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 […]
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.
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.
My book Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation is now available from all good book stores!
I gave a lecture at the international Danzón conference in Havana in April 2009 where I demonstrated how I learnt the Cuban flute style of improvisation from renowned Cuban flute players such as Richard Egües, Polo Tamayo and Melquiades Fundora.
Transcribing Charanga flute solos forms part of my PhD research into the Cuban flute style of improvisation. Here is a solo by Richard Egües from the album ‘Richard Egües Grandes Hits con la Orquesta Aragón’ (Egrem)
I am currently undertaking a PhD part-time at the University of Leeds, UK, where I combine my practical work as a performer with more traditional research methods. In addition to a written thesis my work involves recording in the studio and live at concerts, where analysis, commentary and transcription of flute improvisations link in to […]
The following interview took place between Sue Miller and Richard Egües, flautist from Orquesta Aragón at Richard’s home in Santo Suares, Havana in April 2000 SM: Where were you born and how did you begin your musical career? RE: I was born in a small village called Cruces, when it was part of the former […]