Mota“, and the true gem of the album, the amazing “No Soy de la Gran Escena”, a true Timba masterpiece before Timba was established as a genre, with bloques and gears, some of which even include… Classical music, and a healthy dose of social context…
From Songo to Timba to…? the 1990s and beyond!
This decade, with the quick rise of Timba and its great many innovations, had seen Van Van rise again, together with the new wave of primera linea bands, this time around as a Timba Juggernaut!
But before the band produced some of the most well known Timbas in existence, we can still hear some great “transitional” compositions, that are definitely Songo on one hand, but are definitely different, on the other hand, when compared to their predecessors from the 1970’s or early 1980s.
The decade starts with the amazing Aqui el Que Baila Gana, a dual CD albums, considered by many to be Los Van Van’s best album of all time.
It contains great many (and quite varied) “Songo-Timba” hits such as Ahora Dime Si Me Quieres, Esto Si Es Distino, Esto Esta Bueno, Me Basta Con Pensar (yes, covered once more recently) and the title track, and also some peeks to other genres, with a Merengue-Son named Bailando Mojao and a Lambada named Solo Queria Bailar Lambada.
The title track is also a masterpiece…
The next album, the 1993 Azucar, is considered by many to be Van Van’s entry move into the realm of Timba, or at least a departure from the Songo genre for quite a while.
The album’s most notable compositions are Esperando Llamada, for its mellow groove and trombone parts; the amazing Que Le Den Candela, which is on one hand a throwback to the times when Son was all the rage, yet on the other hand contains some “proto-guias” in the end, a clear Timba element; and last but not least, the title track, a solid dance hit that will sure get your heart pumping blood fast, if not from excitement than from its fast tempo!
The mid 90s saw the release of a “lo ultimo en vivo” in 1994, which apparently was recorded at La Tropical, but not as a concert at all.
Notable compositions are Que Tiene Van Van, Un Socio, Mandalo y Ven, and the most memorable for me, Que Sorpresa
Now, as 1996 drew in, the band truly had entered the Timba era with Ay dios, Amparame!
If you remember, I mentioned earlier in this post that using Afro Cuban themes in contemporary Cuban music has been popular for many decades, even centuries, with the latest manifestation starting in the 1980s.
In this album we see one of the greatest Timba hits of the decade and all time, which is also one of the most well known tracks about Santeria and Afro Cuban traditions in general…
This is Soy Todo, which also goes by the same name as the albums itself.
The album’s Afro Cuban theme also continues on the secular side, with a cover of the 1980 “de la Habana a Matanzas“, with Mayito’s great Rumbero vocals.
Other notable tracks are many, including the Romantic Deja la Ira, the nice Son Hay Mujeres, and the lengthy yet groovy De Igual a Igual.
Another favorite of mine, which is often neglected (again, for no good reason whatsoever), is Camina Pa’ que te Conozcan.
But as mentioned before, the “star” of this album is the title track, which IMO is even more amazing in live versions…
In 1997, as Timba entered into high gear (pun intended! 🙂 ), so did Los Van Van, with Esto Te Pone La Cabeza Mala”, producing a “Timba anthem” if there ever was one… even though Van Van is rarely credited with the “creation” of Timba, the band sure gave a fair share of contribution to the genre…
The albums includes great tracks of all kinds and flavours, from romantic ones such as Ella Tiene Algo Que No Se or Que Pasa Con Ella (which is romantic yet a more uptempo) to hard hitting, dance floor dominating hits like El Tren Se Va and of course, Ni Bombones Ni Caramelos, another gem by Pupy.
Yet once more, the most memorable and adored composition of the album is the title track, which for ever resides deep down at the heart of each and every Timba fan out there…
As the decade draws to an end, Los Van Van just can’t stop making hits, one album at a time.
They call Van Van “el tren bala de la musica Cubana” for a reason!
With 1999 together came yet another hugely successful album, Llego Van Van, the band’s 30 year anniversary project… can you blame it for being so damn good?
It even won the Grammy that year.
