You’ll dance to this with two left feet and a bag on your head!
Brampton Live

Charanga del Norte is now taking the music one step beyond — top-notch music from one of England’s leading Latin combos and the only 100 percent genuine charanga and pachanga band in the land.They are making some fine music that stands up shoulder-to-shoulder proudly with the best charanga musicians still around today, like Orquesta Aragon. They also write their own quality original material which displays a deep and clear understanding of the music and gives a perfect rendition of this distinctive and historically important Cuban style. The creative juices are certainly flowing freely here.
Dave Hucker The Beat 2006

Susana tus inspiraciones son muy buenas – pareces una cubana inspirando!
Susan your solos are great – just like a Cuban improviser!”
Policarpo (Polo) Tamayo, flute player Buena Vista Social Club

Latin music, but not as you may know it, this band are deliciously different and incredibly danceable
The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

Sue Miller’s fluent flute featured strongly on Orquesta Aragon’s Bodeguero.
Steve Millward Manchester Evening News, The Bridgewater Hall review

Superb UK-based salsa and charanga band
Songlines magazine

Inviting supporting acts to perform with legendary Cuban artists involved in the Buena Vista Social Club project is no easy matter, finding an outfit in the UK that can hold its own with a well informed audience makes the task all the more difficult…. Bridgewater Hall has a reputation for authentic, first class music and Charanga make the grade.
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

BOOK REVIEW

Cultural Policy and Music Making in Revolutionary Cuba

Sue Miller

Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba, by Robin D. Moore, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2006, 367pages, £38.95p/£15.95,

HB ISBN 0 – 520-24710-8, PB ISBN 0 – 520-24711-6

In Music and Revolution Robin Moore,  professor of music history at the University of Texas, presents a comprehensive survey of cultural policy making in Cuba from the early years of the revolution, the ‘quinquenio gris’ (from 1969 to 1973), the more optimistic 1980s, and the special period in the 1990s through to the present day. He looks at the ideologies behind the policies, exploring how issues of race and religion, alongside cultural theories of socialism, Marxism and nationalism, have impacted on cultural policy. After a chronological overview of cultural changes from the 1950s onwards, Moore turns his attention to various case studies. Here, I shall focus on his discussion of dance and  Afro-Cuban ‘folkloric’ musics, although Moore also explores  Nueva Trova, Salsa and Timba to illustrate the effects of various policies on Cuban musicians themselves. As he states in his introduction, critiques of cultural policies in Cuba are rare due to the tendency of writers on Cuban matters to come down on one side or other of the political divide (pro or anti-Castro). His stated aim is to fairly evaluate the impact of cultural policies in Cuba post 1959 with a view to opening up an informed debate on the subject. The sense of victimhood and isolation felt by Cuba (due to the US embargo and the  collapse of the Soviet Union) has often led to a defensive stance as regards evaluating its own cultural policies and in this book Moore sets out  to discover the truths surrounding cultural life in socialist Cuba. He states at the outset that as a North American academic, this has not been an easy task as many obstacles have been put in his way. For example, he has had difficulties getting funding to study in Cuba from the US side and the Cuban Ministry of Culture has refused him access to statistical data.

Moore highlights the fact that the Afro-Cuban community was the first to benefit from the revolution in terms of better living standards, housing, health and education. Many Afro-Cuban artists also received state support, particularly in the early years of the revolution. However, such support does not always mean that musicians are free to do what they want given various attempts by the government to interfere with the development of Cuban musicianship. Moore recounts one amusing tale of Pedro Izquierdo (Pello el Afrokán) being asked by Fidel Castro in 1965 to write a song about the sugar harvest to spur on the workers. The resulting song pleased both Fidel and the musicians through the well tested Cuban art of double-entendre, with lyrics such as “Ay, how tasty the sugar cane is honey…bring your cart over here!” Other examples of state intervention had more serious consequences however, such as Nueva Trova artists in the early part of their careers being sent to ‘voluntary’ labour camps for ‘re-education’.

