Word: cuba
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Past midnight now, and Jesus arrives. Jesus ("Chucho") Valdes is the greatest jazz pianist in Cuba, perhaps one of the greatest pianists in the world. He's a tall man, 5 in. north of 6 ft., and wide-bodied. He is casually dressed tonight, clad in an untucked purple shirt, jeans and Fila sneakers. He has played in the U.S. before, but this month he is embarking on his first sizable Stateside tour, one of the most extensive by any Cuban performer since the embargo began in 1962. Valdes has a new solo CD to promote, Bele Bele...
...flood of music. His left hand pounds out sharp, staccato chords, and his right hand flies, hummingbird fast, up and down the keyboard. There is history here: the imaginative, intricate runs of Art Tatum, the restless romanticism of Bill Evans, and of course, the hot, insistent rhythms of Cuba. Valdes' set is frustratingly brief--he is exhausted from his travels--and he plays only one more tune. Afterward he is asked the name of his first number. He smiles and says, "Improvisacion...
...Cuba is an island no more, musically speaking. Its music was once a force in this country, but in the '60s, the embargo hit, and Cuban musicians were barred, for the most part, from playing in the U.S. The music, in America, slipped from a place of prominence. But in 1988 Congress passed an amendment to the embargo that allowed Cuban musicians to perform Stateside if they came as part of a cultural exchange, a requirement typically fulfilled by the artist's giving an educational workshop in addition to his or her regular...
...ways as well. Buena Vista Social Club (Nonesuch), an album that features American guitarist Ry Cooder jamming with Cuban musicians, won a Grammy this year and sold 250,000 copies in the U.S.; on July 1, Cooder's outfit will play Carnegie Hall. Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who defected from Cuba in 1990, has a new album out titled Hot House (N2K). Cuba is also going Hollywood. In August, Columbia Pictures will release Dance with Me, a salsa-spiced love story about a Cuban immigrant (played by Puerto Rican singer Chayanne) who falls for an American dancer (Vanessa Williams); the lively...
...Sanchez album, Obsesion, is more of an ensemble piece. As a player, he seems most excited by rhythmic ideas; the tunes are Latin standards from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Brazil, and Sanchez delights in reversing field on them, turning a gentle Antonio Carlos Jobim song, for instance, into a rowdy Caribbean parade. The album really soars when the accompanying 10-piece orchestra forgoes modest backing and muscles its way into the dance along with the congas. It's the kind of witty arranging that could give strings a good name...