Each and every track on this albums is worth listening (and dancing) to, and if possible, at least twice or trice 🙂
So instead of listening them all by name, I will just put it here, as a playlist (which is, unfortunately, only partial. But you can find the rest of the track of this album by searching on youtube)… but before I do that, I will mention that Permiso Que Llego Van Van briefly tells the band’s story, La Bomba Soy Yo makes fun of those who are worth little but claim to be the best, Appapas del Calabar and Somos Cubanos are Afro and Rumba themed, respectively, that Temba Tumba Timba and El Negro Esta Cocinando are romance and food themed Timba classics, and that you could not end the album any better than with Havana City…
Before the millenniums changed, the band got to visit the USA again, this time for a mega concert at the Miami arena, which I highly recommend!
Before moving on, I would also like to mention yet another live album, which is also the band’s first release in the new millennium – the 2003 live “en el malecon de la Habana”, containing some great new material such as Timpop and Mi Mimi, but also great extended versions of hits such as Temba Tumba Timba and Esto Te Pone La Cabeza Mala
As the 2000s progress, Los Van Van releases yet another great album in late 2004, Chapeando, with a rather new line up of musicians;
Pupy left to form his own band, replaced by the grandson of legendary Bebo Valdez, Roberto Rodriguez “Cucurucho”, Lele Jr. and Yeni Valdez join as lead vocalists, and Formell’s son, Samuel arranges the albums, plays the drum kit, and composes 2 of the tracks.
The album is notable for many great dance floor favorits such as Ven Ven Ven, Corazon, Agua and No Pidas Mas Presta’o, the more traditional El Montuno and one of the most touching love songs in the history of Cuban music, Despues de Todo
As always, the title track does no disappointment to the feet, ears, and this time around, also the eyes, with its beautiful, colourful video clip and Afro mythology coming to life…
In 2007 the band recorded (yet again!) its live concerts, and the results are not disappointing… you should simply clear up 2-3 hours, and take a listen!
As yet another decade came to a close, Van Van released Arrasando in 2009, with Formell taking a step back, still arranging and directing, but not playing the bass.
The album is solid but not known for any masterpieces.
Yet still can boast a line up of 4 main vocalists + Formell’s daughter Vanessa singing the beautiful, groovy, rhythmic and yet romantic Un Tumbao Pa’ Los Dos, my personal favorite of the album.
Other notable compositions are La Rumba No, Tu a Lo Tuyo, Yo a Lo Mio, Dame la Luz, Mi Songo, and the visually pleasing Me Mantengo
Recorded in 2009 yet released only in 2012 is the 40 year anniversary concert of Los Van Van – definitely worth listening to if you are a Vanvanero, a fan of Cuban music, or even better, both, as they are not mutually exclusive… they are mutually inclusive 😉
The next album, released in 2011, is La Maquinaria, featuring some covers of old hits like Recibeme, Eso Que Anda and La Boberia, as well as fine original compositions like Mis Santos Son Ustedes and Que Tiene Ese Guajiro. Final is a collaboration with Habana de Primera’s Alexander Abreu on Trumpet doing his usual magic.
My favorite (with Que Tiene Ese Guajiro a close second place) song from this album is the title track, La Maquinaria, which also has a beautiful video clip
Last but not least, the most recent release of the band has been a tragic one, as Juan Formell passed away in 2014.
The album is called La Fantasia, and was released as a homage to the maestro, with some of his greatest hits of all time performed by today’s members.
I implore you to listen to the whole album, not only as it is quite good, but also of respect to the legendary man behind Los Van Van, and so much else in contemporary Cuban music…
Although ending on a bit of a sad note, I hope that each and every one of us learned something today, and can now appreciate this immensely important and talented collection of musicians a bit better… and only time will tell what great compositions we shall be seeing from LVV in the future… Disfruten!
Jokes aside, I consider this composition to contain the 2 necessary components a composition needs, coming together from 2 different constituent sources.
I’ll explain.
As I mentioned some time ago, the band Bamboleo, which is the progenitor of Azucar Negra, was once an innovative Timba powerhouse, releasing compositions and albums that became staples and landmarks of the genre.
