The band has had many high points, including their performance of Schubert’s Ave Maria for Pope Benedict XVI on a visit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity in their hometown; the mini concert offered by the professionals with the children’s group for President Miguel Díaz-Canel, during his visit to the area.

Also noteworthy are its numerous presentations at festivals, carnivals, and other popular celebrations where audiences traditionally acclaim and cheer their shows.With their performance at the Jazz Plaza festival in Havana just behind them, and after recording music for “Cuba te quiere” and “Ula ula” with Cándido Fabré at EGREM’s Siboney Studios, the band led by maestro Hermes Ramírez Silva is heating up the drums for a video with the international group Somos el mundo, at Gran Piedra; several tracks by Erik Iglesias (Cimafunk); and the Caribbean Festival, this coming July.Reflecting the tenacity that characterizes the people of Cobre, the road they have taken has not been easy.

They owe a great deal to the enterprising spirit of Joel James Figarola, founder of the Casa del Caribe, whose experience on a trip to Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique, Barbados, and other islands of the region was decisive to the emergence of the group in this mining town.

Over the years, the group’s founding members, workers who were steel band fans and amateur musicians, and the first drums fashioned in the mining company’s foundry, gave way to this group of professionals with excellent quality instruments that have allowed them to develop a first class repertory, performed inside the country and beyond.

“Given the characteristics of the sound we produce by striking the metal,” Hermes explains, “you always need to have new music that gets people dancing and singing. We have achieved that by listening and studying a lot of music, in love with the steel drum, as if it were the best grand piano, and taking care of the instruments’ tuning.”We have assembled more than 50 songs that range from popular and classical music to danzón, mambo, chachachá, guarachas, conga, boleros, ballads, rock, calypso, reggae, samba, jazz and others that require a lot of skill,” adds Ramírez who is a conservatory graduate in bass guitar and played with Chepín Choven’s popular band for 12 years.

Popular numbers in their repertory include “Popurrí de Los Van Van,” “Bésame mucho,” “El necio,” “Bodas de oro,” “Girl from Ipanema,” “El negro está cocinando,” “Marilú,” “Calculadora,” “No woman no cry,” “El cafetal,””Bacalao con pan,” “Hotel California,””Patacón pisao,””Mambo No. 5,” “Che Comandante,” “Guantanamera” and of course the “Ave María.”

“Nothing is easy,” says the composer and arranger, “because as the name indicates, a Steel Band is a band of steel, composed of metal drums hollowed from oil barrels, metallic drums, which in English is known as steel band, with pan or steel drums, which, according to many is perhaps the only musical instrument invented in the twentieth century.

“Our 12 musicians have 23 instruments of this type, each with a different thickness. So for the treble a pan provides the melodic line for the piece, and to give you a better idea, let’s say these drums play the role of the piano, the guitars, the cello, and the basses that maintain the harmonic and rhythmic stability of the music.

“As a complement, to carry the rhythmic base, we added a complete drum set with two tumbadoras, a guayo and a chequeré. In all of these the tuning is decisive, and especially in the case of the drums, that are transported to other provinces in the baggage compartments of buses.

Any blow can leave them out of tune.”With two recorded CDs and a video clip, among the group’s best memories are sharing the stage with Bomba de Emeterio in Brazil, and in Cuba, with Adalberto Álvarez y su Son; Original de Manzanillo; Pancho Amat and the Cabildo del Son; Cándido Fabré and his band; Pedrito Calvo and la Justicia; William Vivanco; and Ivette Cepeda.In addition, their presentations have been very popular at the Fiesta de la Cultura Iberoamericana in Holguín; tourism conventions; the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana; at Varadero’s Mambo Club; and carnivals in Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara, Bayamo, and other cities, as well as the quintessential Caribbean Festival of Santiago.

A valuable reference is Trinidad and Tobago, which has offered the band musical advice and technical assistance, including the instruments currently used and the expected donation of drums with chrome, silver, and nickel treatments, through Merlin Gill and John Sorrillo, which will raise the quality of the band’s music substantially.

As a guarantee of continuity, a children’s band was formed last year, including elementary and secondary students, directed by Alfredo Vaillant Torres.

