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Various Artists - Cuadernos de la Habana '1999

Cuadernos de la Habana
ArtistVarious Artists Related artists
Album name Cuadernos de la Habana
Country
Date 1999
GenreLatin,Cubano
Play time 04:37:16
Format / Bitrate Stereo 1420 Kbps / 44.1 kHz
MP3 320 Kbps
Media CD
Size 1.57 GB
PriceDownload $8.95
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Tracks list

       This five-CD project is something else (typical of the Winter & Winter
label). The reclusive Italian poet and painter Mario Luis Malfatti has assembled
a very personal soundtrack for an aural film, a soundtrack for the mind. These
five-plus hours of music and fetishistic package recorded by Malfatti on a DAT
recorder are very much field recordings adorned lovingly with his drawings and
paintings in the accompanying booklets. Musicians of all types were caught live,
without advance notice, in cafes, on street corners, in ballrooms, and in clubs,
performing for audiences of everyday people. All Cubans, it seems, at least in
Malfatti's view, take part in music as a part of everyday life. "Music here is
therapy," he writes, "the most handy way to forget, to feel alive." And what is
there to forget? Plenty. The pervasive poverty is one thing according to
Malfatti: "These streets ooze poverty, but it would be difficult to bear poverty
with more dignity," he writes in the liner notes. This collection is set up as a
tour, an experience encountered aurally, but it's also designed to affect the
other senses.

The listener first encounters the wistful piano stylings of Frank Emilio Flynn
at the Miramar. His "Midnight Theme" is just that. Gentle, long melodic lines
spun out to the sounds of people drinking and talking in the background.
Seemingly out of time and space, it's gorgeous in its evocation of romantic yet
melancholy memory. Next, at the Central Railway Station, one can hear traces,
ever so faintly, of the Buena Vista Social Club and children's voices before
checking in at the Valencia Hotel and encountering Cuarteto Tradición for 20
minutes of exquisite son with three-part harmonies, violin, maracas, guitar, and
bass. And, yes, then we're on to the Velado where Olga González Cordo sings a
short song of longing and sadness a cappella. And before departing disc one, we
are treated to 20 mind-blowing minutes of the Dúo Cachibache whose guitars,
percussion, and vocal duets are stunning in their complexity and interplay. Here
is Cuban music as it touches and is in turn kissed by Brazilian song forms and
scat singing. Before we depart entirely, though, a mechanical player piano sends
us to our good night with "Aquelle Boca." Cars whiz by in the night, and it's
time to stumble back to the hotel to recover from this overwhelming night of
wine and song.

Disc two begins lazily with the sounds of Quarteto Carenas rehearsing at
someone's house. A knock on the door, and we are admitted to this Caribbean
quartet whose rhythms are as infectious as their four-part harmonies and knotty
song lines. After 20 minutes, it's time to catch a ride to central Havana for a
set by Clave y Guaguancó. Like their more famous counterparts, Los
Muñequitos de Matanzas, this is a percussion and vocal group; the sound of
the ancient Cuba as it moved west from Africa. The songs tell stories and
legends, the dancers whirl and egg on the musicians, who do their best to
respond and pick up the tempo. Call and response chants bring even the most
cynical or shy observer into the party. This is communication from the
netherworld transformed into music. It's a deadly, heady mix as El Transformador
churns on for almost 12 minutes: the rhythms shift, change, and turn in on
themselves before hypnotically calling the singers out to join them. Thankfully,
there's Frank Emilio Flynn again at the end of disc two with a minuet that's
equal parts Haydn and Stephen Foster played to a trademark Jay McShann Kansas
City stomp tempo.

