A very short clip of our concert in Vaires-sur-Marne, filmed by flutist Emilie Laroubine (thanks, Emilie!), who came to sit in with us for a few tunes.

We’ve just finished the arrangement of singer Eddy Carvajal’s new tune, which includes a bridge that Eddy and I worked on together. We’ve been looking for a solid medium tempo song to include in our new demo recording (to be completed by the early spring, we hope!), and this track looks like it will make it on the list. In the meantime, this rough mix will give you an idea of what’s to come!

While the roots of Çasonando are in traditional Cuban dance music, the band also incorporates elements of the more modern timba, Senegalese soukous, Colombian cumbia, and jazz…

I met Eddy Carvajal when we both played together with Parisian son group Barrio del Este. He had just arrived in Paris from Santiago de Cuba, and was looking to get a band together. He later introduced me to Nils Wekstein, a veteran of the Parisian “world music” scene, and soon after we began rehearsing, calling ourselves Çasonando.

The name, which plays on the Spanish words sazoneando (spicing it up) and sonando (lit. making sound or playing the music known as son), makes an orthographic nod to our Parisian surroundings.

Our eclectic approach to the music has been partially motivated by a desire to differentiate ourselves from the countless other Buena-Vista-style groups that have been playing in Paris since the late ’90s. This has affected our choice of repertoire as well: we cover Cuban standards like “Chan chan,” but we’ll also play songs from other genres, approached in a basically Cuban way. Premier Gaou, the track featured here, is a good example of this. We take the basic structure of the song and mix in elements of Cuban changui and timba to create a sound that is all our own.

The group is preparing to record its first demo, so mp3s of that project will soon be up on this site, as well as on the official website. To book the band for summer or fall 2007, contact me directly by email.