Search Results for: Cuban music

Cubarumba Tataguines in memoriam International Festival in its second edition.

Latin America / Cuba / La Habana

The National Center for Popular Music invites you to participate in the Cubarumba Tataguines in memoriam International Festival in its second edition.

It will be held in Havana from June 28-30, 2019. With the aim of Honoring the memory of Tata güines, Stimulating the artistic creation of rumba groups from the community, encouraging children’s projects based on the folkloric and musical genre, highlight the social value of the rumba as intangible heritage of humanity.

Likewise, to carry out a national and international workshop based on the pedagogical need to strengthen cultural nationality by art students in Cuba on the basis of the figure of tata güines, the fundamental foundation that promoted the proclamation of Rumba as Intangible Heritage of Humanity. . With this goal we urge all young people, students who wish to participate in the Festival through the following themes:

Themes:

Cultural educational practices
Potential value of transformation of the percussive theory of Tata güines.
Main factors that slow down or facilitate the descending of the Rumba genre as a percussion modality.
Ethical and aesthetic values promoted by the practice of percussion
Challenges to perfect percussive techniques
Creation and promotion of Cuban art
Young rumbero, possibility of cultural advancement. Harvested experiences and challenges for the present and immediate future.
Others

The venue will take place at the Turf Night Club

General program:

Press conference

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Venue: El Turf Night Club

Address: F Street between Calzada and Quinta Vedado

Time: 2pm

Participation: Press-Radio-Television-Guests

Duration: 1h

toast to daddy

Place House Museum Tata güines

TIME: 3 PM

Event schedule:

Thursday, June 27

8:00 Opening Gala Avellaneda Hall of the National Theater

Cast Subject to change

Tata guines Jr.
Makuta Flow
Rumbansoc
Ronald and his Rumbera explosion
Denis and his swing
Vania Borges
Iannna Wobble

Friday, June 28

Venue: Club Noturno El Turf

9:00 Inaugural Conference
10:00 Recess
10:30 Percussion and dance workshops
12:30 Demonstration group
1:30 Visit Tata Guines House Museum
2:00 Lunch

Cultural

Devil Tun Tun: 4pm to 6pm.

Show Woman in the rumba

Omini Bata-Rumba Morena

6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tataguines/Ochareo Group
10-2am Venue: Club Norturno El Turf Shows with rumba groups

Explosion Rumbera/Rumbavila/Rumbansoc/

Saturday, June 29

Venue: Club Noturno El Turf

9:00 Inaugural Conference
10:00 Recess
10:30 Percussion and dance workshops
12:30 Demonstration group
2:00 Lunch

Cultural

3:00 Clave de Rumba folkloric ensemble / children’s project.
8pm-2am Venue: El Turf Timbalaye Nightclub /Rumberos de Cuba/Rumbansoc/ Tata güines

Sunday, June 30

Venue: El Turf Night Club

9:00 Report of the event. Delivery of Certificates.
10:00 Recess
10:30 Symposium Asocosalsa Cuba
5:00 Cinema Avenue Closing Gala
10:00 Final reception.

Festival Project

Event Organizing Committee:

Víctor Rodríguez García: Executive Director

Arturo Soto Martínez: Chairman of the Event

Suset Núñez Vázquez: CNMP Events Coordinator

Osorio García Rule: CNMP Events Department

Brigitte Oliva: General Producer

Company National Center for Popular Music

INTRODUCTION

The Cubarumba 2019 Tata güines in memoriam project is a previous interactive festival that consists of pedagogical, competitive, sociocultural moments that will transfer original Cuban music, through percussion and dance workshops, interaction with the community, as well as shows of this genre, intangible heritage of the humanity, the evident and permanent need to rescue Cuban roots, and the representation of the name Tata güines, a national and international figure. Following this trilogy as a cultural line, the president of the festival Arturo Soto Martínez advocates for this event.

Carrying out research, it is verified that this festival has a high tourist level, which causes a useful strategy to penetrate tourists about our idiosyncrasy and traditions, in addition to giving an unforgettable moment to all those who are present at that moment.

If we observe the social gaze, we realize the motivation of society in general since we encourage in the community a hope of cultural revival, a festival of inclusion in all senses since people of all ages and disabilities participate. Achieving a mutual interaction that achieves as a result an inclusion of this musical genre in daily life and in the tastes of all the people who enjoy it.