Moore’s exploration of dance music shows how the socialist government has struggled to reconcile the pleasure principle with its concept of music as having to ‘edify’ and ‘educate’. However, Cuban son music, emanating from the black working class, with its lyrics about daily life and its emphasis on dance and sensual pleasures, is  not an ideal medium for political messages. Charanga and Son Conjunto bands were, of course, immensely popular in the 1950s but were viewed as escapist and frivolous by the new leadership. Consequently,  many of these dance bands received little state support. Yet as Moore explains, to acknowledge the rich artistic life of the 1950s does not in any way negate the existence of prostitution, poverty, racism and other hardships suffered by ordinary Cubans. As he remarks, many musics such as Jazz and Tango have originated amidst appalling social conditions. The rise in popularity of Salsa worldwide and of Timba in Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s, however, have led to a volte-face by the state, which now  supports dance music as a means of securing much needed revenue.

The facile criticism (by Cuban commentators such as Ariana Hernández-Reguant) of the Buena Vista phenomenon, (the 1997 international hit ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ documentary film and recording by UK-based ‘World Circuit’ Records that showcased pre-Revolutionary artists such as Rubén Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer), as ‘imperialist nostalgia’ is challenged by Moore (p132) as he points out that performers from the 1940s and 50s have been consistently underpromoted in post-revolutionary Cuba and that these musicians have been unfairly stigmatised by association with the Batista era. Moore points out that the state record company, EGREM, could have effected a similar success to that of World Circuit’s Buena Vista productions had it chosen to promote its high quality back catalogue of 1950s performers.

Regarding ‘Afro-Cuban’ forms of music (Rumba, religious ‘folkloric’ music such as Santería, Palo Monte and Abacuá), state support has been uneven and contradictory. This is  because the issue of racism is rarely discussed in the context of socialist Cuba, as the leadership promotes an image of a unified Cuban nation in the face of US aggression. Nevertheless, racism did not disappear in 1959 and Moore points out that Marxist  intolerance of religion has also been used as a cover for racial prejudice, with Afro-Cuban folkloric drumming often viewed as ‘atrasada’ (backward) by party officials and musicians too (composer Gonzalo Roig described the music as barbaric). All forms of religion were banned by the revolutionary government and Afro-Cuban religions in particular have been viewed as a throwback to primitive, colonial times. State support for the music and dance of Santería and other Afro-Cuban religious  forms have set out to valorise the music and dance but separate them from their religious content, turning performances of ‘Afro-Folkloric’ music and dance into ‘heritage folk-art’ for the concert stage. The first state-supported Afro-folkloric group, the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional was founded in 1962 and is perhaps the most well known both in Cuba and abroad. Criticisms of these staged performances of Afro-Cuban artforms by Cuban musicologists such as Helio Orovio and Carlos Moore include the lack of spontaneity, the diminished role of improvisation and the increased formality of these events. On the plus side these groups have played an important educative role, particularly as conservatoires up until very recently have not allowed Cuban popular music or ‘Afro-folkloric’ drumming into their curriculum.

Moore’s book gives a fascinating insight into how state intervention in the arts affects artists on the ground in Cuba. Some policies have been immensely successful (for example a ‘Casa de Cultura’ in every town, top level free music education, guaranteed salaries for performing musicians), whilst other measures have been more detrimental (such as the banning of Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies  in the late 1960s and the instigation of  education programmes in schools and youth summer camps aimed at eradicating Afro-Cuban religions).

Although the book is well researched, Moore’s inability to gain access to the Ministry of Culture’s statistics means that his work is necessarily incomplete. Let us hope that the Ministry of Culture will soften its policy of non-cooperation with US researchers sooner rather than later. As a musician who has interviewed Cuban musicians,  I appreciate the in-depth background that  Moore’s book affords researchers such as me.  The thirteen musical transcriptions included serve to illustrate some styles and rhythms, and show evidence of the use of Afro-Cuban religious music in popular dance genres, yet  knowledge of musical notation is not a prerequisite for understanding the book. In sum, Music and Revolution will be of great interest to Cubaphiles, ethnomusicologists, cultural, and political theorists in addition to anyone concerned with how the state’s involvement in cultural policy can affect the artistic life of nations.

Record Reviews

Out of Cuba: Latin American Music takes Africa by Storm

From the World and Traditional Music Section of the British Library Sound Archive

Compilation and text by Janet Topp Fargion

Topic Records TSCD927

¡ Cubalive!

