Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo - Silencio

COMPAY SEGUNDO - La Negra Tomasa

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB - Chan Chan

Music in Cuba

Cuban music is the basis for many other Latin American musical styles, such as Salsa. The main musical form is Son, but they also listen to rock. The Caribbean island of Cuba has been influential in the development of multiple musical styles in the 19th and 20th centuries. The roots of most Cuban musical forms lie in the cabildos, a form of social club among African slaves brought to the island. The cabildos were formed from the Igbos, Araras, Bantu, Carabalies, Yorubas, and other civilizations/tribes. Cabildos preserved African cultural traditions, even after the Emancipation in 1886 forced them to unite with the Roman Catholic church. At the same time, a religion called Santería was developing and had soon spread throughout Cuba,Haiti and other nearby islands. Santería influenced Cuba's music, as percussion is an inherent part of the religion. Each orisha, or deity, is associated with colors, emotions, Roman Catholic saints and drum patterns called toques. By the 20th century, elements of Santería music had appeared in popular and folk forms.

Cuban music has its principal roots in Spain and West Africa, but over time has been influenced by diverse genres from different countries. Most important among these are France, the United States, and Jamaica. Reciprocally, Cuban music has been immensely influential in other countries, contributing not only to the development of jazz and salsa, but also to Argentinian tango, Ghanaian high-life, West African Afrobeat, and Spanish "nuevo flamenco". Cuban music of high quality includes "classical" music, some with predominantly European influences, and much of it inspired by both Afro-Cuban and Spanish music. Several Cuban-born composers of "serious" music have recently received a much-deserved revival. Within Cuba, there are many popular musicians working in the rock and reggaeton idioms.

Cuban folk music is very diverse and have been influenced by many different cultures. The coming together of Spanish peoples, slaves from Africa, and the remaining indigenous populations of the Caribbean created many different cultural groups throughout the Caribbean.

Cuban hip-hop is one of the newest genres of music to be embraced not only by the country's youth but by the established government. Initially, hip-hop was shunned by the country because of its affiliation to America and capitalism. As more Cuban youth and rappers put their own energy and style into the music and the government stopped associating the music with materialism, Cuban hip-hop eventually became the voice of a new generation. In fact, "the Cuban government now sees rap music - long considered the music of American imperialism - as a road map to the hearts and minds of the young generation". This music represents a new way for Cuban youth to express their own ideas on relevant political and social issues. Their lyrics contain messages that force people to rethink race and identity in Cuba. This is seen by many as rebellious because it calls attention to the fact that the Cuban government encourages its citizens to believe in a color-blind society, when skin color truly plays a major role in everyday life. In essence, Cuban hip-hop can be considered the revolution of this new generation that grew up on the island after the fall of the Soviet Union and communism, where "rebels use lyrics, not guns,...they dance instead of march" and where "its soldiers are rappers [and] their missions are poverty and racism".

Eliades Ochoa

Eliades Ochoa(born June 22, 1946) is a Cuban guitarist and singer in Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago.

He began playing the guitar when he was six and in 1978 he joined Cuarteto Patria, a band that has played since 1940. His roots are in guajira (Cuban country music) and he still wears his trademark cowboy hat. He plays the tres, and also a variant called cuatro (with two additional strings). His involvement with the Buena Vista Social Club and the Wim Wenders film of the same name, has led him to worldwide fame.

In 1998 he recorded the album CubAfrica with Manu Dibango, in 1999 the album Sublime Ilusión, and in 2004 he recorded the song Hemingway with the Dutch band Bløf, which appeared on their 2006 album Umoja.

Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo (born 1930) is a Cuban singer whose career has spanned over half a century.

Portuondo was born in October 1930 in Havana, one of three sisters; her mother came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player. Omara started her career in 1945 as a dancer at Havana's Tropicana Club (following her older sister, Haydee). The two sisters used to sing for family and friends, however, and after a brief time in a band called Loquibambia Swing, in 1952 they got together with two friends (Elena Burke and Moraima Secada) and formed the singing group Cuarteto D'Aida, backed by pianist Aida Diestro. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording an album for RCA Victor.