As disc three opens with a children's choir and ends with another son duo, one
begins to get restless and tired. Not that there's anything wrong with the
music, but something's missing. That "something" is answered in spades on discs
four and five. Opening disc four, Andres Allen's piano playing offers all the
intimacy musical history has to offer — from a Cuban perspective, of
course — and Orquesta Sublime rips through a short set of Cuban jazz.
Next, on disc five, a player piano greets us before we are ushered into the
languid sounds of Trio Tesis and the Duo Sincopa. Exhausted, after having
traveled all over the island, it's time to attend a carnival and dance to the
thunderous Afro-Cuban big band Tambores de Bejucal. For 15 minutes the earth
shakes, laughter is only sound heard besides the music coming from the
bandstand, and the floor may cave in, but who cares? It's the final evening, a
time to celebrate for tomorrow as we say goodbye. As if in anticipation, our old
friend Frank Emilio Flynn is waiting for us, with a short serenade before dreams
overtake us. As a way of easing the transition he whispers Gershwin's "Somebody
Loves Me" across his keyboard. His final notes echo long into the night, and our
journey enters into the sacred halls of memory, just as it had for Malfatti's
parents whose Cuba he sought to find with this truly moving and beautiful
project. Whether he succeeded or not is not for us to know; but in the process
he has done as much, if not more than the producers of the Buena Vista Social
Club, to open up the magical, tragic, and dignified world of Cuba's culture to
the rest of the world. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklist:
1-1. Frank Emilio Flynn - Midnight Theme (03:00)
1-2. Winter & Winter - Chan Chan (From Far Away) (01:35)
1-3. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - Siboney (03:39)
1-4. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - El Bodeguero (03:52)
1-5. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - Nosotros (03:08)
1-6. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - Baile del Suavito (03:00)
1-7. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - Dos Gardenias (03:00)
1-8. Cuarteto Tradición Cubana - La Bella Cubana (06:10)
1-9. Winter & Winter, Olga González Cordo - Te Quiero (From Far Away) (01:43)
1-10. Dúo Cachibache - Chachacha Cachibache (06:01)
1-11. Dúo Cachibache - Son de la Loma (04:21)
1-12. Dúo Cachibache - De Reojo (04:27)
1-13. Dúo Cachibache - Una Flor Años Después (05:41)
1-14. Eusebio Delfín - Aquella Boca (03:22)
2-15. Cuarteto Carenas - Moliendo Café (03:40)
2-16. Cuarteto Carenas - Romance Guajiro (03:51)
2-17. Cuarteto Carenas - Caimán No Come Caimán (02:24)
2-18. Cuarteto Carenas - Ojos Malignos (02:20)
2-19. Cuarteto Carenas - Ay Sabroso (Me Dirás Qué Sabroso) (03:54)
2-20. Cuarteto Carenas - Mi Veneración (04:54)
2-21. Clave y Guaguancó - Abó Loritza (05:50)
2-22. Clave y Guaguancó - Tambores Batá (05:54)
2-23. Clave y Guaguancó - Maileo (06:36)
2-24. Clave y Guaguancó - El Transformador (11:43)
2-25. Frank Emilio Flynn - El Bombín de Barreto (03:31)
3-26. Maria Dolores Novás, La Cantoría Coralillo - Arcoiris (01:52)
3-27. Maria Dolores Novás, La Cantoría Coralillo - Muñeco (01:26)
3-28. Maria Dolores Novás, La Cantoría Coralillo - De Colores Se Visten
los Campos (01:23)
3-29. Cuarteto Fénix - Cheche Colé (03:40)
3-30. Cuarteto Fénix - Chan Chan (03:34)
3-31. Cuarteto Fénix - La Gloria Eres Tú (03:32)
3-32. Cuarteto Fénix - La Bomba (03:25)
3-33. Cuarteto Fénix - Qué Manera de Quererte (04:34)
3-34. Cuarteto Fénix - Yolanda (04:38)
3-35. Cuarteto Fénix - Beso discreto (03:53)
3-36. Cuarteto Fénix - Son de la Loma (04:24)
3-37. Dúo Enigma - Corazón en Cristal (02:40)
3-38. Dúo Enigma - A Mi Manera (02:35)
3-39. Dúo Enigma - Tercera Canción (02:27)
3-40. Dúo Enigma - Juramento (02:55)
3-41. Dúo Enigma - Tu Beso (02:16)
3-42. Dúo Enigma - Ella y Yo (01:21)
3-43. Dúo Enigma - Flor de Amor (02:15)
4-44. Andrés Alén - Contradanzas (10:08)
4-45. Manuel Suárez Silva, Roxana Brínguez - Me Estoy Enamorando (03:56)
4-46. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Te Quemas (02:47)
4-47. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Algo Te Queda (02:20)
4-48. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - El Amor Es una Flor (03:33)
4-49. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Sabor a Mí (04:20)
4-50. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Sin Poderla Olvidar (02:18)
4-51. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Tengo Mi Razón para
Quererte (04:24)
4-52. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Noche de Ronda (02:31)
4-53. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Solamente una Vez (02:50)
4-54. Roxana Brínguez, Manuel Suárez Silva - Piensa en Mí (03:43)
4-55. Orquesta Sublime - La Engañadora (04:10)
4-56. Orquesta Sublime - Eres la Chica Ideal (03:25)
4-57. Winter & Winter - Echoes in the Streets (00:43)
5-58. Ernesto Lecuona - Marcha Fox (03:27)
5-59. Trío Tesis - Si Me Pudieras Querer (04:12)
5-60. Trío Tesis - La Gloria Eres Tú (02:56)
5-61. Trío Tesis - Bilongo / La Negra Tomasa (03:12)
5-62. Trío Tesis - Dulce Embeleso (02:09)
5-63. Trío Tesis - Pedacito de Cielo (02:50)
5-64. Trío Tesis - Noche Cubana (03:29)
5-65. Trío Tesis - Reclamo Místico (03:04)
5-66. Winter & Winter - Loud & Vociferous (00:27)
5-67. Dúo Síncopa - En Guantánamo (03:33)
5-68. Dúo Síncopa - El Camisón de Pena (04:29)
5-69. Dúo Síncopa - Ahora Me da Pena (04:48)
5-70. Dúo Síncopa - Estoy Hecho Tierra (02:37)
5-71. Dúo Síncopa - Chan Chan (06:12)
5-72. Tambores De Bejucal - Ciclo de la Rumba (02:31)
5-73. Tambores De Bejucal - Yoruba (03:45)
5-74. Tambores De Bejucal - Carnaval (09:24)
5-75. Frank Emilio Flynn - Somebody Loves Me (02:37)

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