Word: charanga
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...about papayas: go ahead, they sang, touch it; it's a national product. During the economic crisis following the Soviet collapse, music was the one thing that held the island together, a common passion for both revolutionaries and reactionaries. The government understood its power; that's why supergroup La Charanga Habanera was banned for months in the '90s after using a military helicopter to drop the group onstage for a stripteasing, innuendo-filled concert on national TV. It was, someone clearly decided, too decadent, too American...
Cuban artists are taking advantage of the crack in the embargo door. Over the next few weeks, Valdes plans stops in Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles and St. Paul, Minn. Earlier this year, La Charanga Habanera, a hard salsa act that is considered one of Havana's hottest bands, played its first-ever show in the U.S., at a festival outside Boston. Three years ago, pianist Ruben Gonzales, 79, considered himself retired and didn't even own a piano. This summer he has a solo album out (the smoothly accomplished Introducing...Ruben Gonzales on Nonesuch), and in October and November...
Salsa retains the two traditional types of Cuban ensembles: the conjunto, a descendant of street-festival bands, and the charanga, a miniature symphony orchestra with the bright lilt of flutes and strings...
...cause of the uproar was a seismic new dance called La Pachanga-Caribbean slang for "wild party." Historians are able to date the dance with some exactness. In December 1959, a young Cuban musician named Eduardo Davidson wrote a song called La Pachanga. Havana's charanga groups (drums, flute, piano and strings) picked it up, and by the time the noise drifted north a year later, it was a dance whose gyrations suggested a meringue blended with the samba, Charleston and Bunny Hop. Early this year Bandleader José Fajado brought La Pachanga to the Palladium and Dancing Instructor...
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