Today I present you a very nice and interesting song by Pupy y LQSS, from their 2014 album Sin Limite.
The song is “esa es la que tu te lleva”, has many interesting rhythmic points all over it, a strong conga feel, great singing and some advice about treating those that love you with some love in return…
For some reason, I haven’t heard this fine song being played at all in parties, although IMO it’s a beast!
I even heard it used for a musicality demonstration by 2 top Cuban instructors in a workshop last weekend (which was great, BTW!).
Today I present you something a bit different, compared to the usual line I follow in this blog, which mostly includes Son, Songo and Timba.
Today we shall be enjoying another beautiful side of Cuban culture, the so called “Afro-Cuban” side, which sends a long line back to the roots of Cuban culture in Africa…
Today we shall be enjoying a composition by a talented group of youths right from the streets of La Habana, that will play a mix of Rumba and other Afro Cuban music… these are Adonis y Osain del Monte.
This group is named after the Orisha (Yoruba deity) Osain, saint \ spirit \ “god” of herbs and natural medicine, who knows all of nature’s secrets, and with his small ear can hear everything, even a leaf falling from a tree…
The group was founded on July 19th, 2013 in La Habana by a group of highly talented young musicians playing in some of the top Afro Cuban ensembles in Habana, such as Yoruba Andabo, Clave y Guaguanco and Conjunto Folklorico Nacional, and is lead by vocalist, dancer, percussionist and director Adonis Andres Panter Calderon.
One of the most interesting and wonderful things in this group, at least for me, which makes my eyes as happy as my ears, is the fact that the group’s members are as good of dancers as they are musicians; as you will see in their beautiful clips, there definitely is as much beautiful dancing in the clips as there is beautiful music!
The group has recently released a disc named “La Negra”, which contains much Afro Cuban music and interesting fusions with other styles of Cuban music such as Son, Bolero and Timba; the title track is a good example.
Recently the group has been appearing more and more with top artists from the primera linea such as Klimax, Alexander Abreu and El Nino y La Verdad, adding lots of Sabor to these marvelous compositions (such as here).
So, for today we have a very nice composition called “Cachita”, released in 2014.
I advise watching as much as listening for full enjoyment… Disfruten!
Today I present you a relatively new song by Bamboleo, presented in concerts during summer 2015, but still not a part of any official album.
Unlike their earlier work, this group has been a big disappointment in recent years, at least in my eyes and most of the time… the quality of both their compositions and personnel has gone (or at times, bluntly plummeted) down, and the result was mostly better left unmentioned.
But this time around it seems that they have finally somewhat returned to the proper groove, and definitely can still deliver in concerts… although personally I am not a fan of their current lead singer, which seems to be doing more shouting than singing…. oh, well, guess you can’t always have it all 😉
When thinking of ideas for today’s blog post, my dearest readers and followers, I was facing a dilemma…
At the start of the week, a friend of mine, who’s a great DJ and aficionado of Cuban music, DJ Gil Cubanito, introduced me to a wonderful album of traditional Cuban music by El Piqueton de Felix Rondon, a band of marvelous musician from all over the oriente province of Cuba, led by Tres player and violinist Felix Rondon.
So I thought, earlier this week, “here’s a wonderful album to share on my blog!”, and it definitely is!
As inserting the whole album into a post is not realistic, I’ll leave this section of today’s review with one of my favorites, Yemaya
So, that would be it… normally!
But as the week went on, new and exiting videos came up.
The 2nd piece of news I would like to share is an extension of sorts to a previously reviewed song, which is also a favorite of mine, but this time in the vein of Timba – Havana de Primera’s wonderful Siempre Si !
What’s new here, you might be asking yourselves… the song now has a beautiful video clip!
Making great video clips for great songs seems to be all the heat in La Habana these days…
Lat but not least, the official youtube channel of Orquesta Reve has been quite active lately, with a good deal of recordings from live concert of their recent tour getting uploaded.
The one that caught my eye the most is a clip from their concert together with Yoruba Andabo (which will be on tour in Europe in November, BTW) – I was lucky to be present in a similar event on a different occasion back in 2013, and I can sure tell you that it’s amazing!
We had some Reve last week, had some Reve in July, and some more Reve over the years… and that is for a reason!
There’s plenty of logic nicknaming Orquesta Reve “la aplanadora de la musica Cubana” (pun intended 🙂 ), as you definitely know that the orchestra is over 60 years old, and many of Cuba’s top musicians have passed through it over these decades… so it has been a school of sorts for many of the greats of contemporary Cuban and Latin music .
Today I gladly present a cover version… yes, a cover version!
In general, I’m not that fund of such, and stick to the rule that “if it ain’t as good or better than the original, it shouldn’t exist”… and there aren’t many covers that abide by that rule…
But this is a rare case when it does!
This song is a cover of the wonderful “Espero Que te Pasa el Tiempo” (unfortunately, this is the only recording available on youtube… BTW, kids, do you know what this apparatus in the clip is? 😉 ) from 1987’s “la Explosion del Momento”, one of the best Cuban music albums of all times, and one of the 3 who brought the Orchestra back into the front of the primera linea during the 1980’s.
This more modern interpretation also features the wonderful singer HaIla Mompie, formerly Bamboleo’s lead singer, who’s been including much cooperation work with various groups as a part of her solo career in recent yeras.