But over the years, quality started deteriorating, as the band turned more and more away from Timba and ventured into the fields of western pop and reggaeton… sic transit gloria mundi…
Ironically, the same process has been happening in Azucar Negra roughly at the same time (and to think that Leonel moved out of one to start the other with the purpose of taking a different direction from the one taken by the original band…), with a slow and steady commercialization of their music, and the melodic \ harmonic side of it taking the biggest hit.
On the other hand, we have Alexander Abreu, who in addition to being a virtuoso trumpet player has also been recognized again and yet again as one of the best composers in the field of world music in recent years… and if that’s not enough, Alexander is also one of the best voices of Timba and Cuban music of our time!
So, what does one need for a well balanced composition?
Rhythm, melody and harmony…
Now guess what? bringing together the rhythm section of Azucar Negra and the great vocal abilities of Alexander achieves exactly that!
A very nice, rhythmic composition, which is also full of emotional and harmonic singing.
Throw in some good old musical traditions like subtle references to well know Cuban compositions (can you name them all?), and you get a delicious “salsa”, which the dance community would definitely have a great time experiencing on the dance floor (DJs, please take note 🙂 ).
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Today I present you a group of talented young Cuban musicians, who have been producing and participating in several interesting project in the recent 5 years.
Maikel Dinza Hechavarria is the name of a 30 year old vocalist from Santiago de Cuba, a descendant to a family of musicians. He received his initial education at the Jose Maria Heredia musical school, continuing to the ENA (national school of arts) middle school in La Habana, where he sang in the school’s choir, participating in 2 international festivals as a choir singer.
After that Maikel went on to study at the Esteban Salas conservatory, where he took part at the school’s orchestra, Camerate Esteban Salas and also organized, in his senior year, his own project called “salsa chula”, acting as a singer, composer and musical director & arranger.
After graduation Maikel went on to perform his national service in the Granma province, at the province’s school of art, Manuel Munoz Cedeno, where he served as a singer, bassist and cello player.
After completing national service, Maikel made his first steps in the field of popular contemporary Cuban music singing for the group Suave Tumbao from Bayamo, where he acted as lead singer, composer and musical for 2 years.
Leaving Suave Tumbao, Maikel took part in several project, including singing with Yuli & Habana C, Mayito Rivera, Maykel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor, Timberos all stars and Manolito y Su Trabuco.
The most recent project, from which the song presented today comes, is called Maikel Dinza y los Soneros de la Juventud, who have up to now produced 2 albums, Al Compas del Bailador, and Regalando Corazones, which contains a variety of compositions, from Bolero and Son to romantic numbers to hard hitting Timbas!
A donde vas is a smooth and romantic, yet rhythmic and energetic composition, and is the song of choice for today.
Disfruten!
P.S:
Maikel also has a more uptempo version released with Manolito’s orchestra… choose your favorite 🙂
Good day dear readers, listeners, fans and blog followers!
As you definitely know, the blog was on vacation for 2 weeks, while I was traveling beautiful Poland, including finally meeting Josue Joseph of La Epoca in person, seeing my good friends from Al Centro Cuban dance school in Minsk, and of course, attending the amazing 12th el Sol Salsa festival in Warsaw, with thousands of wonderful dancers, great workshops, and 2 live concerts by Orquesta Reve and Yoruba Andabo (who also taught some very interesting workshops about Rumba and Afro Cuban Folklore).
As I already mentioned, I had a great time, and the parties were great, lasting ’till 6 AM most days, with lots of great music and dancing.
One song which caught my eye… or rather, ear, and that I haven’t heard being played on any dance floor for years now is the song I present you today here at the blog, from the 2005 album El Buenagente, by Pupy y Los Que Son Son.
Although some songs from this album are more well known, for example gato por liebre, la figura soy yo, or the band’s cover of disco azucar, I see no reason for Dicen Que Dicen to be missing from the dance floors;
It’s a wonderful song coming on the slower, or even romantic, side of things, making it perfect for the 1st and 3rd thirds of the evening.
It is also very well balanced from the standpoint of rhythm \ melody, has great energy & groove, solos parts, nice harmonic interaction with the clave, and some subtle Afro Cuban cultural references, with all of this topped by Pepito Gomez’s great singing!
So for me, the song is a winner by all counts, and one of the most memorable songs from the festival.