They have at their disposal the Steel Band’s spacious headquarters for rehearsals and presentations, among the social contributions made by the group to beautify the town of Cobre.Given their accomplishments, Hermes Ramírez and his musicians are only waiting for their inclusion in the Musical Album of Cuba. They have won the honor with their musical ascent and community work.

The Cobre Steel Band, although not of Cuban origin, has enriched our rhythms and brought joy to the people, making a laudable contribution to national culture.

The popular Van Van orchestra, created by maestro Juan Formell in 1969, put all its machinery at the disposal of the public who, jubilant, gathered in Havana’s Metropolitan Park, the venue for this musical event.

The afternoon before the concert was moved by comparsas and dance sessions animated with DJs from Spain, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Cuba involved in the event to animate the intermediates of each presentation.

Just before the vanvan meeting, Cubans and visitors enjoyed the sounds and guarachas, a gift from the octogenarian Aragon Orchestra directed by Rafael Lay and in charge of opening the fifth day of salsa.

Musicians led by Samuel Formell and vocalists Vanessa Formell, Roberto Fernandez, Abdel Rasalps and Armando Ihosvany, representative faces of the band with almost half a century of history.

Before starting his performance, Formell was awarded recognition by the festival’s organizers and the prize of the Latin Academy of Music for the work of life and the defense of Latin American cultural values.

The Salsa Festival opened last 20th with a performance by Puerto Rican salsa artist Jerry Rivera, who described as historic opportunity the fact of playing in Cuba and said he was happy to fulfill the dream of his admirers of the Caribbean island.

Five nights of salsa with the country’s main dance music orchestras and guests from other latitudes, enhanced the quality of the event born four years ago hosted by Carnival Company, Artex, Musicalia Agency, the Cuban Music Institute and the Recording and Music Editions Company.

The biggest salsa meeting in Cuba, according to Blanco, reached an impressive reception of national and foreign public, and exalted the connotation of the event which attracts the attention of several artists from all over the world, interested in attending.

It also reaffirmed the universal character of the music and the excellence of the genre’s worshippers, and left the audience grateful, filled with joy for enjoying these artistic encounters to entertain and cheer the soul.

(Prensa Latina)

‘With all due respect, Haila sings Armando Manzanero’ is the new work’s title, which will be a tribute to the legend of Mexican romantic music and will contain songs from his extensive repertoire brought to the salsa genre, Mompie told Prensa Latina.

The studios 18 of the Company of Recordings and Musical Editions (EGREM) today welcomed the duo that gave voice to the titles ‘You Drives me Crazy’, ‘There Are No Limits’ and ‘Nothing Personal.’

According to the Mexican musician, it was a privilege to record with Haila, a singer who admires and whose work he respects a lot.

The two artists shared the stage this Sunday in the first concert offered by Manzanero on the island, where Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa were also guests.

This Monday the musician returns to his country not without first confessing that he would like to come back, ‘because he loves Cuba and its people, an island that has given so many good musicians,’ he said.

(Prensa Latina)

The first presentation of the Puerto Rican is scheduled for tomorrow at the Josone Varadero Jazz & Salsa Festival, which began this Thursday at the famous Cuban resort.

Santa Rosa heads the line-up of the event along with other prestigious foreign and local musicians, including Salvadoran singer-songwriter Alvaro Torres, U.S. jazz musician Nicholas Payton and the Cubans Gente de Zona, pianist Alejandro Falcon and the legendary rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.

Two days later, El Caballero de la Salsa, also known as the singer, will perform in this city, in a unique concert scheduled for 21:00 local time on the Havana Malecon.

The successful performer of hits like Vivir sin ella y Que alguien me diga and winner of several Latin Grammy awards has many followers on the island, and has worked alongside local artists Descemer Bueno, El Micha and Candido Fabre.

(Prensa Latina)

The CD of 11 tracks comes with a DVD directed by Joseph Ross, showing the process of recording the disc, presented by Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal, musicologist Marta Valdés, and the disc’s producer, Alain Pérez.

