Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Today’s post is dedicated to the brand new 60th anniversary album of Orquesta Reve!
Orquesta Reve is one of the most long living groups in both Cuban and international music scene, and under the leaderships of Elito, the founder’s son, it keep dominating music charts today just as during it’s major breakthrough in the mid 1980’s, over 30 years ago!
The album, “La Salsa Tiene mi Son”, is a homage album by Elito to his father, the great Elio Reve, who died in a car accident in 1997.
The album features some very prominent guest musicians such as Juan Carlos Alfonso, Isaac Delgado and Paulito FG, just to name a few.
In the album version, the song presented today, a new version of the classic “Rumberos Latinoamericanos”, includes Paulito FG and Los Munequitos de Matanzas.
But what I bring you today is a bit different – a live performance with the amazing dancer Maykel Fonts!
Today I gladly present you a new, coluorful and beautiful animated video clip to one of the songs from Maykel Blanco’s new album, Que No Me Quiten La Fe.
The clip is a wonderful animation of a very nice song, describing the adventures of Maykel and his band throughout Cuba when making their latest albums…
So, here it is!
A pleasure for the eyes, ears, feet and all other parts you use when dancing 🙂
Please raise your hand if you enjoy a good quality drink… even if only occasionally, or even rarely.
Now, please raise your hand if you’ve been to Cuba, or have been hanging out with Cubans for a substantial period of time…
If you have both your hands up now, then you are most probably familiar with the wonderful Rums of Cuba, whether Havana Club, Caney, Cubay, Ron Santiago de Cuba, Guayabita del Pinar, Legendario… whether in a cocktail like Mojito or Cuba Libre or in pure form (which is the best way to drink, IMHO), and know their value!
So, what it Rum, anyways?
Rum (in Spanish, Ron) is a “strong” (~80 proof \ ~40%) alcoholic drink produced in the process of distillation of fermented sugarcane, it’s byproducts such as molasses or the sugarcane juice itself, which is then aged in oak barrels.
Rum is mostly produced in countries that historically are (or have been) major producers of sugar, many of which are in the Caribbean and Latin America, but also more recently in Europe, north America and south-east Asia.
One of the major producers and exporters of Rum is Cuba!
Rum is aged in oak barrels, and comes in various grades, that increase with aging.
Light \ white rum is the “youngest” variant, most often used in cocktails, while dark \ brown \ black rums are mostly drank neat or “on the rocks”, and are usually aged for at least 5 years.
Premium rums, aged for 12, 15, 18 or 20 year (sometimes even more!) are valued by connoisseurs, and are mostly sold at very high prices…
Just like sugar, Rum was, and still is, a major branch of light industry and export in Cuba.
Produced since the XVIII century, it mainly served the north American market until the revolution, but since 1994 has been freely available worldwide, and can now be bought almost anywhere (well, not in the US, at least for the time being, before they finally remove their stupid embargo…) .
The most famous distillery is Havana Club, from Habana, but afficionados of the wonder drink are mostly familiar with other just-as-good-or-even-better brands and local variants produced in Cuba, as you can see in the images throughout the article.
After tasting quite a few rums, such as various “bacardi” or “captain morgan” variants, I can say that they are nothing compared to most of Cuba’s rums!
Any Havana Club, Caney, Mulata, Cubay, Legendario, Guyabita, Ron Santiago de Cuba, and most probably many others, take them by taste and quality any time…
So, let’s raise our traguitos of fine Cuban rum, and enjoy it with a the new composition of El Nino y La Verdad about Rum, called (quite originally 😉 ) Cuba Ron.
Saludos, disfruten!
Today I gladly present you a wonderful masterpiece by none other than the great Los Van Van!
Formed in 1969 by the great Juan Formell, Cesar “Pupy” Pedroso and Jose Luis Quitana “Changuito” among others, the band was to become one of the most influential in Cuba (and even beyond its borders), and will keep creating ’till this day.
The band even created its own genre of music, Songo, which shaped modern Cuban music and changed it forever.
Songo takes the traditional Charanga sound to the next level using synthesizers, improvised timbales-drum kit hybrid percussion, trombones, melodic bass lines and chord progressions, and extended, improvised bridges \ transitions between various song parts.
When Timba came to be during the mid to late 1980’s, it was a direct continuation of Songo in many ways;
Afro Cuban elements were used in Songo at times, but in Timba became very much the centre of attention, improvised percussion sets were replaced by “modern” drum kits, melodic bass lines and complex chord progressions became the standard for most bands, trombones were “buffed up” by trumpets and other horns, and the improvised bridges became the well known (and much loved) “guias \ gears” so characteristic of Timba music.
So, it is safe to say that without Los Van Van and their Majestic Songo from the 1970’s, there would be no Timba in the 1990’s!
The song I present today is the title song of basically the last “pure Songo” album, “Aqui el Que Baila Gana”, which came out in 1990.
Van Van’s next album, “Azucar”, from 1993 is already very much a transitional stage between Songo and Tibma, containing compositions which belong to both genres… in 1996 and 1997, with “Ay dios, Amparame!”, and certainly with “Esto te Pone la Cabeza Mala”, the band was already fully immersed in the golden age on Timba…
Today we shall be joining the amazing Orquesta Reve in celebrating it’s 60th (!!!) birthday with one of the most well known and well loved songs in the history of modern Cuban music!