Disfruten!
The following 2 weeks I will be traveling to Poland, including the wonderful 12th el Sol Salsa festival, with concerts by Elito Reve and Yoruba Andabo!
Although unofficial, I (and some other people as well) like to consider the following song as a sort of “teaser” Elito made for his current European tour 😉
Anyways, I will be doing a lot of hiking, sightseeing, studying and dancing, so I will not be posting during that time…
So, for the time being, you can visit any of the previous posts made on the blog, or just listen to your favorite Cuban album a few more times…
So today we are going to familiarize ourselves with one of the most well known and influential conjuntos of the 1950’s and 1960’s, Conjunto Roberto Faz.
As you can see from the photo above, at this time the typical conjunto has gone quite far and much more varied in number of members, instrumentation and playing style from the old days of traditional, rural, Son at the hills of Oriente;
Compared to the duos, trios and cuartetos of the eastern countryside , which typically had musicians as singers, playing bongos, tress, some sort of bass and maracas, we now have quite a different story, with the conjunto having many members (in this photo we can see 11, which is quite typical of the time in the urban setting), with several playing various horn instruments.
Others play the contrabass, bongos, congas, campana and piano, with several members being lead and back vocalists.
The typical playing style also changed quite a lot during the 1st part of the XX century, with the conjuntos now playing lots of Son Montuno, as compared to the classical style of Son typical of the early, rural, groups.
Roberto Faz was born September 18th 1914 at the Regla neighborhood of La Habana, and sang from an early age.
His artistic career began in 1927, singing in a children’s band called Chapman Sport, and from there took part in septeto ultamar, and after that at the Hit cabaret, in 1932.
Roberto’s professional breakthrough came in 1944, when he joined Conjunto Kubavana, mainly singing boleros (with a unique, smooth and lyrical style that influenced all other bolero singers of the time, and earned Roberto some fame in La Habana and all of Cuba), and later that year, as he became the vocalist of Conjunto Casino, starting an international career that will take him to many Latin and Mesoamerican, the united states and world renowned fame.
In 1955, when Conjunto Casino underwent some major personnel changes, Roberto decided that it was time to form his own band, and thus the Conjunto Roberto Faz was formed, debuting with concerts in 1956.
The group’s first disc was released in 1957, with several others in following year, much air time on the radio, and concerts at the best halls of La Habana, other Cuban cities and the whole region of the Americas, from Mexico to New York.
The groups is well known for hits such as Comprension, Como vivo en Luyano, Cositas que tiene mi Cuba, Melao de cana, Sabrosona and the song presented today, Pintate los Labios Maria.
The conjunto is also credited with the creation of a new rhythm in the 1960s – el ritmo Dengue, and also the popularization of performing potpourris of boleros, called “boleros ligaditos”.
Roberto died on April 26th, 1966.
If you have been following this blog or Cuban music in the past 3 decades, then you are probably familiar with the work of La Charanga Habanera, a band that revolutionized contemporary Cuban music, one of the few bands that can claim to establish Timba as a standalone musical genre…
The “Habanera” part is easy to understand – the band comes from La Habana, the capital and largest city of Cuba… but have you ever wondered about the “charanga” part? what does it mean? what is “charanga”?
Well, this is exactly what this post will be dealing with today!
Above you can see a photograph of the Orquesta de Antonio Maria Romeu, an early Charanga ensemble founded in 1910.
Charanga is one of the 2 basic group formats that exist in Cuba since the late XIX century – the Chranga and the Conjunto.
The Charanga ensemble has its roots in the Orquesta Tipica, an ensemble which consists mostly of wind and bras instruments such as cornets, trombones, ophicleides, clarinets, violins, double bass, and some percussive instruments like the guiro and tympani.
Such groups existed in Cuba since at least the middle of the XIX century, and mainly played Contradanza music.
Later on, the format evolved into the Charanga Francesa, an ensemble that played mainly indoors (the Tipicas played mostly in outdoor events), and now included also flutes, more string instruments, and also a new percussive instrument, the Pailas (nowadays known as timbales).
