The second track on the Çasonando demo : an arrangement of a classic son by Luis Rengifo, based on the the version I heard by Cuarteto Rumí (who used to play in front of the Hotel Inglaterra in Havana when I was there back in 2001).
Çasonando will participate in Vaire-sur-Marne’s concert series “On Stage: Current Music by Local Artists.” As always, Çasonando promises a swinging blend of Caribbean and African spices, from salsa to cumbia, rumba and changüí. Bring all your friends to dance the night away, or just kick back and listen, ¡pa’ gozarlo bien! Where: Centre des Arts […]
Finished Jan. 12 2008, 33 rue viala 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 […]
By Alejandro Almenaris, rec. October 6th, 2007, 33 rue viala A rough take on one of my favorite Cuban son standards, a tune that is actually a recent composition by Alejandro “el viejo” Almenaris, of Santiago de Cuba. After his quartet was featured on a Putumayo release back in the ’90s, the song has made […]
Minidisc recording, Fall 2006 With Premier Gaou, we tried taking a song from another context and approaching it in a fundamentally Cuban way. We don’t do this song in concert very often, as it is not always comfortable for dancers, but we still pull it out every once in a while for fun.
Cultural Tourism, The Buena Vista Social Club, and Cuban Son
April 25th 2007
The culmination of my two years studying ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University was my Master’s Thesis, finished in April of 2005, entitled Tourist Songs: Cultural Tourism, The Buena Vista Social Club, and Cuban Son. I address the recent shifts in the Cuban policy on tourism, and observe the (many) ways in which these changes directly affect […]