Recorded Live in Cuba

Liner notes by Gene Rosow and Natasha Rosow

Rounder Records 1161- 5082-2

Produced in conjunction with ‘The Roots of Rhythm DVD with Harry Belafonte

‘Out of Cuba’ is a collection of singles selected from 246 titles from the HMV GV 78rpm recordings held at the British Library Sound Archive. This CD, whilst not a cohesive album, provides a fascinating insight into what was considered to be Cuban music in America in the 1930s and 1940s. These recordings were made primarily for an American audience and were later re-packaged and marketed in Africa during the depression years by the merged companies of RCA Victor and Gramophone when there was little money to undertake new recordings.

Whilst RCA Victor was present in Cuba (the recordings of Sexteto Habanero were made in Havana in 1928) the main bulk of the recordings were made in New York. The CD contains tracks by authentic Cuban groups such as Trio Matamoros, Sexteto Habanero and Arsenio Rodriguez y su Conjunto, alongside more hybrid groups such as Rico’s Creole band (resident band at Paris’s La Coupole) playing Samba, Calypso, Plena and commercialised Son, as well featuring the big name bands that held residencies in New York and Havana hotels. In the thirties many of these resident hotel bands would be broadcast on the radio and offered record contracts.  The big names in New York are featured on this CD in the form of Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf Astoria Orchestra, Vicente Sigler y su Orquesta and Don Azpiazu’s Orchestra. The famous Havana band featured here is Orquesta Hermanos Castro. The 21 tracks are representative of the GV collection as a whole with its emphasis on vocal-led, commercial, sweetened versions of Latin music. The album is very vocal-led and percussion-light with a preference for Son without bongos (featuring only claves and maracas). The Hollywood–style arrangements of the bigger bands feature violins in a backing function not at all in line with the Cuban violin style used in the Charanga Orquestas popular in Cuba at that time and there’s very little improvisation or ‘call and response’ on any of these tracks.

The music here paints a picture of Cuba as a tropical island of fantasies and dreams, with pastiches of Cuban themes in evidence on several numbers such as Don Azpiazu’s novelty Guajira replete with dog and chicken impressions and Xavier Cugat’s ‘Elube Chango’. Whilst acknowledging that Xavier Cugat was well known as a ‘caricature watered down version’ of Cuban music Janet Topp states that he nevertheless dealt with Cuban themes. However his use of the Afro-Cuban chant to the God Chango is a million miles away from real Santeria. This is ‘fake’ rumba made for an American audience with a taste for ‘safe’ exotica. A real Santeria ceremony would have been far more threatening for white audiences of that time. With a 21^st Century perspective one cannot ignore the racism inherent in these early 1940s recordings. However if you can put aside these observations (and idem those of Carmen Miranda in her MGM fruit fantasy extravaganzas!) then his music can be enjoyed for its kitsch novelty value. Xavier Cugat gave audiences what they wanted and one can only wonder how far the bands featured here adapted their music to their hotel audiences and to the recording companies themselves. In fact it needs noting that the Cuban ‘rumba’ is not featured on this CD despite the listings. The term ‘rumba,’ which was often spelt ‘rhumba’, was coined in America at this time to refer to Cuban son and Americanized forms of son. The real vocal and percussion-led Cuban rumba would probably not be known by the hotel audiences or by the recording companies themselves.

In contrast to these saccharine numbers is Arsenio Rodriguez’s ‘Dundumbanza’ which is the best track by far on the album. Earthy and rhythmically driven, it features fabulous ‘Manteca’-like riffing from the trumpets, a fiery vocalist and a short but amazing solo by pianist Lili Martínez replete with cross-rhythm motifs. This music is real and uncompromising, albeit not brilliantly recorded.

Apart from Arsenio’s track the congas are not really featured on these recordings. Anyone expecting to hear musical links between African musics and Cuban genres will be disappointed as the rhythmic elements are very much diluted. The song ‘El Manicero’, recorded first by  Trio Matamoros (and featured on the opening track) but released first by Don Azpiazu, was a major hit worldwide  and it was this Cuban style of singing with two tenors, one high (la voz prima) and one lower (la voz del segundo) which really had an influence on African music via these recordings.