Omara siempre carries much emotional weight, and is also convincing evidence of the continuing relevance of one the great figures of Cuban music of all times, but also of currently popular genres that have made Cuba known around the world.

The CD starts off with a version of “Sábanas Blancas,” Gerardo Alfonso’s tune that Omara (Havana, 1930) interprets backed by a rhythm that fits somewhere between popular music and jazz, two styles that ultimately define the disc.

With this album, the Buena Vista Social Club diva reclaims her place in Cuban musical territory and reaches out to exponents of other genres, including pop and trova, a practice she began several years ago to expand her work’s audience and creative range.

In “Otra realidad,” recorded by Diana Fuentes for her CD Planeta Planetario, the young singer accompanies Omara in her desire to go deeper into the essence established by the country’s great bolero artists.

The title is another feature worth noting – absolutely appropriate as it shows us an Omara who endures, and updates her work over time.

Cubans have always held a place in their hearts for “A la major el año que viene,” by Héctor Quintero. In this version, Issac Delgado reminds us of the singer he was 20 years ago, when he defined an era on television, and with his own dance band. Issac and Omara show a unique complicity on the track, which on its own merits has become part of our national identity. Pianist Rolando Luna, a star of Cuban jazz, joins them for the piece defined by stylized arrangements and perfect communion between all the instrumentalists.

Listeners may, at times, perceive similarities with the Rhythms-Del-Mundo series, which brought together internationally known pop and rock artists and Cuban musicians. This disc, Omara siempre, is to be enjoyed in quiet calm, and if the body allows, with a good drink on the table.

This is music that bears the country’s musical richness and obliges listeners to look back to discover how Omara has reached this point in full form, as evident not only on this album, but in the recent Buena Vista Social Club tours. The secret, if it exists, could be the need for continuity, to stay and continue her career, remembering that Cuban music is still a very diverse world, with thousands of doors to open and roads to travel.

At times, she moves away from more contemporary formulas, as in “La rosa oriental,” with the Septeto Santiaguero. Voice, traditional rhythms, and lyrics identified with the most deeply-rooted elements of the vast world that is Cuban music make this track a beautiful remake of a musical story written decades ago, that retains the brightness of its first day. But this is not a prettiness to be sold to tourists at souvenir stands, but rather another track, as we have said, that looks to go deeper into a story that has brought us to the present in a coherent manner, as it should be when we talk about the authenticity of Cuban music.

Omara and Juan Formell always had close ties, and “Y tal vez” by the founder of Los Van Van, is part of her continuing tribute to Formell since his death. An evocative, contemporary song, like the work of both Formell and Omara, “Y tal vez” is another legend appearing in all its glory on the disc, with Robertón, a Van Van front man, shaping the song’s architecture to make dancers happy.

Also accompanying Omara on the album are Yulaisi Miranda, a Sonando en Cuba contest winner, for “Son al Son,” by César Portillo de la Luz; Aymée Nuviola (Popurrit); Alain Pérez (Amarte no me cuesta nada); and Beatriz Márquez, who sings “Tristeza” with Omara, uniting their respective spiritual universes and distinct creative personalities, with remarkable success.

As a bonus track, the CD has “Yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón,” by Fito Páez, evoking the endurance and constant renovation of the work of a singer who has found ways to be reborn, overcome the obstacles of time, and preserve the power of one of Cuba’s most representative voices.

This last track of the album is a duo with Lila Downs, who, like Omara, has the gift of singing songs filled with heartbreak, while at the same time conveying a curing touch to any broken spirit. They sing alone and together, “Tanta sangre que se llevó el río y yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón” (so much blood down the river, and I come to offer my heart). Experiencing such a ritual requires quiet, letting yourself go, to embrace the silent complicity of the music. “A spoonful of love” Omara and Lila would later recall the recording, as they talked of their countries and hopes of change, for change. Nothing more.

Speaking with GI, the instrumentalist and pedagogue added: “Secondly, it allows the personalities who visit us, like the composer David del Puerto and the promoter Diego Martínez, to appreciate the importance of culture in Cuba, where it is not a luxury, but central to the development of the country.”