In 1959 Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, involving both jazz and Cuban music. This didn't, however, mark the beginning of a solo career, and although Haydee left the group in 1961 in order to live in the U.S., Omara continued singing with Cuarteto las d'Aida until 1967.

In 1967 Portuondo embarked on a solo career, and in the same year represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Marquez' "Como un Milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s she sang with charanga band Orquesta Aragon, and toured with them both in the Communist and non-Communist worlds.

In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martin Rojas, what would become one of her most critically acclaimed albums in which she sings praises to Salvador Allende and the people of Chile a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Among many other hits from the album, she also praises the work of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the beautiful "Hasta Siempre Comandante".

During the 1970s and 1980s Portuondo enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Alvarez), film roles, and her own television series. Her international profile was due to soar, however, in 1996.

Portuondo sang (duetting with Ibrahim Ferrer) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led, not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film The Buena Vista Social Club, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). In July 2005 she presented a symphonic concert of her most important repertoire at the Berlin Festival Classic Open Air am Gendarmenmarkt for an audience of 7,000. The entire program was specially orchestrated by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, a conductor/pianist with whom she had worked during her early years at Havana's Tropicana Club. Scott Lawton conducted the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. In 2007 she is performing the title role to sold out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD. She recorded in 2008 a duets album with brazilian singer Maria Bethania, namaed Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo.

Discography

• 1950s: Amigas (by the Cuarteto las d'Aida)
• 1996: Palabras
• 1996: Buena Vista Social Club
• 1997: Omara Portuondo & Martin Rojas
• 1997: A Toda Cuba le Gusta (by the Afro-Cuban All Stars)
• 1999: Desafios (with Chucho Valdés)
• 1999: Oro Musical
• 1999: Magia Negra
• 1999: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
• 2000: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo
• 2000: Roots of Buena Vista
• 2000: La Colección Cubana
• 2001: Pensamiento
• 2001: La Sitiera
• 2001: You
• 2002: 18 Joyas Ineditas
• 2002: La Gran Omara Portuondo
• 2002: La Novia del Filin
• 2002: Dos Gardenias
• 2004: Flor De Amor
• 2005: Lágrimas Negras (Canciones y Boleros)
• 2007: Singles
• 2008: Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo

Ibrahim Ferrer

Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a popular Afro-Cuban singer and musician in Cuba. He performed with many musical groups including the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Later in life, Ferrer became a member of the internationally successful Buena Vista Social Club. His increasing popularity lead to collaborations with contemporary acts such as Gorillaz.

Ferrer was born at a dance in San Luis, near the city of Santiago de Cuba. His mother died when he was 12, leaving him orphaned and forcing him to sing on the streets (busk) to earn money. The next year, Ferrer joined his first ever musical group, a duet alongside his cousin called Jovenes del Son (Spanish: Youths of Rhythm). They performed at private functions and the two youths managed to scrape together enough money to live.

Over the next few years, Ferrer would perform with many musical groups, including Conjunto Sorpresa and Orquesta Chepin-Choven.

The leader of the latter composed one of Ferrer's biggest hits, "El Platanal de Bartolo".

• In 1953 Ferrer started to play with Pacho Alonso's group in Santiago, Cuba. In 1959 the group moved permanently to Havana, renaming themselves Los Bocucos, after a type of drum widely used in Santiago.

• With Alonso, Ferrer primarily performed son, guaracha and other up-tempo songs. However, he yearned to sing boleros. It was not until almost 40 years later, with the release of Ry Cooder's Grammy Award winning, Oscar nominated Buena Vista Social Club recording in 1999, that Ibrahim Ferrer's talent as a bolero singer would become widely known.

• In 1996, Ferrer took part in the World Circuit sessions, when it was announced that an old*style bolero singer would be required. In that year, he recorded the album A Toda Cuba le Gusta with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, an album nominated for a Grammy Award.

• In 1998 he recorded an album for the Cuban label EGREM, Tierra Caliente: Ibrahim Ferrer con Los Bocucos. It features Ferrer's unique voice and phrasing, band leader Roberto Correra's rich, intricate arrangements and excellent lead trumpet, and tight, rhythmic playing by the Bocucos. The album's is in the style of son-jazz big band fusion.

