The Bottom Line
- Superior musicianship fuses Cuban rhythms with light jazz
- None, unless you're expecting a 'Buena Vista Social Club' clone
Description
- 11 tracks of Cuban mambo/son/descarga
- Recorded in Havana's famed Abdala studios
- Released by AIM Records May, 2007
Guide Review - CD Review: Cubanismo - Greetings From Havana
Cubanismo might have played their first performance as a band at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1997, but in 2004 they were basically shown the door due to evolving U.S. policy towards Cuban musicians. It took a gig at Australia's Byron Bay East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival to get the backing needed to produce a new studio album, their first since 2004. So Greetings From Havana comes to us as an Australian import although the band's leader, Jesus Alemany, bills the album as a musical postcard from Havana to us here in the States.
And what a colorful postcard it is. Greetings From Havana's 11 tracks are a mix of son, mambo, bolero and descarga performed with stellar musicianship. Under trumpeter Alemany's leadership, the brass section is ultra-tight, the percussion unflagging and exuberant, the piano solos fluid and spot-on.
But this album is not exactly a Buena Vista Social Club clone, notwithstanding the track genres. Cuban musicians seem to have a love affair with jazz and Cubanismo is no exception. So, while I wouldn't label Greetings From Havana a jazz album, many of the tracks get a light and delightful jazz treatment.
The familiar son "Idilio" is transformed by a spare, off-beat arrangement while the mambo "Descarga Caliente" heats-up with some excellent brass solos and piano riffs. In fact, the only track that is old-school traditional is "Presteme Su Mujer".
Greetings From Havana is not really an album to dance to (although you certainly could), but delivers the experience of listening to a really good jam session.