His analysis of the impact of the Festival and Contest went further. “It influences the musicians and the public, because learning to listen to high quality music means we are going to leave improved, as it imbues us with a thirst for perfection.”

When questioned as to whether the fact that we have an International Festival indicates that the guitar in Cuba is both nationally and internationally recognized,Ortega responded: “That’s right, it has an excellent position. Internationally we have our great teacher, Leo Brouwer, iconic all-time figure of the guitar culture. In my personal opinion, he is the greatest musician that Cuba has produced to this day.”

This guitar festival was created precisely by Brouwer, a composer, conductor and guitarist, back in the 1980s. After a long break, the event made an outstanding comeback this year.

THE CONTEST AND ITS PRIZES

As Ortega told Cuban composer Juan Piñera, “Young people with impressive talent performed.” The jury was presided by Jesús Ortega himself, and included Piñera and Cuban guitarist Marco Tamayo; the composer David del Puerto, president of the Andres Segovia International Classical Guitar Competition, and Diego Martínez, both from Spain; and German pedagogue Karl Heinz.

There were a total of 16 participants from Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Romania, Costa Rica and Cuba, who during three rounds, held in the Semicircle of the National Museum of Fine Arts’ World Art building, and the theater of its Cuban Art building, had to perform baroque, Cuban, Latin American, virtuoso, and sonata pieces.

During the awards ceremony held in the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater, the jury revealed that it had awarded the Second Prize and the Isaac Nicola Award to Carlos Miguel Ledea, a student of Cuba’s Higher Institute of the Arts, who received, among other rewards, a guitar specially built by the luthier David Chávez.

The first prize was shared between Spain’s Javier García Verdugo (a graduate of the Madrid Royal Conservatory and the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, currently undertaking a Master’s degree at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Mozarteum Salzburg); and the Romanian-German Mircea Stefan Gogoncea (with a resume that includes 165 awards and studies in Dusseldorf and the Royal Academy in London).

GISMONTI: HAPPY TO BE AT THIS FESTIVAL

Brazilian composer, pianist and guitarist Egberto Gismonti shared his happiness on attending the Festival with GI.

He used his ten-string guitar during the concert and explained: “It’s ten strings because I was originally a pianist. In guitar we need two hands for a sound, pressure and a capo. I was trained as a pianist, where each hand does a different thing, so I imagined that other chords would be perfect and I found a ten-string guitar. I started to practice and began changing the position of the strings, sharps with bass. The guitar is complex. Little by little I was transforming it, and it was also changing my way of playing the piano.”

All the pieces he played in the concert were his own compositions, with voice and piano added. “Each piece of music of mine is supported by a story. Each record of the many I have recorded, 70 in total, has a name linked with something from Brazilian culture. I do not make music just because I like a combination of notes, I am a composer for movies (38 films), ballet (35 pieces), theater (30 pieces), and in those 70 albums I always have songs, with lyrics by great poets. At this point in my life, I come to a guitar festival and I include voice and piano. That’s just me.”

ROMERO: THE GUITAR LEADS YOU TO FIND YOUR SPIRIT

Pepe Romero gave his first concert at the age of seven alongside his father, Celedonio Romero, an important guitarist and his only teacher. Today he is recognized worldwide as one of the great virtuosos of the classical guitar.

His concert, in the Covarrubias Hall, saw him perform much of the best of his extensive repertoire. Thus it was possible to enjoy compositions by Ángel Barrios, Granado, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Fernando Sor, Joaquín Rodrigo, Joaquín Turina and his father Celedonio Romero.

Romero told GI that this Festival “is a marvel and it fills me with joy that maestro Ortega has resumed it, because Cuba and the guitar are very connected and here there are great talents.”

The Spaniard added, “The guitar is an instrument that is not only listened to, but felt when you touch it, embrace it, it vibrates in your arms and goes very deep, and nowadays thanks to the effort of so many great guitarists it occupies a central place in the music world.”

Asked about the current importance awarded the guitar in the cultural world, Romero noted: “More than importance, the guitar has a mission, because the guitar, as García Lorca said, is like a spider that weaves its web to capture sighs. In these times of so much confusion, of so many problems, of so much technology, digitalization, and such a busy life, the guitar is that peace and beautiful sound that enhances you and leads you to find yourself with your own spirit.”