• In 1999 Ry Cooder recorded Ferrer's first solo album, shown above.

• In 2000 Ferrer famously received a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist – at the age of 72.

• In 2001 he appeared on the track Latin Simone on the self-titled debut album of virtual-band Gorillaz.

• In 2004 Ferrer won a Grammy, but was denied permission by the U.S. government to enter the U.S. to receive his award under a U.S. law designed for "terrorists, drug dealers and dangerous criminals."

• Ferrer still toured internationally in Europe in 2005, and released his second solo recording, Buenos Hermanos, in 2003. He was an adherent of the Santería faith, a blending of traditional African religions and Catholicism.

• Ferrer's contributed in 2005 to the APE Vision (Artists' Project Earth) album Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba, a collaboration with artists Coldplay, U2, Sting, Dido, Faithless, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5 and others.

• Ferrer's last recording was 'Mi Sueño', an album devoted to the bolero. It was released in 2006

He died at age 78 of multiple organ failure on August 6, 2005 at CIMEQ hospital in Havana (Cuba) after returning from a European tour. He was buried in the Colón Cemetery, Havana.

Discography

• 1960 - Mis tiempos con Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental
• 1973 - Recording with Los Bocucos
• 1999 – Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Ibrahim Ferrer
• 2000 - Tierra Caliente: Roots of Buena Vista
• 2002 - Mis Tiempos Con Chepín
• 2002 - La Collección Cubana
• 2002 - Tiempos Con Chepín y Su Orquesta
• 2003 - Buenos Hermanos
• 2004 - Que Bueno Está
• 2005 - Ay, Candela
• 2006 - Mi Sueño

Compay Segundo

Compay Segundo (November 18, 1907 – July 13, 2003) was a Cuban musician and songwriter.

Born Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz in the town of Siboney, in the East of Cuba, he moved to the city of Santiago de Cuba at age 9. In his early years he played the guitar, the clarinet, the bongos, and the congas. He became a songwriter and performer, well-known to fans of Cuban music as the second voice and tres player for Los Compadres, a group he formed in 1948 with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo.

Compadre, or compay for short, in Spanish indicates the relationship between a godfather and the parents of the godchild; thus someone's "compadre" is the godfather of his or her offspring, "comadre" being the female version; as a colloquialism the term designates a good friend).

Los Compadres were one of the most successful Cuban bands of their time. Their music still enjoys considerable popularity in the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Greater international fame came first in 1994, when he went to Spain, then later in 1997, with the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album, a hugely successful recording which won several Grammy awards. Compay Segundo appeared in the film of the same title, made subsequently by Wim Wenders.

Segundo's most famous composition is "Chan Chan", the opening track on the Buena Vista Social Club album, whose four opening chords are instantly recognizable all over the world. "Chan Chan" was recorded by Segundo himself various times as well as by countless other Latin artists.

At a fiesta he sang to President Fidel Castro, who took his pulse and joked about his vitality despite his 90-plus years. "Who could have imagined that?" he asked when he found himself at the Vatican City, performing "Chan Chan" before Pope John Paul II. He explained his longevity simply: mutton consommé and a drink of rum.

He predicted that he would live to be 115, but died of kidney failure in Havana, twenty years short of his ambition.

Compay Segundo was also the inventor of the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, created to eliminate a harmonic jump in the spanish gitaur and the tres.

In 2007, the hundredth anniversary of Segundo's birth was celebrated with a concert of his compositions performed by a symphony orchestra in Havana.

Discography

• 1942-1955
  • "Sentimiento guajiro"
  • "Cantando en el llano"
  • "Compay Segundo y Compay Primo"
  • "Mi son oriental"
  • "Los reyes del son"
  • "Los compadres"

• 1956-1995
  • "Balcón de Santiago"
  • "Balcón de Santiago - Reedición"
  • "Saludo, Compay"

• 1996-2002
  • "Cien años de son"
  • "Son del monte"
  • "Buena Vista Social Club"
  • "Antología" (1997)
  • "Lo mejor de la vida"
  • "Calle salud" 1999
  • "Yo soy del norte"
  • "Antología" (2001)
  • "Las flores de la vida"
  • "Duets" 2002 Anthology of Compay Segundo's duos