While the roots of Çasonando are in traditional Cuban dance music, the band also incorporates elements of the more modern timba, changüí moderno, 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. We take the basic structure of a song and mix in elements of Cuban changui and timba to create a sound that is all our own.
Find more recordings and up to date concert info on the group’s home on the web, casonando.com, as well as on MySpace.