The 15th Havana International Guitar Festival and Contest included seven concerts in the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís and the Covarrubias Hall, with performances by Eliot Fisk of the U.S., the Brazilian Egberto Gismonti and Spain’s Pepe Romero, three global guitar stars; and by the Cubans Ariadna Cuellar, Eduardo and Galy Martín, Marco Tamayo, Ali Arango, the Dúo Concuerda, and the Nuestro Tiempo ensemble.

The program allowed audiences to enjoy works by Fernando Sor, Leo Brouwer, Manuel Ponce, Jesus Ortega, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Radamés Gnatalli, just to name a few. A beautiful event that concluded with the welcome announcement by maestro Jesus Ortega of the 16th edition, scheduled to take place in 2020.

(Granma)

Directed by Dana Stella Aguilar, the group will perform on April 13, 14 and 15 in the aforementioned hall, in the Mexican capital, with a stage performance that pays homage to Damaso Perez Prado.

The piece was debuted by that group on December 8, 9 and 10, 2017, in the western town of Matanzas, the hometown of the arranger, composer and orchestra conductor, during the celebration of the international colloquium for its centenary.

On that occasion, the visiting theater players subsequently made a successful tour that included the cities of Cienfuegos (center / south), Sancti Spiritus (center) and Havana, reviewed by the Cuban critics.

This month’s performance features a Mexican cast led by Gerardo Trejoluna and live music from the Matanzas brass quintet Atenas Brass Ensemble, led by Rodolfo Jorge Horta, with musical direction by Emiliano Gonzalez de León.

Other actors that will intervene are Hector Hugo Peña, Ernesto Alvarez, Luz Marina Arcos, Julio Olivares, Fabiana Perzabal and Omar Godinez, the CME added.

In the production team, Israel Rodriguez as a designer and the choreographer Luis Villanueva will participate; in the audiovisual creation will work Alan Kerriu, as an advisor of songs and rhythms will be Juan Cisneros and Vivian Martinez Tabares will be the theatrical advisor.

The binational project of ‘Conjuro Teatro’ and CME received the 2017 Efiteatro grant from the Ministry of Culture of Mexico and has several auspices, including Covamex Cuban National Council, Provincial Council of Performing Arts and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

In Mexico ‘Yo soy el rey del mambo’ will be presented in other spaces and institutions, such as the Julio Castillo Theater, the Metropolitan Autonomous University, the National Polytechnic Institute, and the city of Aguascaliente, during April and May.

(Prensa Latina)

Lolo Lovina, red beer in Romani language, performed for the first time in Cuba with a repertoire that includes its own songs and other versioned and very personal songs.

Its work is described by some as an eternal gypsy party where everything is possible, and where distrust is overcome by love and unity.

The band singer and leader, Sarah Bedak stated that when she plays, dances or sings, or moves around the stage, it is a great celebration for her.

The Australian of Hungarian Roma descent highlights her gypsy heritage, not only in her repertoire but also in performance and costumes.

‘I am very proud of my roots’, she always says in her interviews.

(Prensa Latina)

In a ceremony held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, in Havana, the leader and founder of NG La Banda, born in 1951 in Santa Clara and a graduate of the National Arts School in the specialty of the flute, was presented with the Prize by the President of the Cuban Institute of Music, musicologist Marta Bonet, and First Deputy Minister of Culture, María Elena Salgado.

Among the tributes, El Tosco was presented with a piece by renowned painter Eduardo Roca Salazar (Choco).

Deciding on whom to award the 2017 Prize to were Digna Guerra, Adalberto Álvarez, César Pedroso, Beatriz Márquez and Juan Piñera; who recognized José Luis Cortés’ extensive career, marked by his virtuosity, his dedication to teaching and his contribution to the universalization of Cuban music.

El Tosco was one of the precursors of Cuban timba during the 1990s and has championed a sound full of rhythmic complexities with his group, NG La Banda, that expanded the limits of Cuban music and highlighted the talent and imagination of a core of young artists who began to reinvigorate the popular dance music scene, influenced by the legacy of groups such as Irakere and Los Van Van.

