CharangaSue.com

Sue Miller – Cuban Flute Improviser, Writer & Academic

Content tagged with: cuban music

Latin Music Workshop Thursday 19th October at HEART

Sue Miller and vocal coach and creative facilitator Em Whitfield Brooks lead a Latin music workshop at HEART in Headingley on Thursaday 19th October 2-4pm £10. Tickets from Eventbrite.

Workshop is designed for singers to learn to sing coro with a clave feel in a band context and for instrumentalists to improvise in the Latin style (clave feel and stylistic vocabulary. The workshop is also open to instrumentalists (bass, piano, brass, woodwind, guitar, strings and percussion)

New Charanga del Norte Animation ‘Atilana’

Animation by Ged Haney of Charanga del Norte’s track ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ based on research by Prof. Sue Miller, Dr Sarah Bowen and Cuban dancer Guillermo Davis on the televised version of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in 1965. The flute solo by Sue Miller is a development of the solo by flute player Richard Egües which was danced by Rafael Bacallao. The animated Rafael here reflects the dance moves and musical gestures of Egües and Bacallao with a few new references and dance moves included for good measure!

Journal Article on Richard Egues and Rafael Bacallao in Ethnomusicology Forum Journal

An article co-authored by Professor Sue Miller, Guillermo Davis and Dr Sarah Bowen is published in a special issue of the journal Ethnomusicology Forum (June 2022). In it the flute solo of Richard Egües together with the dancing of Rafael Bacallao in Orquesta Aragon are analysed and the article is open access available here online […]

Free Workshop on Latin Music in York Monday 30 May

Members of Charanga del Norte Sue Miller (bandleader and flute), Nick Willimas (violin) and Matty Shallcross (percussion) are giving a free Latin music Workshop for Streetlife on Coney Street York Monday 30 May at 2pm. The workshop is free and you only need to register online here https://streetlifeyork.uk/events/latin-music-workshop-day-instrumentalists-vocalists-percussionists

LATIN MUSIC WORKSHOP DAY 24 APRIL MUSIC HOUSE LEEDS

The workshop is directed by Professor Sue Miller, bandleader and founder of Charanga del Norte since 1998 assisted by pianist and percussion tutor Helen Curtis. The workshop explores a variety of Latin/Cuban music popular styles through a mixture of workshops, sectionals and ensemble catering for brass, strings, guitar, woodwind, percussion, vocals, piano, and bass. In these workshops participants will be exploring the feeling of groove, clave feel, and Latin clave-based improvisation within an ensemble context.

A musico-choreographic analysis of a Cuban dance routine: a performance-informed approach

The research is based on the analysis of a live performance on Cuban television of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in the early 1960s, where musical gestures are shown to be embodied in the flute and dance solo ‘duet’ performed by Cuban flautist Richard Egües and dancer Rafael Bacallao, revealing the shared memories of a community bound by common cultural experience. Interdisciplinary in nature, analysis is undertaken by a musician-scholar, a film scholar-practitioner and a professional Cuban dancer-animator in order to unearth details of this embodied repertoire, thus translating and making overt culturally implicit knowledge for those outside of the artistic community of practice, and, in some cases, within it.

A Musico-Choreographic Analysis of a Cuban Dance Routine – Animation Demonstrations

This practice research by Prof. Sue Miller, Guillermo Davis and Dr Sarah Bowen is based on the analysis of a live performance on Cuban television of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in the early 1960s, where musical gestures are shown to be embodied in the flute and dance solo ‘duet’ performed by Cuban flautist Richard Egües and dancer Rafael Bacallao. Through re-performance and re-presentation in the form of a recording and short animations, the many meanings embodied in the original performance are examined through analytical text, musical notation, visuals, recordings and animation film. The article will be published soon in the British Forum for Ethnomusicology Journal and below are some of the animations made to go with this article. Animations are by Cuban dancer-animator Guillermo Davis and the music is recorded by Sue Miller (flute) and her band Charanga del Norte.

NEW BOOK – Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York

Improvising Sabor: Cuban Dance Music in New York begins in 1960s New York and examines in rich detail the playing styles and international influence of important figures in US Latin music. Such innovators as José Fajardo, Johnny Pacheco, George Castro, and Eddy Zervigón dazzled the Palladium ballroom and other Latin music venues in those crucible years. Author Sue Miller focuses on the Cuban flute style in light of its transformations in the US after the 1959 revolution and within the vibrant context of 1960s New York.

Sue Miller features on the Radio programme Tropicana Musical in Brazil

Sue Miller was interviewed on the radio programme Tropicana Musical in Brazil by ethnomusicologist and broadcaster  Edwin Pitre  and is now available as a podcast.The interview on the history of Cuban charanga is mostly in Spanish and features music from Orquesta Tata Peireira, Arcano y sus Maravillas, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta Belisario Lopez, Orquesta Broadway, Charlie Palmieri y su Charanga Duboney, Johnny Pacheco y su Charanga, Estrellas Cubanas, Orquesta Sublime and Charanga Rubalcaba.

New book Improvising Sabor pre-order half price in the 2021 special offer

You can get my new book Improvising Sabor: Cuban Dance Music in New York for only $20.21 until December 15th 2020 if ordered online which is a bargain especially for the hardback version.