Review: Tiempo Libre - 'Bach in Havana'
Wednesday June 24, 2009
I don't know what Johann Sebastian Bach would have thought of Havana, but the merging of Cuban timba with the classical pieces of Bach does not seem like a marriage made in musical heaven. It is also surprising that the album Bach in Havana was released on Sony's Classical label. They don't exactly spend much time on Cuban music.
But after listening to the album by Miami's Tiempo Libre, it became pretty clear. After all, Tiempo Libre is comprised of musicians that were classically trained. They may have gotten their start opening for Celia Cruz, performing and touring with the likes of Albita, Cachao, Arturo Sandoval and Isaac Delgado, but they also worked with flutist Sir James Galway and collaborated on Rumba Sinfonica for symphony orchestra and Cuban band.
One thing is clear: Tiempo Libre love and understand both Bach and Cuban music. I think that were Bach a contemporary, he'd love Bach in Havana.
* Album cover courtesy SONY Classical
Comments
“It’s difficult to say who “invented” some of the popular Cuban ….. Does salsa come from Cuba or New York?”
The Cuban Music is not an “invention” it’s an evolution of talentous ideas and “Salsa” is a mere marketing name branded by Latino musicians who couldn’t know the “Guaracha” roots, which came from “El Son” rythms. Where the Latino musicians only made a copycat of the “Sonora Matancera” sound, and that “new” sound had to be marketed, alike any Cuban would say… “esto tiene salsa” it means “this has flavor”, whereas not necessarily to be that specific rythm, but also can be refered to guaguanco, rumba, bolero, chá chá chá, tumbao, and many more…from there everybody to this day in order to get their own piece of fame calls it SALSA. It’s ok no harm done, but the harm is on the created confusion to take away the credit to whom the credit belongs to.
The other day someone told me that the Mexicans invented the “Bolero”… geez, c’mon!