On receiving the award, the outstanding musician called on the media to promote more diverse programming and greater attention to Cuban music, to allow the public to hear the orchestras and sounds that identify the island around the world.

(Granma)

It was a project born 20 years ago, under the direction of Juan de Marcos González, former director of the Sierra Maestra group, with renowned U.S. guitarist Ry Cooder as producer.

The original album was recorded, as Cuban journalist Juan Carlos Roque recalled, by World Circuit Records, over “seven intense days in Havana in 1996.”

From its launch, the Buena Vista Social Club became an extraordinary success, with concerts held in the main capitals of the world, millions in album sales, and even famous German film director, Win Wenders, made a documentary on the group, which includes the second concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Last year, Roque published in Argentina the book Cómo Cuba puso a bailar al mundo (How Cuba Made the World Dance), with Libros en Red publishing house. The text has now been republished by Cuba’s Ediciones UNIÓN, and will be presented in Havana’s San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, the main venue of this year’s International Book Fair.

The book features a series of interviews Roque conducted in 1999 and 2000, with all the members of the initial project, as part of the series The Road to Success, in which he recreates the life and work of the founder members.

In a brief conversation at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), the author explained that he decided to compile the interviews after the announcement of the group’s Adiós Tour of farewell concerts, which he later enriched and contextualized as result of further encounters with some of the musicians.

“The book begins when they appear in the White House in 2015, and play for President Obama, given what that represented for cultural exchange between Cuba and the United States. It then recreates those original interviews, almost one chapter per musician. I go on like this, revealing the development of the group.”

Among the 14 interviews included in the book, some of the most interesting are those with Buena Vista greats Juan de Marcos; Francisco Repilado, known as ”Compay Segundo”; Omara Portuondo; Ibrahim Ferrer; Rubén González; Eliades Ochoa; and Alberto Virgilio Valdés.

Readers can appreciate the relaxed tone of the dialogues on the lives of these musicians, who were mostly retired, and their surprise on making a comeback to the stage.

In addition to the testimonies of the protagonists, Roque includes notes, including one dedicated to the Adiós Tour, with reference to the album Lost and Found, including original songs and photos of his encounters with the interviewees.

In reference to the title, the author noted:” Well, actually I think it should be called “How Cuba made the world dance once again,” but that’s another book. At that stage, the phenomenon of Buena Vista revitalized Cuban music.”

Last year, Roque published in Argentina the book Cómo Cuba puso a bailar al mundo (How Cuba Made the World Dance), with Libros en Red publishing house. The text has now been republished by Cuba’s Ediciones UNIÓN, and will be presented in Havana’s San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, the main venue of this year’s International Book Fair.

The book features a series of interviews Roque conducted in 1999 and 2000, with all the members of the initial project, as part of the series The Road to Success, in which he recreates the life and work of the founder members.

In a brief conversation at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), the author explained that he decided to compile the interviews after the announcement of the group’s Adiós Tour of farewell concerts, which he later enriched and contextualized as result of further encounters with some of the musicians.

“The book begins when they appear in the White House in 2015, and play for President Obama, given what that represented for cultural exchange between Cuba and the United States. It then recreates those original interviews, almost one chapter per musician. I go on like this, revealing the development of the group.”

Among the 14 interviews included in the book, some of the most interesting are those with Buena Vista greats Juan de Marcos; Francisco Repilado, known as ”Compay Segundo”; Omara Portuondo; Ibrahim Ferrer; Rubén González; Eliades Ochoa; and Alberto Virgilio Valdés.

Readers can appreciate the relaxed tone of the dialogues on the lives of these musicians, who were mostly retired, and their surprise on making a comeback to the stage.

In addition to the testimonies of the protagonists, Roque includes notes, including one dedicated to the Adiós Tour, with reference to the album Lost and Found, including original songs and photos of his encounters with the interviewees.

In reference to the title, the author noted:” Well, actually I think it should be called “How Cuba made the world dance once again,” but that’s another book. At that stage, the phenomenon of Buena Vista revitalized Cuban music.”

(Granma)