Latino Music Cafe - The Afro-Cuban All Stars

Afro-Cuban All Stars Visit Seattle - Part 1 | Latino Music Cafe

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Afro-Cuban All Stars Visit Seattle – Part 1 Posted on 01. Apr, 2011 by Hector Aviles in Blog Buena Vista is “hasta la vista”. Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the founder of the famous group 2 tweets who’s CD (Buena Vista Social Club) won a Grammy award in 1998, has evolved the group retweet into a smaller and more versaJle ensemble. And it’s with this new band look that the Afro-‐Cuban All Stars is touring the U.S., with a scheduled stop at SeaOle’s Jazz Alley April 5-‐7, 2011 (towards the end of the arJcle, listen to a sample of the music they’ll be performing).

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This evoluJon of the Afro-‐Cuban All Stars was in part forced by the passing of some of its elderly founding members during the first decade of the 2000’s. The departed include such Cuban music glories as Ibrahim Ferrer, Manuel “PunJllita” Licea, Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Pio Leyva, and Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez. But instead of sJcking with the winning formula, Juan de Marcos decided to evolve the sound of the band expanding its repertoire to include jazz. “I want to show people that we can maintain the tradiJonal Cuban music essence and play a wide range of musical rhythms, from tradiJonal Cuban melodies to LaJn jazz” explained Juan de Marcos in an exclusive interview with LaJno Music Café. The Origins of Buena Vista Social Club Juan de Marcos was born in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood of Havana, which was also the birthplace of many of Cuban popular musicians, including legendary percussionist Chano Pozo. His dad, Marcos Gonzalez, was a popular singer, and spent a few years of his career with the band of Cuban music great Arsenio Rodriguez.

Juan de Marcos Gonzalez Through his dad, Juan de Marcos knew many of musicians of his dad’s generaJon, including pianist Ruben Gonzalez who was also part of the Arsenio Rodriguez “conjunto”. “As a young musician, I didn’t take the tradiJonal Cuban music, and started my career as a rocker. Rock was prohibited in Cuba in those days as the governments classified it as “imperialist” music. As young guys, we wanted to play the prohibited rock” explains Juan de Marcos. “It was Carlos Santana who influenced me to look at the music of my country again” says the also founder of tradiJonal Cuban “son” music group Sierra Maestra. “We listened to rock through AM radio staJons from the US, and when I heard Santana playing cha-‐cha-‐cha (Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va), it made me look back at the music I grew up with at home and at my neighborhood.” 2 of 6

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This seed led to the forming in 1976 of the band Sierra Maestra, who played tradiJonal son with the same instrumental lineup as the groups of the 1920’s and 30’s, but dressing like “punks”. Sierra Maestra was well recieved by the Cuban public, and then in 1995 they released “Dundunbanza”, an album tribute to Arsenio Rodriguez. Juan de Marcos says “in this album we beefed up the band for some songs, trying to resemble the three trumpets, conga, and piano lineup that the Arsenio Rodriguez ‘conjunto’ had”. The album was a commercial success, and opened doors to two concept albums Juan de Marcos wanted to do: 1. A “Big Band” album (of the 50’s big band style) in tribute to his dad Marcos Gonzalez and the musicians of his generaJon. 2. A tradiJonal Son Oriental album (“Eastern album”), with the same lineup but without the big band winds. For the 1st album, Juan de Marcos wanted to include some elderly musician friend of his dad. He got Ruben Gonzalez, Chachaito Lopez, Luis Alemany, Guajiro Mirabal, Pio Leyva, Raul Plana, PunJllita, and others. Omara Portuondo was added by coincidence, as they cuasually met at the recording studio as she was leaving aher recording another álbum, and Juan de Marcos invited her to parJcipate in a song with Ibrahim Ferrer. “Ibrahim was the only one I didn’t know of the elderly, but we liked how he sang, so I approached him to parJcipate in the projects” says Gonzalez.

Afro-Cuban All Stars A Toda Cuba Le Gusta This big band album would later be Jtled “A Toda Cuba Le Gusta”, and the band took the name of the Afro-‐Cuban All Stars. Beside the elderly legends recruited by Juan de Marcos, the groups also included many young musicians that would provide a contemporary sound to balance the tradiJonal music played by the elders. Juan de Marcos would provide the contemporary arrangements to these tradiJonal songs played with a big band. For the “Eastern album” Juan de Marcos was going to use basically the same lineup of musicians, but without most of the winds leaving just one trumpet, as they are not needed to play “son oriental”. He also wanted to make the album to lean towards “world music”, and therefore invited some African musicians from Mali, and included Ry Cooder to help bring it all together musically. The African musicans couldn’t get their visas, so the album was recorded as a strait up “son oriental”

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album.

Buena Vista Social Club 1997 They decided to name the album aher one of the songs, the “Buena Vista Social Club”, which through word-‐of-‐mouth and thanks to a film of the making of the album, with interviews with the Cuban music legends parJcipaJng in the recording, became hugely popular around the world, winning a Grammy award in 1998. The big band album, “A Toda Cuba Le Gusta” was also nominated for a Grammy. Afro-‐Cuban All Stars New Projects and Sea>le Visit: Coming in Part 2: In the 2nd part of our conversaJon with Juan de Marcos, we’ll touch on the new projects coming for the Afro-‐Cuban All Stars, the U.S. tour and their stop in SeaOle. The song below, provided by Juan de Marcos for LaJno Music Café, was recorded earlier in the tour, and provides a sample of what’s coming to SeaOle and the rest of the U.S. tour. [audio:Yo tengo Pena.mp3] Afro-‐Cuban All Stars in Sea>le: The Afro-‐Cuban All Stars will be playing at Demitrious’ Jazz Alley on April 5-‐7, 2011. You can get more informaJon at the Jazz Alley web site (h&p://www.jazzalley.com) Share and Enjoy:

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Tags: afro-cuban, Afro-Cuban All Stars, Buena Vista Social Club, cuban music, Juan de Marcos, latin music, Sierra Maestra No comments.

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