It is emphasized that times are changing, however it is important to take actions so that the celebrations of our origin are not forgotten, it is about looking for very frequent actions that work with everyday life, exclusivity, professionalism and good taste that keep this celebration alive. choice for youth not only in our country but around the world

For all the above, the need for this culturally artistic project becomes evident, specifically in these places where a large foreign crowd is concentrated, since it is unaware of Cuban culture. Relying on the battle of ideas that we have daily for the rejection of national identity, this project that settles the roots, that remembers the past, that discloses our present and that above all that is written increases love is evident, permanent and necessary. for Cuban culture.

DEVELOPING

Goals:
- Honor the memory of Tata güines
- Stimulate the artistic creation of rumba groups from the community
- Encourage children’s projects based on the folkloric and musical genre.
- Highlight the social value of the rumba as intangible heritage of humanity

Themes:

Cultural educational practices
Potential value of transformation of the percussive theory of Tata güines.
Main factors that slow down or facilitate the descending of the Rumba genre as a form of percussion.
Ethical and aesthetic values promoted by the practice of percussion
Challenges to perfect percussive techniques
Creation and promotion of Cuban art
Young rumbero, possibility of cultural advancement. Harvested experiences and challenges for the present and immediate future.
Others

PARTICIPATION METHOD

Delegates
Student
Musicians
Guests

REGISTRATION FEES: DELEGATES

Foreigners………………50 cuc includes participation in the event, certificate and/or credits.

Cubans …………………….250 cup includes food, participation, certification and/or credits

Cuban students ……………..125 cup includes food, participation, certification and/or credits

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

Carry out an international rumba festival based on the artistic value of the figure of tata güines in the world on the basis of the Rumba proclamation as Intangible Heritage of Humanity

Goals:

Honor the memory of Tata güines
Stimulate the artistic creation of rumba groups from the community
Encourage children’s projects based on the folkloric and musical genre.
Highlight the social value of the rumba as intangible heritage of humanity

Specific Objectives	Actions	Indicators	Participants	Responsible
Honor the memory of Tata güines	Hold the Cubarumba Tataguines Festival in memoriam	Conciliation Company, Sponsors,	Organizing Committee	Event Leader
Stimulate the artistic creation of rumba groups from the community	Theoretical-practical dance and percussion workshops, presentation of youth groups in event activities	Conciliation with Artex, Egrem.	Cuban and foreign population	Org Committee
Encourage children’s projects based on the folkloric and musical genre.	Activity in the National Folkloric Ensemble of Cuba, headquarters for the socialization of children’s projects	Address of Palenque, Production	Org Committee	Event Leader
Highlight the social value of the rumba as intangible heritage of humanity	Activity the woman in the rumba, the longest rumba, the rumba and its youth, the rumba does include you	Group Directors	Production	Event Leader

Beneficiary population:

Directly, the population that benefits is Cuban and foreign, since in some way the project is aimed at educating, including, transforming the culture of these times that affects this population.

For this, their full participation is needed, in the first order the attention that is very important, then the interest in dance and percussion and the decline that forms the taste for this musical genre.

Also highlighting the importance of the social inclusion of people with disabilities, we can mention that the festival has the honor of promoting groups with different disabilities. Example of the incursion of culture in Cuba.

Latin America / February 2024

DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
ARGENTINA	ARUBA	BELIZE
BOLIVIA	BRAZIL	CHILE
COLOMBIA	COSTA RICA	CUBA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	ECUADOR	GUATEMALA
MEXICO	PANAMA	PERU
PUERTO RICO	VENEZUELA
	FEBRUARY 2024 FESTIVALS
CHILE		Viña 24 Feb 25 / Mar, 2024 Quinta Vergara C. Quinta Vergara 563, 2580085 Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile
CUBA		AloCubano Cuba Salsa Tour Dance Vacation Feb 14 / 25, 2024 Hotel Saint John’s Calle O e/ 23 y 25 Vedado Havana 10400 Cuba

Los Van Van and their 50th Anniversary

North America / USA / New York

Los Van Van returns to Lehman Center Performing Arts to celebrate their 50th Anniversary

For this special concert the Cuban legendary orchestra will join with the most popular lead Los Van Van vocalists: Mario “Mayito” Rivera and Pedro Calvo

Date: Saturday, June 1^st

Show: 8:00PM

Cost: $50 – $100

Venue: 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West Bronx, New York 10468

Low cost onsite parking available for $5!

