Good day dear blog followers, listeners, readers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
After a short break during the previous couple of weeks, the blog is back, and today with a wonderful Son composition by Pancho Amat and his current group, el Cabildo Del Son.
Today’s composition comes in both CD \ studio version and live, so you can choose which one you like best, as… “…El son es lo mas sublime, para el alma divertir… se debiera de morir, quien por bueno no lo estime…”
So, here is our fine composition for today.
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog readers, followers, listener ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
During the next two Fridays I will be on vacation at beautiful Serbia (also dancing Cuban social couple dances, of course!), so there will be no blog entries for April 19th & 26th.
But! I will not leave you empty handed!
Today, or any other day during the time the blog takes a small hiatus, you can enjoy an amazing concert by one of the greatest orchestras in the history of contemporary Cuban music – Los Van Van!!!
For today I wish to share a beautiful 80+ minutes concert, live from La Habana of 1982…
So, here it is… and always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
The album is called Que Tiene Que Te Mueve, and you can listen to the whole hour+ it contains right here and now…
There are two compositions which I liked most;
One is the Rumba collaboration with Yoruba Andabo called “La Cafetera”, and the other is a groovy and muy suave Timba composition called Dejame Volver, which I choose to present here today.
So, here it is!
Dance, sing along, listen… do whatever your heart calls for…
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog followers, listeners, readers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today we have a classic Son composition performed by a band from the Dominican Republic, Los Ahijados.
Los Ahijados is a band formed during the late 1950’s by brothers Cuco and Martin Valoy from Mano Guayabo, a town near the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, inspired by the Cuban Duo Los Compadres.
Although sons of a carpenter, Cuco studied music at El Conservatorio Nacional de Musica de la Republica, learning to sing and play several instruments.
With the embargo on Cuba blocking most music and musicians from going in or out of the island, a gap in the production of Son music remained, with many fans of the traditional Cuban music losing access.
This gap was filled by Los Ahijados, who enjoyed much success and fame throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s.
As the “Salsa” fashion came around the early 1970’s so did Cuco not miss this shift, leaving the band and forming his own group, “los virtuosos”, effectively ending Los Ahijados.
In the years to come, the band would continue performing locally, but would never reach the success it had during it’s peak years.
Cuco, on the other hand, would go to become one of the most influential, productive and well known figures in the Dominican music industry (as a DJ, producer, radio broadcaster and arranger, besides being a singer and musician playing guitars, bass, piano and various percussive instruments), as well as a “salsa” star with compositions such as “Juliana”.
In recent years the band reunited, performing locally and internationally yet again!
The song for us to enjoy today is an original Son tradicional composition called “Corazon de Acero”, coming from the 7th album of Los Ahijados, released during the 1960’s.
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog listeners, readers, followers, ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today we shall enjoy a fine Timba composition from Pupy y los que Son Son‘s latest album so far, Pasandola Bien.
The album came out during 2018, and received much acclaim and love in charts, radio stations and dance floors worldwide, and in my opinion, rightfully so, with the title track often being called “Timba of the year”.
Today we’re going to hear one of the less known and played compositions from this album, which is a gem non the less, standing firmly on its two feet.
Name of the composition for today?
Los Reporteros.
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutanto la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog readers, listeners, followers, ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today we are going to have a great time listening to a very suave Timba composition from the latest album of Nelson Manuel y la Corte from La Habana…
Composing since his days in middle school, Nelson Manuel was discovered in 1994 singing at a house party for his friend, by music producer and director of Orquesta Monumental Daniel Rojas, who offered him to transform this hobby into a career as the orchestra’s vocalist.
Nelson sang with La Monumental for several years, also composing some of the songs performed by the band.
In 2003, after participating in several international shows (including several featured at cabaret Tropicana) and releasing a CD with the group “Clave Cubana”, Nelson decided to form his own band, La Corte.
The band’s style has been much influenced by the music of Los Van Van, Issac Delgado, Manolito y su Trabuco, Adalberto Alvarez and Yumuri y sus Hermanos, with members graduating from ENA and ESA in La Habana.
