Good day dear readers.

Today I wish to present an interesting song by Tirso Duarte, with references to both tradition and modern culture in Cuba, as perecieved by this musician.

In Cuban songs (with Timba being no exception) one can find plenty of references to Orishas and a specific form of syncretism found in Cuba called Santeria.

In Cuba there has been a good amount of mixing throughout the country’s history, genetic and cultural.
This was especially apparent in the sphere of religion.
Interestingly, despite what many might think of socialist regimes, in Cuba the government has been very lenient about religious practices, and mostly the Cuban people enjoy the freedom of belief, and practice their religious customs and traditions.
Not many people know, but Cuba has a Buddhist & Hinduist community of ~15000 people, and many more practice yoga, meditation and other activities which take root in the spiritual culture of the far east.

It seems that Tirso Duarte has taken some interest in Hinduism, as this song is about the supreme god of that religion, Krishna, or as pronounced in Spanish, Crisna.
Throughout the composition one can find the singer addressing Crisna, talking about some aspects of Hindu philosophy, and some mantras \ prayers to the god.
Hidden deeper still, one can also find a few references to the Afro-Cuban traditions as well.

I guess that in Cuba it can all exist together just fine… or at least in the mind of one wonderful Cuban musician.

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Today I’m glad to present you a fine, suave composition by Manolito y Su Trabuco.

The song is quite smooth, slow and groovy, while still packing quite a punch and 5 minutes and 41 seconds of fun.

Hope that you shall all have a nice, suave weekend, just like this fine composition!

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Today I’m glad to present a very nice band not well known outside Cuba.

They are called Coto y su Eco del Caribe, and are led by marvelous tres player, Juan Antonio Antomarchi from guantanamo.
Juan played tres at Orquesta Reve, Conjunto Chapotin los Jovenes Clasicos del Son and other groups.

The band released one album, “a Mi Yemaya”, in 1997, and has released several singles since then.
As we can hear in the composition presented here today, Coto and his band are very will adapt in making Timba with the influence of Changui.

So, here it is.

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers and listeners!

Today I’m glad to present you a fine, romantic, but still very rhythmic and powerful Timba composition by Paulito FG, from his wonderful 2000 album “Una Vez Mas…Por Amor”.

Like some other great bands such as Elio Reve and Su Charangon or La Charanga Habanera, Paulito FG is a major figure in the history of modern Cuban music, and just like those other bands, had 3 “breakthrough” albums which skyrocketed him to the top places in the music charts.
In the case of Paulito, these are the 1993 “Tu No Me Calculas”, the 1996 “El Bueno Soy Yo” and the 1997 “Con La Conciencia Tranquila”, which is considered one of the best Timba albums of all time, and rightfully so.
Paulito has a rather less well known album which is as much genius as the other listed – the 1995 “Sofocandote”, which has a few pretty well known hits in it, such as “Ina“.

Anyhow, up to recent years (during which we see some venturing into other genres beside Timba) each and every album by Paulito was upright ingenious, and full of masterpiece compositions, like the one I present you today.

This composition is from the 2000 album “Una Vez Mas… Por Amor”, and directly continues the line established in previous albums.

Personally, I think that all real Afro-Cuban music excels at providing a strong rhythmic element, regardless of whether it provides as much in the departments of lyrics, composition, melody, harmony and arrangement, which it surely does most of the time.
So, I believe it is quite foolish that some people believe that romantic salsa compositions should be “the Latin version” of the western balada; this opinion has absolutely nothing to do with reality.
Afro-Cuban music, whether romantic or not, should, in my opinion, sound like the song discussed in this post…

So, here it is… Disfruten!

Good day dear readers.

Today I wish to present a wonderful group from Cuba with a romantic yet quite uptempo track with great drive and rhythm!

The song is called “pero que necesidad”, and is from the 1996 album “Senores Bailen Con…” by Los Karachi from Santiago de Cuba.

The band was formed in 1976 by saxophone played Pablo Moya, and started with 6 musicians in total, thus becoming known as “los 6 de Cuba”.
The band started with more traditional Cuban music, but during the “Timba revolution” of the late 1980’s and 1990’s, joined the artistic spring and updated their line up with lots of percussion, back vocals and more horns.

As we can hear in the track below, when playing “musica popular bailable” (such as Son and Timba), the band has a very lively and vivid characteristic unique style of playing.
Since the early 1990’s Los Karachi traveled the world, performing in Germany, Italy, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Angola, San tome y principe, Mozambique, Nicaragua and other countries.
Currently the band operates in Mexico, and is preparing a whole new album to be released soon.

Disfruten!

Good day dear friends!

Recently, a friend of mine tried identifying a song he heard at the Guaguanco Festival, but to no avail.
The recording quality was quite bad, so it took some time and more friends, but eventually the song was identified as the Reve 1986 classic presented here today.

During the 1980’s Orquesta Reve made a huge comeback into the mainstream of Cuban music, with 3 very influential albums, Rumberos Latinoamericanos (1985), La Explosion del Momento (1987) and Que Cuento es Eso (1988), containing many modern classics that will later have much influence on Timba.

The song also came to my mind as 2 good friends of mine got married recently.

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Returning from the wonderful (6th) Guaguanco Festival, which was simply amazing (I wholeheartedly recommend each and every fan of Cuban music and dancing to attend next year), I remembered that a few songs were played almost at every party (there were different DJs).

These include La bailarina and La Venenosa by Havana de Primera, Charanga Habanera’s el Temba, some Timba classics by Manolin (like Ya Se Que Sabes De Mi) and some stuff my Los Van Van like Soy Todo and our song for today, Si Una Mamita.

The version played was mostly not the original one, from 1979, but rather a live version, from the 2008 Aqui el Que Baila Gana 40th anniversary concert, which was released as a DVD.

The song is an almost 7 minute masterpiece, which I can highly recommend DJs all over to play.

Disfruten!

As I will be having a great time at the 6th Guaguanco festival, I will not have time to post in the blog… so see you next Friday !

Good morning dear readers!

I’m glad to present today a fine composition by Robert Armas y Los Conquistadores de la Salsa, from their album Yo Traigo Mi Tumbao, soon to be released.

The album has been partially recorded during their previous European tour in summer 2014; Don’t forget to check if the band is coming to a city near you in Europe or the USA, in their 2015 world tour!

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers and listeners!

Today I wish to present you a new song… well, old… well new… well, a composition which is old and new at the same time.

In 1973, during the first years of Los Van Van, Cesar composed this song, and it was arranged together with Juan Formell and Changuito.
It is to become one of the band’s most famous compositions.

Now, after 15 years of independent work with his own band, los que son son, pupy is remaking this wonderful composition, with the great vocals and vigorous playing of his band.

It is not the same as the original, but good enough as a standalone.

Disfruten!