The result is spectacular, and even differs enough from the original to (sort of…) be classified as a whole different composition, a brand new song, that even some of the people familiar with the original did not recognize right away…
Today we can get an auditory glimpse of the new (albeit yet unofficial) Orquesta Reve CD.
As most of you surely know, 2016 is the 60th anniversary year of Orquesta Reve, and for this occasion the orchestra has been releasing fine singles, one of which I reviewed before.
So, today we get not one song but a madly, a canvas of several songs from the new album.
From what I’ve heard, the disc is gonna be great, and I can’t wait to get my hand on it…
Carying on with the topic of Santiago de Cuba from last week, today we shall meet a very nice, but little known, group named Grupo Granma, which a friend introduced me to last week…
This group has been playing for almost 2 decades now, and has been right there amidst the Timba revolution of the 1990’s, with 3 albums to date, the first being a hit filled Timba collection named Ay, por Dios!, which came out in 1999.
Since then 2 more albums, A Bailar, Bailadores! and Ya Llegue, have been released in 2010 and 2011 respectively, but the composition for today comes from their first album, and IMO is a pure Timba masterpiece!
So, here it is!
I would recommend everybody to explore the rest of the album and their other works, which include both solid Timba tracks and interesting compositions of traditional Cuban music, both their own and fine interpretations of well known classics.
Disfruten!
P.S:
As commonly observed in Timba music, musicians often play around with the clave in various ways.
This song is no exception… can you spot any “clave tricks” in this song? challenge yourself 🙂
Today I present you a wonderful Son by Septeto Santiaguero, which besides being a beautiful composition and very well executed, has a wonderful, colourful, interesting and dynamic video clip, full of the beautiful movement and choreography by Sabor DKY!
For those that don’t know, Sabor DKY is one of Cuba’s top dance groups, led by Cuba’s several time Casino champion Yanek Revilla and his partner, Ballet Folklórico de Oriente graduate, Karelia Despaigne-Zhuk, who are mostly known as a Casino (and Rueda de Casino) dance group, but also (as we can see in the clip) quite the experts in other traditional and popular Cuban dances.
So, here’s today’s fine song with it’s charming clip.
Disfruten!
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers…
As you might know, today (or more correctly for the time zone I’m writing from, tomorrow) is Fidel’s 90th birthday!
íFeliz cumple compañero!
So, for this occasion, let’s delve a bit deeper into the history of Cuban music, with a genre which might not be as old as Fidel, but is very interesting and enjoyable, nonetheless…
Today we’re gonna have ourselves a little Cha Cha Cha lesson (yes, pun intended 🙂 ).
For those not aware of the less recent history of modern Cuban music, Cha Cha Cha is a joly and rhythmic musical genre derived from the Danzon.
It was created by composer, songwriter and violinist Enrique Jorrin from Orquesta America in 1948, as an experimental form of Danzon, directed especially at social dancers, being faster and more rhythmical, while still melodically rich.
Soon after, Cha Cha Cha exploded, gaining much popularity in Cuba, Mexico and then Latin and north America in the early 1950’s, just like the Mambo a decade earlier.
The dancers in club Silver Star in La Habana also developed a dance for this type of music during that time, which became a hit as well.
As a musical genre, it was played by Charanga type orchestras at parties and on the radio, and can be characterized by slow to medium tempo, a rhythm section made by the Tumbadoras (Congas), Guiro, small Campana (also known as the “cha cha bell”), Pailas (Timbales) and Bass (which also took part in shaping the melodic and harmonic components), while the melody and harmonies were mostly taken care of by the flutes, violins, piano and vocals.
Just like in Danzon, the song is composed of a “classical” and an “Afro-Cuban” section, in this case the classical being more like the Danzon, and the Afro-Cuban section coming mostly from Rumba.
Cha Cha Cha is quite jolly and lighthearted in character, with the lyrics mostly being simple, and can even often be described as simplistic, naive or childish… but only in a good way 🙂
Orquesta Aragon, founded in 1939 by bassist Orestes Aragon Cantero in Cienfuegos, was very much a part of the “cha cha cha hype”, and contributed a lot to its development and popularization.
Led by Rafael Lay since 1948, the orchestra moved to La Habana, appeared on many radio shows, recorded vinyls and traveled the American continents extensively, spreading cha cha cha and other Cuban music to the masses.
Over the years, the orchestra traveled several dozen countries, appeared in various music festivals worldwide, won a Latin Grammy award, and earned the nickname “La Charanga Eterna”, and rightfully so;
The orchestra has been around since 1939, and is still playing such classics as El Bodeguero, El cerquillo, Cachita, Pare Cochero, Guajira con tumbao, Tres lindas cubanas, and many, many more!
So, here’s today’s song…
Disfruten!
(oh, and if you still haven’t done so, go to your local Cuban dancer teacher, and learn yourselves some Cha Cha Cha! it’s quite an enjoyable dance, and will add a lot to your Casino dancing as well!)
For me, tonight is kind of special… after roughly 5 years, since I’ve visited Cuba back in October 2011, tonight I’m going to attend a concert by Habana de Primera!
For those who don’t know, the amazingly talented Alexander Abreu did not establish Habana de Primera right away… from 2005 to 2009, Alexander was a member of the wonderful Grupo Danson, performing all over Europe, before returning to Cuba, and really “Haciendo Historia” (pun intended) with his famous band which I’ll have the pleasure of seeing tonight.
So, let us all enjoy quite a well known hit, Mi Musica, which like much of the group’s work, is unfortunately familiar to people only by its Habana De Primera version.
