Club Musical Oriente Cubano - Club Musical Oriente Cubano - Cana Tabaco Y Ron (CD)

As engaging as Buena Vista Social Club.

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Nov 19, 2004 | 1 out of 1 found this Club Musical Oriente Cubano - Cana Tabaco Y Ron review helpful

Pros: All

Cons: None

Even if the repertoire and the name suggest this act is trying to be a latter-day Buena Vista Social Club, it comes across as heartfelt and engaging. On this new gem of release, recorded at the Egrem Siboney Studios in Santiago de Cuba, each track is an intoxicating trip into a simpler, enriching existence. Though there's a big cast assembled for this set, the pieces all have the intimacy and lightness of a quintet or sextet. Guzmán Plaza on cuatro makes this happen by keeping up a bright and inventive picking style behind each of the singers while the maracas add a romping certitude. Some of the songs are familiar: "Tres lindas Cubanas", "A orillas del Cauto", "Mata Siguaraya", "Ay Miguel", etc., but the arrangements are fresh and the playing sharp. The track selection also includes several "forgotten gems", like “No puedo amarte ya” (reply to the ultra famous “Veinte años”, plumed by Maria Teresa Vera), “Mayari” (a sensuous afro-cuban lament, previously recorded only in French by Josephine Baker with Lecuona Cuban Boys in 1938), “En mi viejo Santiago” (a song that is considered the musical "testament" of the great author Ñico Saquito) and one new song, Cheo Losada’s “A Matamoros, son del Tivoli”, a fresh Matamoros-style traditional "son". On the bolero "Fiebre de ti", a tribute to Beny More, with a singer in the Pio Leyva mold, there's an Erik Satie quote - the wonderfully atonal "Gnossienne # 3", - on trumpet, as the hook! This is followed by a classic raucous conga with "Chinese" horns to wake you up. There's even the rock and roll send-up, "A mi me gusta el Cha Cha Cha" by Ñico Saquito - here related in a sweet version with great muted trumpet. All the hallmarks of Cuban music are played to perfection on this excellent recording. Essential!

A TRIP INTO A SIMPLER, ENRICHING EXISTENCE

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 23, 2003 | 1 out of 1 found this Club Musical Oriente Cubano - Cana Tabaco Y Ron review helpful

On this new gem of release, recorded at the Egrem Siboney studios in Santiago de Cuba, all the hallmarks of cuban music are played to perfection, and each track is an intoxicating trip into a simpler, enriching existence. Even if the repertoire and the name suggest this act is trying to be a latter-day Buena Vista Social Club, it comes across as heartfelt and engaging. While many Cuban old schoolers, keep re-recording the same songs, it must be noted when a project like this comes along. Re-doing very old classic songs this group strips it down to its bare bones. Even though there are about 30 musicians involved, the recording sounds so intimate, you'll swear it is a five-piece band.
The overdone "Tres lindas Cubanas" gets a double vocal treatment by Cheo Losada and Felix Reyes alternating from verse to verse. But the standout is the cuatro playing of Guzmán Plaza. With more notes it gives the song a very different approach. Exquisite!
"Cómo está mi conuco" gets a more straight-forward son treatment. Juan Manuel "El Villy" handles the vocals, and what a voice! A pitch or so higher than Pío Leiva, he gives this song an extra hump. The trumpet by Rolando Rodríguez sizzles, while Mario Rosabal's piano plays in the background like a simmering fire.
Sonero Victor Lusson tackles "Mata Siguaraya" and sings it in a more Afro style than previous efforts by Beny Moré, Celia Cruz and Oscar D' León, to name a few. The instrumentation is so stripped down you think the maracas are carrying the song. Hmm.Two of the tracks pay homage to Miguel Matamoros: "Ay Miguel" (made famous by Guillermo Portabales), which quotes three of his tunes in the instrumental break, and Cheo Losada's "A Matamoros, son del Tivoli", which also riffs on "Son de la loma". Then come two tracks plumed by the great sonera Maria Teresa Vera. There's piano on one track, the bolero "Fiebre de Ti", a tribute to Benny More, with a singer in the Pio Leyva mold, and an Erik Satie quote - the wonderfully atonal Third "Gnossienne" on trumpet, as the hook! This is followed by a classic raucous conga with "Chinese" horns to wake you up. There's even the rock and roll send-up, "A mi me gusta el Cha Cha Cha" by Nico Saquito - here related in a sweet version with great muted trumpet.
Perhaps the most interesting cut here is the 11-minute version of Ñico Saquito's "En mi Viejo Santiago." The song starts with Paolo Franco singing the song with such 'Filin' ala Trovador style you would think he was Cuban (as he states he's a Cuban at heart). And at around the 6-minute mark, the song transforms into this instrumental son with the tres, maracas and bongós just going along for the ride.
And then, around the 8-minute mark the song goes through another restructure as it becomes a bit more up tempo, with the trumpets and piano solos taking it to it's final destination. That's some smooth stuff!
I have no idea how so many people involved could make this project sound so bare, but whatever the case may be, we are the ones being enriched. Beautiful release!