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts presents the return of Grammy-winning dance orchestra, Formell y Los Van Van, who bring direct from Cuba their blend of Afro-Cuban, disco and funk back to Lehman Center to celebrate their 50^th Anniversary on Saturday, June 1^st at 8PM.

Heralded as Cuba’s greatest dance orchestra known worldwide for their iconic live performances, Formell y Los Van Van features three of the late founder Juan Formell‘s children: Samuel Formell (Leader and Drummer/Timbalero) , Juan-Carlos Formell (Bassist) and the family’s youngest daughter, Vanessa Formell (lead vocalist).

BIO: Formell y Los Van Van, nicknamed the “Cuban Music Train,” is regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of 20^th century Cuban popular music. Founded in 1969 by Juan Formell when he was 27 years old, the band pioneered Songo, a hybrid rhythm that blended Cuba’s native folkloric son music with the go-go of the 1970s and has electrified dance floors in Havana for over forty-five years.

The band’s original members were: Juan Formell (bandleader, bass player, and songwriter), Cesar “Pupy” Pedroso (piano, songwriter), and Jose Luis “Changuito” Quintana (drums and timbales). Each one were music conservatory trained from a young age and were fascinated with the soul, go-go and disco music that dominated U.S. radio.

They named their dance band “Los Van Van” (which literally means “they go-go”) after the go-go fad, and pioneered the hybrid of son and go-go music – Songo – which can now be found throughout Latin jazz, pop, and world fusion.

And if the genius of Songo wasn’t enough, they also developed the complex rhythmic style that became known as Timba that was adapted by other bands in the ‘90s. Los Van Van soon became one of the best-known Cuban groups in the world, maintaining a loyal fan base throughout Latin America, Europe and Japan propelled by hits such as: “La Sandunguera,” “Anda, Ven y Muévete,” “Te Traigo” and “Yuya Martinez.”

In 1993, Changuito left the band and was replaced by Formell’s son Samuel who also proved to be an outstanding composer as evidenced by the song: “Te Pone La Cabeza Mala”, the title track of one of their best albums. Although American politics hindered their ability to break into the U.S. market, their popularity in the U.S. grew throughout the ’90s, and the band toured the U.S. for the first time in 1997, including a memorable concert at Lehman Center.

Two years later, Los Van Van was honored with the GRAMMY® Award for Best Salsa Performance for their fifteenth album, Llegó…Van Van — Van Van is Here and in 2013, the Latin Recording Academy awarded Juan Formell with a special Grammy for a Lifetime Achievement of Artistic Excellence.

With over 40 albums to their credit, Formell y Los Van Van’s 2015 album Homenaje A Juan Formell: La Fantasia, was 80% completed at the time of Juan Formell’s death in 2014 and was finished under the direction of his son Samuel with another son, Juan-Carlos Formell.

The album’s release on Reyes Records in December, 2014 was on the 45^th anniversary of the band’s founding and it features several of the band’s hit dance tracks refreshed with contemporary arrangements as well as many new songs including the widely popular: “Somos Diferentes”, “Todo se Acabó” and “La Moda”. Sony Music released it worldwide in 2016 and it earned a 2017 Grammy nomination for the Best Tropical Latin Album.

The group’s most recent album “Los Van Van son La Patria” is scheduled to be released on Cuba’s Engrem label later this summer.

BIO: Mario “Mayito” Rivera is nicknamed “El Poeta de La Rumba” for his ability to vocally interpret all forms of Cuban music in both modern and traditional styles with a colorful range that can be powerfully dynamic or tender and soft.

He was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and has degrees from both the Escuela Nacional de Arte and the Instituto Superior de Arte. After college, he joined the band of Cuban singer Albita Rodríguez and played bass in Grupo Moncada.

From 1992 to 2011, Mayito was the characteristic voice and face of the extremely successful Cuban band, Los Van Van. He sang many of the band’s salsa hits, for which he was rewarded with a Latin GRAMMY® and two nominations.

Bio: Pedro “Pedrito” Calvo is a popular Cuban-born vocalist known for his charismatic and unique singing style which often includes clever word play and expressive rhythmic vocal sounds. Pedrito started his professional career singing with his father’s orchestra and years after with several Cuban orchestras including:

La Riviera, La Orquesta de Julio Valdés, and La Ritmo Oriental with hits such as: “Mi Socio Manolo” and “Aquí el que Manda es Mulé”. He was the most famous for his time (1974-2001) with Los Van Van, where he was part of the infamous lead singing trio of Los Van Van along with Mayito Rivera and Roberto Hernández.

