La Música de Cuba

As in most every corner of the globe, recent music from Cuba relies heavily on hip-hop beats, with its phrasing and attitude. So be it. The global cultural milieu shrinks further every day. Maybe more so than in other places, however, youthful Cuban musicians find inspiration and reward in following in the footsteps of their elders. The revered and time-honored genres of son, guaguanco, rumba, danzon and many others are reinvented today with the addition of personal and stylistic touches that create a healthy dose of fertile Cubanismo. In this week’s Al compas del mundo radio playlist you’re to hear a little of both, the elders and the current generation. While I tried to alternate the new with the old, it’s rarely apparent that those songs recorded in the last twenty years are not, in fact, throwbacks from an earlier era. And for this program curator, highlighting that continuity is precisely the intent.

Al compás del mundo #179, la música de Cuba, 5-8-25

01 Celina y Reutilio - La reina del mar

02 Daymé Arocena - Eleggua

03 Vieja Trova Santiaguera - El tren

04 Ivette Cepeda - Alcé mi voz

05 Arsenio Rodríguez – Dundumbanza

06 Orlando 'Cachaito' López - Mis dos pequeñas

07 Alberto Zayas y Su Grupo - Pa' la mar Sirena

08 Grupo Danzón y Alexander Abreu - Rumba en Matanzas

09 Sierra Maestra - ¿Dónde va Chichi?

10 Palo - Al monte

11 Los Compadres – Sarandonga

12 Pedro Luis Ferrer - Ay, que bueno (Changüisa)

13 Pio Leiva - Buen Tumbao

14 Septeto Santiaguero - Esa familia a mí no me conviene

15 Soneros De Verdad - A Buena Vista

~~*~~

Comments

Guitarras del mundo

Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...

Electric Chicago blues

Al compás del mundo Run List #172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues 01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me 02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby 03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby 04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine 05 John Lee Hooker – Louise 06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It 07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle 08 Little Walter - I Don't Play 09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself 10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman 11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby 12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied 13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It 14 Walter Horton - It's Alright 15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps 16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me 17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw 18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree 19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the ...

Experimental Music: Squeak, Squawk, and Skrunk

Leon Theremin and the Orchestra I’m showing my age with today’s Al compás del mundo playlist. Most all the music represented here is from 20-50 years ago. A couple exceptions are Iranian-Canadian Sina Bathaie and Chile’s Föllakzoid, both a nod towards rave culture…which has its origins in the mid -1980s, an old school trip out which lingers on to this day. Experimental music has been around for who knows how long. Rebels always come out of the woodwork when popular taste imposes limitations. And electronics have influenced and become the medium as far back as the theremin, invented circa 1918. There’s one more ringer in this group (experimental yes, electronic, no) and that’s Steve Reich’s piece, an excerpt from “Pulse.” The chorus and instruments are organic and live – no recorded sounds and no overdubs. That this sort of music has drawn devotees in great numbers and from all parts of the world would make a case for a commonality in human artistic perception and acceptance. Who s...

Search This Blog