Cuban music...
was shaped by the fusion of African and Spanish cultural elements. Other influences appeared--the Afro-French migration to eastern Cuba from Haiti in the late 18th century; Italian song; instruments brought by Chinese immigrants; jazz traveling by sea route back and forth between New Orleans and Havana; and rock & roll, disco and reggae on the radio. But the Afro-Cuban musical identity remained recognizable, and that identity is now almost 500 years old.

There are many Afro-Cuban musical forms, but in this century the two most influential popular forms were probably rumba and son. Rumba, which originated on the western side of the island, probably in Matanzas, is street-corner music. It’s sung and danced with drums or cajones (boxes) and a pair of claves (wooden sticks), spoons or other rudimentary instruments (guaguancó is the type of rumba most often heard in big-band arrangements today). Son originated on the eastern side of the island, in Oriente and Guantánamo provinces, and exploded in popularity in Havana during the ’20s. The classic son group of that period was a sextet with guitar, tres (a small guitar with three widely spaced pairs of strings), maracas, bongó, claves and bass; or a septet, adding a trumpet. There are many variants and offshoots of the son — son montuno, changüí, bachata and mambo, to name a few. Much of today’s salsa--and much of this album--is essentially son, or son combined with rumba.

CELESTE MENDOZA was born in Santiago de Cuba, where her childhood was spent in the rough-and-ready Barrio de Los Hoyos. Celeste’s family moved to Havana when she was 18. There she won a radio talent contest, began dancing lessons and joined the Tropicana Dance Company. “Mi Rumba Echando Candela” is a guaguancó that shows Celeste in full voice. “Fiesta Brava” is a tune with bullfight-theme music. “Papá Ogún,” with rumberos Los Papines, is addressed to Ogún, the Yoruba god of iron and war.

MARÍA TERESA VERA was one of this century’s great figures in Cuban song. She performed in New York on several occasions, appearing at the Apollo Theater in 1918, and returned later as leader of the Sexteto Occidente. In Cuba, she formed a singing partnership with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo that lasted 27 years. She was prolific and wide-ranging, and her discography is voluminous. She retired, ill, in 1962 and died in 1965. This recording, “Eso No Es Na,” was made late in her life.

ORQUESTA ORIGINAL DE MANZANILLO formed in 1963, is one of Cuba’s most popular dance bands today. They’re a charanga (flute- and-violins) orchestra, but modernized, with electric bass and electric guitar. Their tune on this album is a re-recording of legendary singer Beny Moré’s salute to their home town, Manzanillo.

ORQUESTA RIVERSIDE, was featured regularly on Havana radio for years and was a regular headliner in the swinging nightspots of ’50s Havana (there’s still an Orquesta Riverside in Havana today; in Cuba people may die but bands live forever). “Yayabo,” featured here, is a conga, or Carnaval street dance.

CHAPOTTÍN Y SUS ESTRELLAS are the direct continuation of Arsenio Rodríguez’ legendary band. Trumpeter Felix Chapottín was working in Arsenio’s band when Arsenio left Cuba for New York, entrusting the band to Chapottín’s care. “La Guarapachanga” was Chapottín’s entry in the pachanga craze of the early ’60s. The song’s mention of “Mama Inés” is a reference to one of the most famous of all Cuban songs, whose chorus goes: “Ay, Mama Inés/Ay, Mama Inés/All us black people drink coffee.” The singer is the great Miguelito Cuní.

Unquestionably the most popular and influential Cuban dance band since the revolution has been LOS VAN VAN, led by Juan Formell and powered by the extraordinary percussionist José Luis Quintana, better known as Changuito. Van Van have continually reinvented their sound while keeping a consistent core membership through the years. Their founding in December 1969 marks a transition to a more modern style of Cuban music. The tune included here is a shortened version of one of their early hits.

CONJUNTO RUMBAVANA, very active in Cuba today, whose style owes much to Arsenio; their entry on this album, “No Me Llores,” is a re-recording of a well-known Arsenio tune.

Though Elio Revé is now in his sixties, his ORQUESTA REVÉ still plays to huge crowds of dancing teenagers in Cuba. Revé has been a modernizer of traditional Cuban styles, mixing rhythms of different lineages and experimenting with instrumental combinations while giving on-the-job training to several generations of Havana bandleaders --most notably Los Van Van’s Juan Formell, who began his career with a year-and-a-half stint in Revé’s CHANGUI ’68 group. Formell wrote and sang on this album’s entry, a true period piece aimed directly at what in the U.S. would be called the youth market.

CARIDAD HIERREZUELO comes from a famous musical family in Oriente province. Her brothers Reinaldo (Rey Caney) and Lorenzo (who was María Teresa Vera’s singing partner) had a very popular duo called Los Compadres. A great interpreter of guaracha and son montuno, Caridad began her career in Santiago.

LOS ZAFIROS (The Sapphires), founded in 1962, combined a Platters-like vocal harmony with material in Cuban style to become the most successful of several Cuban pop vocal quartets in the ’60s.

PANCHO EL BRAVO was featured as a flutist with the charanga Orquesta Neno Gonzalez. He became popular while with that group, in part on the strength of a danzón they recorded called “Pancho El Bravo” which became his theme song. He started his own group in 1959 and (of course) there is still a Pancho El Bravo orchestra in Havana today.

Inocente Iznaga, professionally known as EL JILGUERO DE CIENFUEGOS (The Songbird From Cienfuegos) is a star of Cuban guajiro (country) music. Like Celeste Mendoza and other stars of his generation, he began his career by winning a radio talent-show competition. He is well-known in Cuba for his appearances on the weekly television show Palmas y Cañas (Palm and Cane).

CARIDAD CUERVO was promoted as a successor to Celia Cruz after that singer’s success with the band Sonora Matancera. Her contribution to this album is the compilation’s only cha-cha, the sultry “Eres la Candela” (“You’re Hot” — literally, “You’re the Flame”).

Notes by Gabriel Aguancha Jiménez with Ned Sublette. March, 1991.