Cuban music however was not confined to Cuba with many Cuban musicians making their home in the US and further afield. The singer Ernesto Oviedo (interview Havana 2006¹) told me that Antonio Machin, featured on track 15, had a high thin voice that was not to Cuban tastes (they considered it effeminate) and it was only when Machin moved to Spain that he had more success.  His track ‘Cachumbambé’ is in fact a Cuban son in 3-2 clave (not a rumba as listed) and features his beautifully phrased, rhythmic vocals. It’s a matter of taste as to whether you like his distinctive vocal timbre. Interestingly the flute is featured in this son but plays very much in the style of a conjunto trumpet behind the vocals rather than in the high register of a Charanga flute.

Of the big orchestras featured Vicente Sigler and Hermanos Castro are the closest to Cuban forms with Sigler’s ‘Boton de Rosa’, which is in fact a Danzón in Orquesta Típica form and not a bolero (although the subject matter is romantic) and Hermanos Castro’s ‘Alegre Conga’ is a fine arrangement that, although not wholly authentic, was popular with Cubans too via  radio broadcasts. Trio Yara’s ‘Babae’ features bells and congas and two trumpets and most amazingly harmonised whistling! The other tracks (Rico’s Creole band, Victor Antillana, Canario, Gonzaga) are hybrids of various Latin American styles many of them with a Caribbean Creole flavour to them reminiscent of early jazz.

Cuban son, Latin-American hybrid songs, exotica and novelty songs thus formed the backbone of the GV recordings sold in Africa in the thirties and forties and this album is a fascinating document of performance and reception both in America and Africa.

¡Cubalive!

The ¡Cubalive! CD by contrast has all the energy and percussive drive of Cuban music, recorded as it was in 1984 in Cuba. This recording is a snapshot of musical life in Cuba in the 1980’s rather than a historical document. Nevertheless, as the accompaniment to the excellent DVD Routes of Rhythm (presented by Harry Belafonte) it features many legendary Cuban artists such as tres player Isaac Oviedo (son), Estrellas Cubanas and Orestes Lopez (Charanga), Irakere (Latin jazz/Salsa Cubana) and Los Munequitos de Matanzas (rumba) amongst others.

The energy and live atmosphere is captured perfectly as the CD bursts into life with the opening track ‘Maria Antonia’ from Septeto Nacional de  Ignacio Piñeiro. Here the rhythm section is at full throttle with crisp bongo soloing from Rogelio Castellano, rum-soaked trumpet guias and the spine-tingling vocals of Carlos Embale.

In addition to the rumba group Los Munequitos de Matanzas, the group Afro Cuba de Matanzas perform a chant to the God Elegua. This could not be further removed from Xavier Cugat’s call to Chango on the ‘Out of Cuba’ CD. After the initial call to Elegua the  music builds in intensity as the ‘toques’ of the drums call up the spirit of Elegua, becoming  faster and more trance-like as the spirit possesses some of the dancers. On the DVD you can clearly see that Elegua certainly came down for this one.

Although the CD stands up perfectly well on its own, appreciation can definitely be enhanced by viewing the DVD which it accompanies, as you get to see these tracks performed on location. One example of this is the footage of one of Cuba’s finest tres players, Isaac Oviedo, performing with his family in Havana. On the DVD more songs are performed and there’s some lovely footage of Isaac recounting his days in Matanzas cutting cane by day and playing dances by night before moving to Havana with Sexteto Matanzas in 1926. As he sings ‘La Fiesta no es para feos!’ (‘No ugly guys at this party thanks!’) he breaks into a cheeky disarming smile that is priceless. On the CD two of their numbers are performed ‘El Botijita’ a guaracha son and a bolero sung by Isaac’s son Ernesto Oviedo. The lyrics of ‘El Botijita’ harken back to plantation slavery days which is presumably why the style is labelled Son Afro on the liner notes. On it Isaac’s distinctive voice tells a tall tale with backing coros from Julia and Ernesto Oviedo with complex tres and guitar work and a very palpable rhythmic drive.  The bolero is in contrast to the up tempo son and is entitled ‘El Buen Camino’ (‘The Right Path’) on the liner notes, but according to Ernesto himself (Interview February 2006¹) it is actually called ‘Pon la Luz’ (‘Put the Light on’). Where Isaac’s voice is distinctive and hard-edged Ernesto’s voice is rounder and softer-edged with a vibrato that is part of the voice in a natural way that makes you feel he is singing directly to you. The two tres guitars of Isaac and Papi Oviedo (also Isaac’s son and currently Buena Vista tres player) weave in and out of each other beautifully against the percussive backdrop of bass, maracas, bongos and clave. This romantic bolero in other hands could sound cloying but their rendition combines elegance and coolness with passion.

