Cuban Flute Style is thus a contextualised, analytical study, arising from a combination of Miller’s lessons from Egües, her research in Havana and New York, her subsequent experiences as a charanga bandleader, and the completion of a Leeds University PhD undertaken to study the processes involved in learning the charanga style of improvisation.
Let me begin by saying that Sue Miller’s Cuban Flute Style is an extraordinarily comprehensive oeuvre, with respect to both the history and the technique of charanga flute playing. In addition, her book is realized with a broad as well as a thoughtful understanding of the entire tradition on which this style of music is based.
Estrellas Cubanas performed the Danzon Amalia Batista by Rodrigo Prats at the Danzon Festival in Havana in 2007 – do contact me if you’re interested in promoting an exchange project between Estrellas Cubanas and Charanga del Norte.
Charanga del Norte perform at Grimsby Town Hall on Friday 30 July as part of North East Lincolnshire Arts Forum Festival
Dance class from our dancer Guillermo at 6.30pm
Band on at 8pm
Venue: Grimsby Town Hall, Town Hall Square, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN31 1HX
Tickets from Tourist Information 01472 323111
Recent CD Reviews of Cuban and Salsa music by Sue Miller are available on www.gondwanasound.co.uk :
Review of The Rough Guide to Cuban Music
Review of Amadito Valdes Bajando Gervasio
The following interview took place in Havana in 2001. SM: Interview: MF: My name is Melquiades Fundora Dina. I was born in Nueva Paz, a village just outside Havana, on 20 March 1926. My first teachers were my parents. My mother played the double bass and my father the trumpet. I learnt to read and […]
The following article was written for the British Flute Society Magazine – PAN: March 2003. Some people confuse the Cuban style of music with Jazz. In fact, the Charanga is quite different. Sue Miller examines the Charanga flute styles of Richard Egües, Eduardo Rubio (both from Orquesta Aragón) and Melquiades Fundora (from Orquesta Sublime). You […]
The Cuban Charanga by Sue Miller Written for the British Flute Society Journal PAN December 2000 edition The sweetest and most elegant of all Cuban dance music is made by groups called Charangas. The Charanga orchestra is made up of a flute (traditionally one made of wood with five keys, but the Boehm system flute […]