Percy Faith - Malaguena: Music Of Cuba '1958/2021

Tracks list

       As any visitor knows, there is more to Cuba than rum and sugar, more than
gambling and good times, more than historic shrines and beautiful scenery. There
is music, fascinating and unusual music, and it is constantly in the air. For
this dazzling musical journey to Cuba, Percy Faith has selected a program of
characteristic Cuban melodies, some familiar, some relatively unknown, and
arranged them in that vivacious fashion for which he has become famous.

Not unnaturally, a large portion of the program has been chosen from the works
of Ernesto Lecuona, Cuba’s most brilliant composer. The Malagueña of
the title is followed by such lastingly enjoyable numbers as Danza negra,
Andalucía (known in an adaptation as “The Breeze and I”),
Damisela encantadora, the flashing Siboney, La cumparsa and Para Vigo me voy,
also known as “Say Sí Sí.” In addition, another Lecuona is
represented, Marguerita Lecuona, who wrote the provocative Tabu. Other familiar
names will be those of Gonzalo Roig (Quiéreme mucho, or “Yours”),
and Moises Simons, present with Marta and that most famous of all Cuban songs,
El manisero or “The Peanut Vendor.”

El manisero was almost the first of the Latin-American melodies to become a
success in the United States, and did much to help popularize the then-new
rhumba. It has since been followed by scores of lovely and lively tunes, and by
other dances as well, many of them originating in Cuba. In fact, when Percy
Faith designed this collection of Cuban music, he made sure that each of the
five major ballroom dances of Cuban origin were included—the rhumba, the
conga, the guaracha, the samba and, of course, the most recent, the cha-cha.

The excitement and color contained in this collection is fulfillment of the
primise of the title and artist. For Cuban music is enormously invigorating, and
Percy Faith has long been famous for his arranging and conducting of Cuban and
Latin American melodies. Among the most popular and rewarding collections of
recent years have been his “Viva!” (CL 1075), a fiery exposition of
the music of Mexico, and “Delicado” (CL 681), which takes its title
from a Faith composition that sold well over a million records. His sympathies
are not confined to those regions, of course, as demonstrated by his
“Continental Music,” and the splendid omnibus collections of the
music of George Gershwin and Victor Herbert, to say nothing of his instrumental
albums of Broadway musicals. But Canadian-born Mr. Faith seems to find a special
delight in the frisky rhythms and sultry airs, in arranging them for unusual
combinations of instruments, and introducing novel—to mainland
ears—effects. In Malagueña he has accomplished this agreeable feat
with even more than his customary richness, and the profile of Cuba he presents
is entirely winning, a colorful and enchanting likeness of a colorful and
enchanting island.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Percy Faith - Malaguena (Remastered) (3:50)
1.02 - Percy Faith - Quiereme Mucho (Yours) (Remastered) (3:21)
1.03 - Percy Faith - El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) (Remastered) (2:30)
1.04 - Percy Faith - Danza Negra (Remastered) (2:40)
1.05 - Percy Faith - Andalucia (The Breeze And I) (Remastered) (2:50)
1.06 - Percy Faith - El Bodeguero (Remastered) (3:22)
1.07 - Percy Faith - Damisela Encantadora (Remastered) (2:34)
1.08 - Percy Faith - Siboney (Remastered) (4:24)
1.09 - Percy Faith - La Cumparsa (Remastered) (2:22)
1.10 - Percy Faith - Tumbando Cana (Remastered) (1:51)
1.11 - Percy Faith - Marta (Remastered) (3:54)
1.12 - Percy Faith - Mama Inez (Remastered) (2:09)
1.13 - Percy Faith - Para Vigo Me Voy (Say, Si Si) (Remastered) (3:19)
1.14 - Percy Faith - Tabu (Remastered) (3:01) 

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