Event Details:
www.LEHMANCENTER.org

El Tresero Moderno San Miguel Perez

Cuba is and will continue to be one of the main cradles of the best artists in Latin America and San Miguel Perez is one of those cases. The producer, composer and singer gave us an exclusive interview to talk about his musical beginnings, his history and what he is currently working on. Don’t miss it!

Tresero San Miguel — This is San Miguel Perez, ”El Tresero Moderno”

San Miguel, El Tresero Moderno

San Miguel is known in his country as ”El Tresero Moderno” (the modern tres player in English) due to the styles he uses when playing. He chose the Cuban tres as his main instrument because it is a very important icon in the music of his country and the one that most represents Cuba internationally,

His first contact with music occurred at the age of 10, when he began studying classical music, but adding the Cuban tres. He followed this same path throughout high school and university until he became part of some Cuban popular music groups such as Los Jóvenes Clásicos del Son and Adalberto Álvarez y Su Son.

Together with the latter group, he released the album ”Respeto Para Los Mayores”, which was very popular at the time. This success led them to collaborate with great orchestras such as Los Van Van, with whom they shared the stage sometimes.

On one occasion, one of the members of Los Van Van took the stage to jam with the guys of Adalberto Alvarez y Su Son, including San Miguel. Seeing the Cuban’s talent and style with the tres, he baptized him with the nickname ”El Tresero Moderno”. This nickname had to do with his playing and the influences that the artist brings to the instrument when making a solo.

San Miguel playing — San Miguel Perez playing the Cuban tres live

Cubadisco

San Miguel was twice awarded with the Cubadisco Award, one in 2011 in the category of Best Tresero and the other in 2013 in the category of Best Traditional Cuban Music. These recognitions were very important for the musician, as the award was the result of a previous contest, which was focused on the work of treseros, singers and pianists from all over Cuba.

The primary objective of this contest was to rescue Cuban music and give new talents a chance to make their art known. Adalberto Álvarez, Frank Fernández, and Mayito de Rivera were part of the contest’s presidency.

Given that San Miguel was one of the winning treseros, the Bis Music label released an album called ”Treseros de Cuba”, material in which the young man was included. This was the album which won the Cubadisco award in 2014.

After receiving both awards, Adalberto Álvarez met up with San Miguel to invite the Cubadisco winner to join his group. He took advantage of the departure of the former tresero in the group to invite him.

Los Angeles

San Miguel’s move to Los Angeles was due to a purely professional issue at first. He went to play with Adalberto Alvarez, Peruvian-American singer Cecilia Noël, her husband Colin Hay from Men At Work and other artists living in the United States. Due to this and other work proposals, he decided to stay in Tampa and, time later, to move to the city of Los Angeles and make it his permanent residence.

It should also be mentioned that many other artists have had to work other jobs outside of music in order to make ends meet, but fortunately this was not the case of San Miguel, who had the opportunity to work only in music and did not need to resort to other activities out of his passion. He has dedicated himself fully to playing, recording and producing music for the past 10 years.

San Miguel won the Cubadisco Award — San Miguel twice won the Cubadisco Award in his native country

Composition, production and singing

Regarding the areas of music in which he has specialized, San Miguel began by explaining that he made a good improvement in composition during the time he played with Los Jóvenes Clásicos del Son. He also learned to make arrangements based on traditional music, something in which the director of the group, Ernesto Reyes Palma, played a very important role.

Regarding production, the artist did not participate much in that area, but he eventually did in the United States. It is in this country that he officially started his career as a soloist, tresero and artist. Three years after arriving in Los Angeles, he produced a first album called ”Un Poquito de Amor” in collaboration with Cecilia Noël and Colin Hay in 2017, which was a great learning experience for him, as he was able to experiment and mix many seemingly disparate rhythms.

Other areas in which San Miguel would like to specialize are sound engineering and remastering, but he is working hard to do so.

Current projects

As for the current projects, he is currently promoting his single ”Besito Bon Bon”, which is the main song of his new album. In fact, San Miguel and his team are planning to give this same name to the whole album. On this occasion, he mixed electronic sounds with traditional Cuban music to give a much more modern rhythm to the traditional genres coming from the island. The album has nine songs, is produced by Jay Carona and contains some collaborations with Cecilia Noël.

