Ibrahim Ferrer - lead vocals
Pio Leyva- lead vocals
Manuel 'Puntillita' Licea - Lead vocals
Raúl Planas - lead vocals
José Antonio 'Maceo' Rodríguez - lead vocals
Félix Valoy - lead vocals
Juan de Marcos González - tres and leader
Rubén González - piano
Orlando 'Cachaíto' López - bass
Luis Alemany - trumpet
Manuel 'Guajiro' Miraba - trumpet
Daniel Ramos - trumpet
Carlos 'El Afrokán' Alvarez - trombone
Demetrio Muñiz - trombone
Javier Zalba - barritone sax and flute
Miguel 'Angá' Díaz - congas
Julienne Oviedo - timbales
Carlos González - bongos
Alberto Virgilio Valdés - maracas
Carlos Puisseaux - güiro
Alberto Virgilio Valdés - chorus vocals
Juan de Marcos González - chorus vocals
Luis Barzaga - chorus vocals
Ry Cooder - slide guitar on 'Alto Songo'
Richard Egües - flute on 'Habana del Este'
Barbarito Torres - laoud on 'Amor Verdadero'
Juan de Marcos González is one of the most important figures in Cuban music today. He has a mission to show the world the wealth, diversity and vitality of Cuban music. His work with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, the Buena Vista Social Club, Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer, Sierra Maestra and others has made an extraordinary contribution to raising the profile of Cuban music throughout the world. However, neither his name nor his crucial contribution is well known to the general public and he remains something of an unsung hero of Cuban music.
González was born in Havana in 1954 and grew up surrounded by music (his father was a singer and played with Arsenio Rodríguez amongst others). At university he studied hydraulic engineering and Russian before working as a consultant at the Agronomic Science Institute, gaining his doctorate in 1989. While at university he co-founded the group Sierra Maestra in 1978. Styled as a traditional Cuban septeto group (tres, trumpet, bass, percussion and vocals), the dynamic young bands aim was to bring about an appreciation of Cuban son by the youth of the island. The band achieved great success, recording fourteen albums in Cuba, touring Africa and Europe and receiving various awards.
In 1994, González began his association with the London based record label World Circuit, when the band recorded the album ¡Dundunbanza! (WCD041). For this recording, World Circuits Nick Gold encouraged the group to expand their line-up to include piano, congas and a trumpet section in a tribute to the forties and fifties styles of Arsenio Rodríguez. Having found success and a common ground González and Gold looked to develop this understanding further with a big band recording in Havana, featuring the neglected stars of this golden age of Cuban music.
González had long harboured a dream to put together a band combining the old masters and the new generation of Cuban musicians. I wanted to mix the generations so there is the experience of the older guys and the energy of the younger players, says González. He went in search of his heroes and found many of them retired from music, forgotten figures delighted that someone was showing faith in them. He recruited the singers Manuel Puntillita Licea, Pío Leyva and Raúl Planas, all in their seventies. Despite the doubts of others in his ability to still reach the heights, he approached the legendary pianist Rubén González. Rubén did not own a piano, so González found him a place to practice and encouraged him to rehearse with his chosen bass player, Orlando Cachaíto López. González continued to assemble his dream band and the AFRO-CUBAN ALL STARS were born.
González and Gold planned to record two albums in Havanas EGREM studios in 1997: the debut from the All Stars and a collaboration between West African and Eastern Cuban musicians for which Gold had invited Ry Cooder as producer. Due to passport complications the African musicians were unable to travel to the recording. However, the two week recording trip yielded an extraordinary trio of albums: The debut albums from the AFRO-CUBAN ALL STARS A Toda Cuba le Gusta and RUBEN GONZALEZ Introducing and the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB.
The All Stars album was the first to be recorded and Gonzálezs band provided both the springboard and many of the musicians for the Buena Vista album that followed. The All Stars rhythm section was retained along with the bands trumpet soloist Guajiro Mirabal, pianist Rubén González and various singers. The great Santiago guitarist and singer Eliades Ochoa and the laoud player Barbarito Torres had already been recruited at Golds suggestion. The day after the All Stars album was completed Ry Cooder arrived in Havana to be greeted by this ensemble for the start of what was to become the Buena Vista Social Club. Other musicians were added during the sessions including the singer Ibrahim Ferrer (who was at the time also retired) whom González contacted and brought to the studio within hours of Cooders request for a singer with a soft voice. González acted as consultant, co-ordinator and conductor during the sessions and when Gold suggested making an album with Rubén González in the two days remaining González was recruited as musical director for that project as well. In 2000 he also collaborated on the debut album by Ibrahim Ferrer.
Following the albums release González led the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Rubén González on their debut European and U.S. tours and directed the only ever two Buena Vista Social Club concerts in Amsterdam and New Yorks Carnegie Hall.
Despite the new found worldwide success of Cuban music it is the appreciation of the music within Cuba itself that González finds most satisfying. When you live in an isolated country you always think things are better elsewhere. Because of that the influence of American music has been very strong. People were trying to play American music before they learnt Cuban music. We have to use what is good from around the world, but first we have to be conscious of the importance of our own music. A few years ago young Cuban musicians didnt care about real Cuban music. Now there are hundreds of bands playing traditional music. Of course music will change, there will be new dances and styles. But we are going to keep the roots. I am very confident about that.