For now La Corte released 4 albums, the latest (2018) one being “Completamente Diferente”, from which today’s composition is from.
So, here it is!
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog followers, readers listeners… ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today we shall be enjoying a composition originally released by Orquesta Mayimbe, but covered in an interesting way by vocalist Mandy Cantero and virtuoso jazz and popular Cuban music Pianist, Pedro Andres Justiz Marquez, better known as Peruchin Jr.
Son of the great pianist, arranger and composer Pedro Nolasco Justiz Rodriguez “Peruchin”, Pedro Jr. stepped on the path of music from an early age, studying at some of Habana’s best schools of music, graduating from the National school of art (ENA).
Peruchin Jr. plays the guitar and piano, arranged, authored and composed, working with Los Zafras, Orquesta Reve and Los Reyes 73, also playing at various Jazz events and festivals worldwide with his group Peruchin y su Grupo, which he founded in 1983.
in 2018 Peruchin Jr and Mandy Cantero, currently singing with Los Van Van, collaborated to record their own version of “la fama se te fue a la cabeza“, released by Mayimbe in 2014.
This is the composition we shall be enjoying today.
And remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
Good day dear blog listeners, readers, followers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today is March 8th, so first of all, happy international woman’s day to all lovely ladies enjoying the blog.
For today’s post, I’m going to share a wonderful composition, one of the most romantic, lyrical and touching in the history of Timba, if you ask me… and maybe for this reason, and maybe not, I have not yet met a lady who listens to Cuban music a\o dances Cuban social dances, and did not like this song (it applies to most men I know as well, but we are not today’s focus by any means…) .
This award winning masterpiece by Los Van Van is sung by none other than one of the best voices and most expressive and talented vocalists of contemporary Cuban music – Yeni Valdez.
So, I hope you are all having a great day, and that I might have even made it a little bit better ))
¡Disfruten la musica Cubana!
And here is a live performance of this wonderful composition!
Good day dear blog readers, listeners, followers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today we shall discover an interesting story, of music going a full circle, back to its roots… the story of the band Africando!
As we all know, Cuban (and other Caribbean) music has its roots in the musical traditions of west and central Africa, as these regions are the origins of a large % of Cuba’s population, descendants of slaves brought over by the Spanish imperialists to toil on plantations since the mid XVI century.
These slaves of Congo, Yoruba, Bantu, Caravali and other African ethnic origins brought a rich culture with them, a culture which had well developed music and dance traditions.
Cuban music in the last 100 years has been influenced quite strongly by these musical traditions, and this is imminent in rhythms, instruments, melodies, themes, harmonies… you name it!
Thus, it is very interesting to see Cuban music reemerging in Africa, and this is the story of Africando.
Cuba has been assisting in peace keeping missions in Africa since the late 1960s, so Cuban soldiers were present in the thousands, and naturally brought Cuban music with them.
This added to the popularity of classic Cuban genres such as Son, which has been enjoyed by the masses in several African countries since the 1930s.
More recently, during the 1970s, Cuban music artists from new york, registered under the “Fania records” label, also performed a concert tour of the continent, sparking more interest in the field.
It was, thus, inevitable for a project such as Africando to emerge, and not so long after the above mentioned events, it did!
Africando was formed in 1992 by producer Ibrahima Sylla from Cote d’ivoire, arranger Boncana Maiga from Mali, vocalists Nicolas Menheim, Pape Seck and Medoune Diallo from Senegal, and various musicians of Latin American origin based in New York.
Over more than two decades of musical career, more and more African and Latin American musicians have joined the band, forming a unique and original style of music – Afro Cuban music, mainly classics of the various genres, but sung in Wolof and other African languages, some times also in a mix of those with Spanish.
Later on, the orchestra also started incorporating original compositions of popular African artists, performing them with stylistic influences of Afro Cuban music.
Over the years, 9 albums have been released.
Today’s composition is called “Viens Danser Sur le Son Africando”, is from the 2006 album “Ketekuba”, and is a Son Montuno with Guaguanco, sung in Wolof, French and Spanish.
Hope that you’ll like it, and always remember… ¡Sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!