Charanga Francesa type ensembles payed mostly Danzon, the national musical genre (and dance!) of Cuba, which evolved from Contradanza with some Afro Cuban influences.
The next step of this line was the Charanga format, originating in the early XX century.
Such bands mostly replaced the Tipicas and Francesas, and although mostly playing Danzon at those times, included a different line up of instruments, which produced a unique, lighter, more jolly and bright, sound.
These bands included double bass, cello, violins, flutes, Pailas (Timbales, which now also included 1 or 2 cencerros, also known as campanas), Guiro, piano, and sometimes also brass instruments like trombones and trumpets.
These Orquestas also mainly played Danzon, which was hugely popular at the time, such as the following:
On the other hand of the scale, coming from Oriente, the eastern part of Cuba, we have the Conjunto format, playing mostly Son based music, such as Son (both in the earlier campesino style and the later “urban” style that emerged in Habana in the early XX century…), changui, and later Son Montuno and Guaracha.
These genres are Creole music, with strong Afro Cuban influences, and early bands being duos, trios or cuartetos.
Typical son instruments include Bongos, Tress, Cajon (later bass) and maracas, with at least one of the musicians, mostly the Tress player, doubling as a singer (the others might accompany as back vocals).
This was very much “country music”, played mostly by Guajiros, peasants from the easter country side.
The following is a good example of the campesino style of Son:
Next, as Son music slowly made its way to the capital, the trios and cuartetos of country origin started being replaced by the sextetos, which now played in an urban set up, included more musicians and instruments, with the main addition being a guitar, and later clave and trumpets.
So now the typical instrumentation of a Son band included not only Bongos, Tress, bass (at times still the cajon or marimbula) and Maracas, but also trumpets, clave and guitar, with the lyrics and vocal style influenced by both the Spanish “troubadour” style singing and coros from Rumba and Guaguanco.
Here is a good example of the Son music played by sextetos…
So, what do we have now, in the 1920’s?
We have 2 band formats, the Conjunto and the Charanga, playing 2 different musical genres, Danzon and Son, and having 2 distinct sets of musical instruments, with little overlap (only the horns being an exception, but these weren’t very common in Charangas).
This was, of course, not a matter of artistic preference, but the sad reality of Cuban society of that time… a segregated, racist and discriminating society…
The Charanga and it’s Danzon music were mainly for the white upper classes, while the Son based music of the Conjunto was mainly consumed my the middle and lower classes, being mostly creole and black.
But this all started changing in 1929, or even before that;
A few examples of mixing both “families” exist even from the early XX century, with a notable one being the Estudiantia Oriental from Santiago de Cuba.
This band, formed in the late XIX century, had white and creole members (the Tipicas and Charangas Francesas of the time were exclusively white), women (most musicians at that time were male), included instruments both of the Charanga (pailas, cencerro, guiro, double bass) and the Conjunto (tress, guitar, marimbula, trumpets) formats, and played Son, Guaracha and Bolero, but also the occasional Danzon.
The band mostly consistent of university students, hence the name…
Anyway, in 1929 the musician and composer Aniceto Diaz created, for the first time, a genre that included elements of both Son and Danzon families, in an attempt to bring Son into the public spotlight and radio station broadcasts, still mostly dominated by Danzon type music.
And so he did!
The first Danzonete – Rompiendo La Rutina, became hugely popular, and this music, including singing, claves and tres over the “background” of Danzon rhythms and instrumentation, became hugely popular, dominating the Cuban music scene of the 1930’s until the Son Montuno and Mambo took over during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, and later on the Cha Cha of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
You can listen to the first Danzonete here!
The influence of this new genre was great;
It affected major figures such as Arsenio Rodriguez, Antonio Arcano and the Lopez brothers, who later went of to create and develop Son Montuno, Mambo, and Guagaunco-Son, incorporating even more elements of Son, Danzon, Rumba and Guagaunco together, influencing both the Charanga and Conjunto formats…
But for our story, let us go to the 1940’s;
Now the Charanga format started mixing with the Conjunto format, as creole and even black musicians started taking leading roles in the Cuban music industry.