”Alma Del Barrio” celebrates 50 years of operation

The United States has a great number of Latin music radio programs that always sought to promote the best of Latin talent through their frequencies and one of them is ”Alma Del Barrio” of the well-known radio station KXLU, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Against all odds, ”Alma Del Barrio” celebrates five decades on the air after all the effort of its hosts and the team involved in such a noble and necessary feat. We say ”against all odds” because it is not common that projects submitted by university students did not used to last long and ended up being replaced by programs of the same style.

In addition to the above, decades-long programs usually have a single host and comfortable time slots each week. However, ”Alma Del Barrio” was the exception to this rule and, today, continues to prove that limits can be overcome.

Founders of Alma Del Barrio — Founders of ”Alma Del Barrio” Steve Lopez, Enrique ”Kiki” Soto, Gustavo Aragon, Eddie Lopez, and Hector ”La Voz” Resendez

Beginnings of ”Alma Del Barrio”

After so long, ”Alma Del Barrio” has remained up to date and continues to keep people’s taste.

Its main founders were Enrique ”Kiki” Soto and the late Raúl Villa, who at the time were two young students with many ideas and eager to achieve interesting things. The program was aired for the first time in 1973. A few years later, Hector Resendez, a freshman in college, contacted Enrique and Raul in order to write an article about this new radio show, but it would not be long before he joined the main founders in the project they were developing.

Three years later, in 1976, student at Loyola Marymount University Eddie Lopez joined the program on the third anniversary of ”Alma Del Barrio”, show in which he would spend the next 46 years bringing the best Afro-Cuban music to the audience every Sunday between 2pm and 6pm.

On a number of occasions, Resendez said that ”Alma Del Barrio” was not created to be hosted by great famous personalities, but by dynamic young people who wanted to be part of a small team that was just starting operations.

At the beginning, the new hosts only had one hour of broadcast time to show what they were made of, but at the same time, they did their best to get more airtime and have more presenters in the program. They wanted to include a not very popular genre on the station at that time, which was salsa, something totally innovative for the station.

In those years, salsa was understood as that set of genres coming from Afro-Cuban music and the novice hosts thought it would be a fine attraction to the Latino communities of Los Angeles. That set of genres came from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. This is when record labels and music promoters renamed these rhythms as ”salsa” in order to make it easier for programs and hosts to identify the music.

Eddie Lopez in Alma Del Barrio — Eddie Lopez working on the radio station

‘’Alma Del Barrio”’ programming

The traditional programming of most of the stations consisted of jazz, rock and classical music, but then salsa was incorporated thanks to the increasing popularity that this genre was gaining.

One thing Resendez said is that one of the most famous rock groups was Santana, so the announcer and the rest of his cabinmates were surprised that the musicians of the band knew so much about Afro-Cuban music in terms of percussion. Let us remember that the popular song ”Oye Como Va” was written by ”El Rey De Los Timbales” Tito Puente a decade and a half before the band recorded it.

This union of rock and salsa was what gave the hosts the confidence to use trendy Anglo-Saxon genres as a means to promote Latin music.

On top of that, the guys were clear that jazz fans would be receptive to Latin jazz, since great jazz musicians like Dizzy Gallespie hired Cuban percussionists in their orchestras. If on other stations, this music was successful, ”Alma Del Barrio” was no exception. Fortunately, they were not wrong.

Current logo of ”Alma Del Barrio”

Last years of “Alma Del Barrio’’

During the last years of ”Alma Del Barrio”, the program team has made great efforts to join and create links with the community, whether it would be through sponsorships, advertisements, public services, donation campaigns, among other things.

Through all this community service they offered, they also made their own work known and many listeners began to enjoy this great team’s talent while listening to good music and varied programming.

The program has also been and is part of great annual and historical festivals such as the Salsa Fest. This day is always reserved for the audience to share with the new and old hosts of ”Alma Del Barrio” and many of the station staff, who always spread their enthusiasm to those present with their good energy.

”Alma Del Barrio” and its hosts have brought joy to their followers, but there have also been some sad moments. One of them was the death of DJ Eddie Lopez in January 2023, leaving a great void in the station and the hearts of those who faithfully followed his career through the KXLU circuits during the last decades.