CUBAN MUSIC

 Sentimental songs? Well the first tune sure sounds it; but later on in SENTIMIENTO, Omara Portuondo really cuts loose with some very danceable numbers which most would refer to as salsa as well as many other Cuban styles - probably with feeling or filin, as the movement of the late 1940s and 50s that first brought Portuondo to fame was known.

 The movement towards emotion in music instead of emphasizing technique corresponds to the similar movement taking place in the USA at that time with such stars as Johnny Ray and Hank Williams.

 Omara Portuondo has been recording for over half a century. She has an ability to convey great emotion through her powerful voice: Judy Garland meets Barbara Streisand.

 Even a listener who understands little Spanish will find Omara's voice compelling: 15 cuts of power and emotion with very small groups to full-size dance band with a kicking percussion and horns.

 Omara sings all the Cuban styles. If she had left Cuba for the USA in the late 1950s, Celia Cruz might have had a serious rival - as SENTIMIENTO shows.

1. Te Salva by La Caro Band
2. Soul of Cuba by Edesio Alejandro & Adriano Rodriguez
3. Drum Jam by Grupo Exploracion

 The term salsa may have been first  applied to music in New York City,  but that music was derived from Cuban music. Now some Cuban bands not only use the term 'salsa', but tailor their sound to the NYC style.

 Bembe Records, one of the most hard-core and innovative labels for Latin music, now brings this sound to the USA.

 La Caro Band is one of these new young bands playing in Havana and the rest of the island. The band is fronted by four sisters whose voices blend as one. Although the overall sound is unmistakeningly Cuban, hints of hip hop and funk can be heard and felt.

 When the Caro Band first formed, it was very controversial to have four women up front: after all, men are supposed to lead bands; not women.

 The success of the hard-working La Caro Band has now spawned a wave of similar bands. The girls all have husbands in the band, and one of them writes all their music.

 As you'd expect in a good salsa band -especially a Cuban one - the horns are sharp and the drums are always bubbling under the surface: this band cooks.

 Too bad TE SALVA doesn't double as a video, as the girls move around on stage picking up the instruments as the men move to the front to sing during their performance, and one of the sisters does back flips to add to the show.

 Will they come to the USA on tour? Let's hope so!

 How do you take the classic sounds of 1950s (and older) Cuban music, update for younger listeners, but not spoil it for older listeners; especially considering that your star vocalist is a 74-year-old baritone?

 Well, composer Edesio Alejandro seems to have done it on SOUL OF CUBA.

 Master vocalist Adriano Rodriguez and Edesio found themselves as neighbors so they got together, listening to each other, and worked on the ideas for SOUL OF CUBA. Bringing in the bass player and the current trumpet player for Irakere really helped, as this band straddles the fence between the generations.

 SOUL OF CUBA actually brings in elements of rap without causing me to reach for the 'off button': not too many cds can do that.

 The percussion has a lighter, more modern sound: electronic, or acoustic imitation? It's hard to tell.

 I've heard electronic percussion applied to Cuban and African music before and found it very offensive, not to mention downright silly - but whatever it is on SOUL OF CUBA, it works here.

 There's a classy photo of Adriano Rodriguez signing with Celia Cruz in 1958 before she left Cuba. Bembe hits another home run with SOUL OF CUBA!

 The title to DRUM JAM is a little bit misleading, as there are other percussion instruments here, not just drums; but on the other hand, the Cuban hand drums are the main course, and it's all percussion.

 Sometimes listening to DRUM JAM I feel like I'm back in a park in NYC or the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s or early 70s, but the playing on DRUM JAM is much better.

 Although DRUM JAM is accredited to Grupo Exploracion, this is really a one-time get-together of master percussionists with mucho experience with Cuban rhythms and melody. 

 Mix in Puerto Rican and Haitian rhythms and you have one of the best drum jams ever recorded.

 Celia Cruz was the reigning queen of Afro-Cuban music for nearly seven decades. She started out in Cuba, becoming famous with the band La Sonora Matancera, and in 1959 the entire band including Celia fled Fidel Castro's regime to settle in New York City, where Celia recorded with a succession of great bands, including the before-mentioned Sonora Matancera, Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco and Ray Barretto.

 Everyone seemed to want to record with Celia: her infectious personality, powerful voice and knowledge of the music lit up every room she appeared in.

 Celia loved to sing duets with her favorite male signers like Pete Rodriguez, and Johnny Packard contributed to her string of hits.  Celia could sing not only Cuban dance music, but deep Santaria (African-derived religious music) to flamenco or Mexican music.

 The recordings on ROUGH GUIDE TO CELIA CRUZ were recorded from 1966 till 1992: they're all superb.  The best musicians and arrangers in the best studios: there's nothing too good for the queen.

 If you're not yet hip to Celia Cruz, you need THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CELIA CRUZ as a solid introduction.

 SUENAN LOS CUEROS is 1950s Cuban music brought to to date with new lyrics by singer Osadalgia herself: but tradition is honored by a format of all-acoustic instruments and lots of percussion.

 SUENAN LOS CUEROS is very danceable, yet gentle on the ears. It's a true delight: not only can you listen with great pleasure while reading the extensive liner notes and enjoying the lovely photos of Osadalgia, but if you want to dance, the back cover tells you what type of song - and hence, dance - for each tune.

 Osadalgia has a pretty voice and she's still in her prime: she could become my favorite signer of Cuban music.

 SUENAN LOS CUEROS is a valuable addition to any Cuban collection.

 Compay Segundo arose to international fame as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club, but his history goes much further back than that: he began as a professional musician in the 1920s, adding vocals to his appeal in the 1930s; then it was on to Mexico to not only sing but to appear in the movies.

 Both before and after the Buena Vista Social Club project Compay recorded in many different formats: usually with small groups including duets, where he got his name as the 'second' singer (baritone).

 EL COMPADRE AGAIN is an overview of his career. There's nothing in the liner notes giving recording dates, but judging by the quality of the sound, all the recordings have to have been in the last thirty years or less.

 Buena Vista fans will recognize cut 4, 'Chan Chan', Compay's signature song.

 Although Compay is gone now, at age 95, through the miracle of recording we'll be blessed with his music for a long time to come.

 EL COMPADRE AGAIN is cause for rejoicing.

 Pedro Luis Ferrer is a rebel in a country where everyone is supposed to be a 'revolutionary' - but after nearly 50 years, to be a good revolutionary one is supposed to go along with the status quo. That goes for musical orthodoxy as well as political concepts.

 Pedro Luis Ferrer has to walk a fine line with what he says in his lyrics (he sings in favor of a multi-party democracy among other things): fortunately he loves much of the traditional music of Cuba but unlike most Cuban artists who get to record Pedro does not favor the slick band music of Havana or the Haitian (and hence somewhat Africanized) music of Oriente Province.

 Instead, he combines musics of the rural central highlands areas, resulting in a somewhat softer acoustic string and vocal chorus that will make you swing and sway as well as smile.

  The music of RUSTICO doesn't sound exactly like anything we'd heard before, yet somehow it's still Cuban, with hints of Veracruz Mexico, Columbia, and Peru.

 Would Pedro Luis Ferrer's music sound even more out of the mainstream of Fidel Castro was gone? To a Cuban probably yes, as his lyrics could go further out - but to us English speakers outside of Cuba, probably not that much, as Pedro Ferrer truly loves the music he's creating from the folk roots of the central highlands.

 RUSTICO is a great cd to treasure.