During the 1940’s the Charanga ensemble underwent some changes, and now the bands started playing compositions consisting of both Danzon and Son elements, and even some elements coming from Son Montuno, a later evolution of Son music, which was had even more Afro-Cuban influence such as Rumba based bass lines, layered melodic phrases, polyrhythmics and such new instruments as the Tumbadora and the coro-pregon vocal pattern.
So while not actually having the bipartite structure of Son Montuno with the distinct Montuno part, or any direct imports from Rumba or Guaguanco, the music palyed by Charangas in the 1940’s and 1950’s definitely contained some elements of Son music, like the Tumbadoras (congas) and some string instrument Montuno like parts in the 2nd half of the compositions.
An example of this is the following interesting composition by Orquesta Aragon:
The 1950’s brought on even more of this mixing, with some influences of genres popular at the time, such as Mambo and Cha Cha (both of the Danzon derived family) and more Son Montuno (of the Son family).
This resulted, among many things, in compositions such as the following one, by then little known Charanga Orquesta from Oriente called Orquesta Reve, who’s leader, Elio Reve Matos, had a dream of taking Changui from the fincas (farms) of Oriente to the mainstream of Cuban music… a dream he would definitely realize, in his own way, much later on… but for the time being, Orquesta Reve was a typical Charanga type ensemble of the time, playing mostly Danzon based music, but as we have seen before, already had some strong Son influences.
This is a notable composition from that time, from one of the first LPs by Orquesta Reve, featuring flutes, violins, montuno on cello, and Tumbadoras playing Tumbao along with Bongos in the background…
So, here we have one of the most important Cuban bands of the 1980’s and of our day… throwing us a fine silk thread to Cuban music of even before the Revolution!
And Reve wasn’t the only one… when Reve’s bassist and musical director Juan Formell became an influential figure in the Orquesta in 1968, and later on, in 1969, when he left Reve’s band and formed his own, Los Van Van, he still retained the Charanga format, despite adding modern instruments and even more ideas inspired by various genres of Afro-Cuban music, such as ceremonial Yoruba Bata drumming, Conga and the modern Pilon and Mozambique genres.
The Charanga heritage can be heard quite clearly in Formell’s music from the 1960’s and 1970’s such as the following 2 composition, one from the times when Formell was still in Orquesta Reve, and the 2nd one from soon after forming Los Van Van…
Reve’s Changui 68′:
Van Van’s Songo:
Sounds quite similar, doesn’t it?
Charanga influences can be heard quite well in other notable bands of the pre-Timba era of the 1960’s and 1970’s, such as Ritmo Oriental.
For example:
As you probably remember, Orquesta Reve, Los Van Van and Ritmo Oriental (who, BTW, separated from Orquesta Reve in 1958…) are among the bands most influential to Timba… if you don’t, the following chart is a good reminder 🙂
And now, let us complete the circle by going back to the question presented in the beginning of this post… why is La Charanga Habanera called so? what does the “charanga” part of the name mean?
Well, simply put, the revolutionary Timba band is basically a Charanga format ensemble… this shouldn’t come as a surprise to those familiar with the history of the band’s creation and the mastermind behind it – David Calzado, that before becoming a band leader was… a violin player!
The band inherited the Charanga format from Ritmo Oriental, where Calzado played before forming his own band.
The influences of Charanga music can be clearly heard in many of Charanga Habanera’s compositions, most notably in their interpretation of classics such as this:
So, from Arcano and Jorrin through Reve and Formell to Charanga Habanera, the link is still strong, and the lessons of the past have been learned well by the leading figures of Cuban music in our age… so, remember the past, and you will provide for a brighter future…
Good day dear readers and blog followers!
Today we shall listen to one of my favorite songs by Orquesta Reve, which I suppose that most of you are familiar with, as it came out over 5 years ago.
The song is Ya se Cantar, ya se bailar, and pretty much has all I’m looking for in a fine Timba song – good tempo, not very slow but not fast, great rhythm section, good melody, well based classical Son-Songo-Timba structure, strong vocals and decent amounts of improvisation.
This song also features the immensely talented Susel “la china” Gomez, which is a great addition for any song, and surely always pleases the ear (and the eye 😉 ).
So, let us listen, dance and have a great time;
Disfruten!
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