As you probably know already, Orquesta Reve is one of the most important (if not the single most important) musical groups in the history of contemporary Cuban music, maybe second only to the genius Arsenio Rodriguez, who revolutionized the music some 20 year prior to the Orchestra’s creation.
Orquesta Reve is called “La Aplanadora de Cuba” for a good reason;
Many of the most influential Cuban musicians came from its ranks, including Juan Formell, Cesar “pupy” Pedroso, Juan Carlos Alfonso, just to name a few, and the band just keeps getting new talents each time, not any less talented than those who left.
The band was founded in 1956 (!!!) and led by Elio Reve up until his tragic death in 1997, when he was succeeded by his son, Elio Reve Jr., nicknamed Elito, who’s been leading the band to ever new heights ever since.
The song for today is one of the most famous salsa compositions ever – Mi Salsa Tiene Sandunga, and is performed by today’s Orquesta Reve, with some guest appearances by past members from Cuba’s best bands!
Last night, while driving home from a wonderful Cuban party, I was listening to Cuban music on my car’s CD player radio device (as I always do).
The first song that came up was the song I gladly present you today, by the wonderful Havana de Primera.
The songs is the 2nd one from the list above, which is the back side of the disc box for “Pasaporte”, the 2nd album of Alexander Abreu’s amazing band.
This song implements a very interesting technique, which is not uncommon in contemporary Cuban music.
It starts as a slower paced romantic, Son like, composition, but unlike most “salsa romantica” made outside of Cuba, which is often a complete (and often commercialized, westernized pop sung in Spanish…) bore, it quickly develops into an energetic, hard hitting, Timba, full of Cuban roots, high energy levels and improvisation.
That’s much more like it!
Today I’m glad to present you another song by the wonderful Habana band, El Nino y La Verdad.
The nice thing about this talented band, made both of newly discovered talents and veteran musicians from great bands as Orquesta Reve and Manolito y Su Trabuco, is that they will be performing live this spring \ summer all over Europe!
If that alone wasn’t enough, one of the concerts is to take place on 19.06.2016, during the 7th festival internacional de Guaguanco, one of the best Cuban dance festivals outside Cuba, produced by Jorge Camaguey.
If you are planning to attend, and you definitely should, the best thing to do is get your pass from a promoter, as this gets you a discounted price.
Anyway, here’s the song, and I for one am quite glad to say that I’ll be hearing it live quite soon 🙂
Good day dear readers and blog followers
Tonight is kind of special;
The best Cuban party of the local dance community where I’m currently at takes place, an event only happening once a month!
So, a great night deserves a great song by a great band.
In my opinion, there are only a few as great and with as much influence on modern Cuban music such as Irakere.
Meaning “forest or dense vegetation” in Yoruba, the band was formed by Chucho Valdez, son of the great pianist Bebo Valdez, in 1973, from a previous group, “orquesta Cubana de musica moderna”, which in turn was founded in 1967 with the purpose of taking Cuba to the top of the international jazz scene.
Irakere’s music was very different from the music of its predecessor, and fully reflected the vast talent and musical education of its members;
All manifested as a perfect storm of sorts, which included Afro Cuban folkloric music (Irakere was the first major orchestra to incorporate Bata, Abakua and Arrara drums, chequere and erikundi), traditional Cuban music, popular modern Cuban music (called by Chucho “electroson”, being similar to, but differing from, Songo), jazz, funk, rock and even classical music.
All those and some other genres were often mixed, and had a great deal of influence on both Latin jazz and modern popular Cuban music, with many elements used by the band becoming staples of Timba later on.
Speaking of Timba, during the 1980’s and 1990’s the Irakere produced several wonderful albums in the Songo \ electroson, and later on, Timba genres, with the culmination being the album from which today’s song comes from, Babalu Aye, released in 1997.
This album contains some wonderful Timba hits and an interesting Afro-jazz number with Lazaro Ros bearing the album’s name.
The band received much international acclaim, by the way, mainly in the jazz scene, winning Grammy and numerous other awards and taking part in many of the top international jazz festivals over the years.
In Cuba, and among Timba fans, the band is also known and highly valued for its wonderful electroson and Timba, such as the song I gladly present you here today!
So, here it is, Esta Noche!
May tonight pass very well for all readers who made it this far 🙂
Disfruten!
Nowadays there are much hype and buzz about the new disc which just came out… which unfortunately means that most people have forgotten the “oldest”, and no doubt, best disc which Orquesta Mayimbe made… De La Habana a Peru!
It is quite unfortunate, IMO, that people make so much noise about something new simply because it is new… it’s not because it is of better quality, more interesting etc., it’s just because it’s new… that’s definitely no reason to forget the older stuff, especially if that stuff is much much better compared to the newly released.
The song I present today is exactly such a case.
The group’s 1st disc was just a little short of genius, and was the driving force behind the group’s international acclaim and rise to fame.
And unlike most “intro” numbers bands play at concerts, which mostly contain a sequence of solos from each and every musician in no particular order, “lo que te gusta a ti”, also known as “intro del Mayimbe” and “llego Mayimbe”, is a standalone masterpiece.
I choose to share a live version of this wonderful composition, but one can hear the album version here.