Charanga, the violin and flute-led line-up that invented the Chachachá and the Mambo, is represented on the CD by two very different bands: Estrellas Cubanas and Orquesta Orestes Lopez.

Orestes Lopez, alongside his brother Israel Lopez (Cachao) were in the seminal Charanga band Arcaño y sus Maravillas which formed in 1937 and they are credited with inventing the Mambo long before Pérez Prado adapted it in the US. On the CD veteran Cuban musicians play Orestes’s composition ‘Llegaron los Millionarios’ (‘Here come the Millionaires’) which is a Charanga classic with the coro: ‘Yo soy millionario, por eso me siento feliz’ (‘I’m a millionaire, that’s why I’m happy’) which is not without its ironies given the hard times experienced by black Cubans prior to the revolution and also given the bad economic situation in Cuba at the time of recording. The piece opens with pizzicato strings and castanets followed by the tune of the coro played repeatedly by the violins under the coros and flute solos. A hypnotic and elegant piece, ‘Llegaron los Millionarios’ is part of the Charanga canon of compositions (of which there are thousands by composers such as Israel and Orestes Lopez, Urfé, Romeu, Chepín, Félix Reina and Richard Egües). The piece is performed in a hall in the afternoon and these Matinee performances by Charanga bands of all kinds still take place today in Asociaciones Culturales mainly for an older clientele who dress up and have a ball. Here older gents in white suits, Cuban heels, waistcoats and panama hats dancing flirtatiously to Charanga is a sight to behold!

Estrellas Cubanas is a very different Charanga band. Formed in 1959 by Félix Reina, it has always had a reputation for playing fast upbeat charanga styles. The two tracks featured here sound like the Charanga bands of the 70s in that the piano montunos and violin guajeos are very busy and the pianist has decided to use the organ setting on his keyboard (you would normally have a piano in Charanga). That said  both ‘Moneda Falsa’ (‘Counterfeit Coin’) and ‘Barco Velero’ (‘Lookout Ship’) are great arrangements with tight breaks, a barrage of coros and clear rhythmic flute soloing  over trance-like strings and a rhythm section driven by the machete style of the güiro. Although both tracks are listed as ‘traditional’ the current flute player with Estrellas Cubanas, René Beltran, assures me that they were written by the band director and violinist Félix Reina (Interview March 2006²). This does seem plausible as Félix Reina wrote many classic compositions including the beautiful danzón ‘Angoa’ which is featured on the current line-up Estrellas Cubana’s album ‘Pa’ Bailar’.

The final track on the album is a carnival Comparsa which features a deafening chorus of tractor breaks, congas and whistles interspersed with brass and sax coro-style melodies and street sounds, providing a glorious live finish to a very physical and real musical experience.

Sue Miller, Leeds, March 2006

Notes:

1. Interview with Ernesto Oviedo, Centro Habana, 24/02/06

2. Interview with René Beltran, Centro Habana,  04/03/06

Recent CD Reviews of Cuban and Salsa music by Sue Miller are available on www.gondwanasound.co.uk

Amadito Valdes

Bajando Gervasio

[Review] Resistencia

You can  click the links below to see a further selection of these:

Review of The Rough Guide to Cuban Music

Review of Amadito Valdes Bajando Gervasio

Review of Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall

Review of Madera Limpia La Corona

Review of Omara Potuondo Gracias

Review of an Eliades Ochoa Concert

Review of Putumayo  presents Salsa

Review of Buena Vista Social Club live in Harrogate

Review of Putumayo Presents – Cafe Cubano

Review of La-33 Gozalo

Review of Marco Toro Oido al Tambor

Bajando Gervasio

Read the review on Gondwana Sound