The impact of these albums internationally would also affect the music industry in Cuba; not only did it resurrect the career of several forgotten legends, but left the record buying public worldwide with an appetite for Cuban music, and a receptiveness to new recordings that previously didnt exist. As for the Afro-Cuban All Stars, they evolved from being a musical dream, to a one-off recording, to the formation of a full-time touring and recording group.
Having been instrumental in the formation of the project, González moved centre stage with his new edition Afro-Cuban All Stars and their ambitious new, forward-looking album Distinto, diferente. We have to use all the heritage of Cuban music to create a sound of the future, says González. Its important to have that continuity and to fight for the identity of Cuban music. Whilst retaining the stars of the debut album, the follow up record brought in some additional legendary figures of Cuban music including Omara Portuondo, Lina Borges, Polo Tamayo, Jesús Aguaje Ramos, and Amadito Valdés. Some prominent names from current generation of Cuban music such as Orlando Maracas Valle, David Alfaro, and Yaure Muñiz, showcased their talents on this album. The result is again multi-generational but with a sound much closer to the vanguard of Cuban dance music, with lyrics in some cases that have even greater social relevance now.
González is not a man to stand still and although he will continue his association with World Circuit, González formed his own production company/ record label, DM Ahora to deal with the wealth of talent in Cuba. I addition to his continued involvement with the development of Cuban music, Juan de Marcos has also maintained the Afro-Cuban All Stars as an active touring band, performing to ecstatic audiences around the globe. 2004 saw the release of a live CD/DVD from the group, and the accompanying tour included a series of concerts with World Circuits Senegalese superstars Orchestra Baobab. The long awaited third studio album from the group Step Forward was released in 2005 on DM Ahora.
What direction the Afro-Cuban All Stars go in next remains to be seen, but with Gonzaléz at the helm, one can be sure they are in safe hands.
Adviruz is the artist psedonym of Istanbul’s Pinar Gurcan, whose growing passion for sound is translated through her music. Since an early age, she has been listening and mimicking opera singers, writing melodies, songs and poems in which she spoke her mind and reflected her soul. All of which are evident on "Nightly Sounds", an 8 track album which is the equivilent of having a glimpse into a diary, learning of love lost, gained, a snapshot of the human condition from which we can all draw experience... All of these things are developed musically into minimalistic glitch, noise, idm, experimental music and microsounds, its influences reminiscent of work by artists like Tujiko Noriko, Mira Calix, Plaid and Björk.
Adviruz and Section 27 present "Nightly Sounds", an intricately woven and rewarding musical tapestry. Available now for free download.
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To celebrate our first 27 releases on Section 27 Netlabel, we proudly present to you "Sectioned", a compilation of 27 tracks, amounting to 2 hours across two discs of twisted electronic beats, discordant melodies, haunting passages, broken ambience, bending senses of time and space, microscopic glitches, pounding bass frequencies, sounds between sounds, the human voice and the audible sensation of music dissolving in acid. This is the sound of your mind's eye. This is the sound of the Sectioned... Strap yourself in and enjoy the experience.
Also features a 75 minute bonus disc "Sectioned : Nonimxs", including 9 remixes of selected Section 27 artists by Nonima and 2 original tracks created by Silent Snow and Nina Kardec using existing Nonima tracks.
Listen to Melem and go off on a sunny jaunt... With her Bossa Nova and Anglo-Saxon sounds, spiced with Reggae and Funky rhythms, Melem takes you on a journey through Latin America, Europe and North Africa. Effective and firmly optimistic arrangements create an album on which each title is unique . Add Spanish, French and E...nglish words then you get an amazing fusion to which no one can remain indifferent... 1st album CAMINANDO will soon be on sale!Lire la suite
EEE!!!!como va eso???todo bien??esperamos que andes de lo mejor!...pasamos a saludar y a decirte que subimos nuevos temas al space y queriamos pedirte que te pases a escucharlos y nos digas tu opinion y dejes tu comentario!!bueno che muchas gracias y estamos en contacto para lo que sea mucha suertee..!!
Almost Tomorrow is the third full length collaboration album from Section 27 Netlabel founders Tam Ferrans and Andrew Paterson, under their Nonima & theAudiologist guise. This time around the sound is more melodic, and has a definite feeling of a complete and more mature sound than heard on the previous LP's "Dystopian Battle Hymns" and "Ceremony After Amputation". If you are familiar with their individual projects you may even be in for a slight surprise, as the tracks are not as beat driven like before, but are more atmospheric and sound, well... "bigger". In its 75 minutes, Almost Tomorrow takes you on a trip from the digital rain-soaked cavernous scraping in "Thoughtograph", the ethereal beat jittering of "The Colour of Rain", intercepted transmissions from unknown places in "Com-Intercept", "Ganzfeld"s huge yet strangely insect-like beats until everything you knew comes crashing around you in "Almost Tomorrow". Burning pianos, glitched out soundscapes and intricately programmed beatplay, this may well be their best work to date. Consider it the soundtrack to a rainy overcast day, but with just that glimmer of sunshine peeking from the clouds. "Almost Tomorrow" wears its heart on its sleeve.
Un caluso saludo desde la "Isla del Encanto" deseandoles mucho exito en su gira por Canada. Espero que en su proxima gira por Estados Unidos incluyan a Puerto Rico, otorgandole a esta tierra la dicha de conocer su musica al igual que el resto del mundo. Un beso muy especial a Gilito!!! Este galanazo le anade un toque magico a su orquesta. Ashe!
