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Son Cubano and Maestro Compay Segundo

Tue, 29/09/2009 - 02:28 — Pilar

This is music for the soul, the beautiful sounds of Cuba like no other in the world. A trip back in time that makes you feel alive and from maestro Compay Segundo and many others. Have a listen, hear the beautiful sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqvHMI8hsec

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2L3Q8W3rB8U/SShwOuDVKLI/AAAAAAAAA9M/hiPO0tBG7ms/s400/compay_segundo.jpg

Que linda Cuba!

 

Compay Segundo, so called because he was always second voice in his musical partnerships, moved to Santiago de Cuba at age 9. His first engagement was in the Municipal Band of Santiago de Cuba, directed by his teacher, Enrique Bueno. After a spell in a quintet he moved to Havana in 1934, where he also played in the Municipal Band, on the clarinet. He also learnt to play the guitar and the tres: these became his usual instruments. Compay Segundo was also the inventor of the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, created to eliminate a harmonic jump in the Spanish guitar and the tres. In the 1950s he became well-known as the second voice and tres player in Los Compadres, a duo he formed with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo in 1947.
 
Los Compadres were one of the most successful Cuban duos of their time. Greater international fame came later, in 1997, with the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album, a hugely successful recording which won several Grammy awards. Compay Segundo appeared in the film of the same title, made subsequently by Wim Wenders.
 
Segundo's most famous composition is Chan Chan, the opening track on the Buena Vista Social Club album, whose four opening chords are instantly recognizable all over the world. Chan Chan was recorded by Segundo himself various times as well as by countless other Latin artists. Other compositions are Saradonga, La calabaza, Hey caramba, Macusa, Saludo Compay. These are all sones, and this differentiates him from the more usual trova musicians, with their devotion to the bolero. However, it seems his interests went much further:
 
I have danzones, waltzes, sones. I have some beautiful danzones. Why? Because I've learned from those who know how to preserve the tradition of the music. I play music the way it was played in yesteryear. I started out playing the son corto (short son). As Miguel Matamoros used to say, "The son is short and sweet"... Back in the day, they'd start out playing son at seven in the evening, and they'd greet the dawn with it. PBS Interview with Compay
 
At a fiesta he sang to President Fidel Castro, who took his pulse and joked about his vitality despite his 90-plus years. "Who could have imagined that?" he asked when he found himself at the Vatican City, performing Chan Chan before Pope John Paul II. He explained his longevity simply: mutton consommé and a drink of rum.
 
He predicted that he would live to be 115, but died of kidney failure in Havana, twenty years short of his ambition. In 2007, the hundredth anniversary of Segundo's birth was celebrated with a concert of his compositions performed by a symphony orchestra in Havana with some of his musicians and sons.
 
Discography
 
Segundo saying goodbye to a standing ovation at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Havana. October 2002
 
  • 1942-1955
    • "Sentimiento guajiro"
    • "Cantando en el llano"
    • "Compay Segundo y Compay Primo"
    • "Mi son oriental"
    • "Los reyes del son"
    • "Los compadres"
  • 1956-1995
    • "Balcón de Santiago"
    • "Balcón de Santiago - Reedición"
    • "Saludo, Compay"
  • 1996-2002
    • "Cien años de son"
    • "Son del monte"
    • "Buena Vista Social Club"
    • "Antología" (1997)
    • "Lo mejor de la vida"
    • "Calle salud" 1999
    • "Yo soy del norte"
    • "Antología" (2001)
    • "Las flores de la vida"
    • "Duets" 2002 Anthology of Compay Segundo's duos

 

Popular Cuban Music
 
Cuban Music finds its roots in Europe and Africa. The two most influential strains of Cuban Popular Music can be roughly categorized into two groups: the Son and the Danzón. The most common Afro-Cuban music in Cuba are Yoruba or Santaria, Abakua, and Palo.
 
Origins of Danzón:
Orquesta la Moderna Tradición specializes in the Danzón and its descendents. The history of the Danzón is an interesting one:
In the late 1700's, after the bloody Haitian revolution, many Haitians and French colonists fled to Cuba. With them came the Contradanza, their European-based popular dance music. Many warm Cuban nights later, Contradanza evolved into Danza, out of which the Danzón was created. Since the late nineteenth century, the Danzón has developed and changed in many respects; however, much of the original structure remains; it is this continuity that continues to define Danzón as a truly unique, living art form.
 
Evolution of Danzon:
 The original form of Danzón, created by Miguel Faílde Pérez in 1879, begins with an Introduction (four bars) and Paseo (four bars), which are repeated and followed by a 16-bar melody. The Introduction and Paseo again repeat before a second melody is played. The dancers do not dance during these sections: they choose partners, stroll onto the dance floor, and begin to dance at precisely the same moment: the fourth beat of bar four of the paseo, which has a very distinctive percussion pattern that's hard to miss. When the introduction is repeated the dancers stop, chat, flirt, greet their friends, and start again, right on time as the Paseo finishes.


Incorporation of Son and Cha Cha Cha:
 Some thirty years later, José Urfé added an Estribillo (a swinging section which consists of a repeated musical phrase) taken from the Son to his El Bombín de Barretto. This piece exemplifies this style of Danzón. Antonio María Romeu incorporated a piano solo into the Estribillo in 1926, in his arrangement of Guillermo Castillo's Son Tres Lindas Cubanas. During the 1950's, the structure developed even further to include all or some of a sung melody, Bolero and Cha-Cha-Chá.
 
Modern Charanga:
Later, ensembles utilizing violins and flute, were playing the popular Guaracha, a fast dance music. In the 1970's Los Van Van popularized a music they called Songo, which mixed elements of Son and Rumba. Timba music follows the same trajectory all Cuban music has taken for the last 300 years, mixing the diverse influences of the island's inhabitants in a way that is uniquely Cuban.
 
Punto Guajiro:
Before there was Son, there was the Punto Guajiro. The Punto Guajiro, with its Andalucian origins, has been evolving in Cuba since the 1700's. The ensemble consists of some combination of guitar, tres, tiple, laúd, clave and guiro. There are two kinds of Punto, Punto Fijo and Punto Libre . Fijo means fixed, meaning rhythm does not stop and the verse and music consists of fixed, measured units. The Punto Libre has a more fluid, slower, and flexible form which follows the singer.
 
Cuban Trova and Bolero:
The Bolero evolved, in the late 1800's, from the traditional Trova of Santiago de Cuba. This beautiful style of music, with its sometimes sophisticated harmonies , came to incorporate popular poetry of the day in its songs. The Cuban bolero (which has almost nothing to do with its Spanish namesake despite its Spanish origins) is played in all sorts of ensembles and is an popular genre throughout Latin-America.
 
The Cuban Son:
The Son Cubano is arguably the most influential musical style to come out of Cuba. Son originated in eastern Cuba, and laid the foundations of the international genre called Salsa. It is a music that incorporates Spanish and African influences. This can be seen in its instrumentation, rhyme scheme, and its call and response form. Early Son was a vocal music accompanied by Tres, Guitar and Maracas. This was followed by a sextet instrumentation using tres, vocals, guitar, bass or marimbula, bongó, maracas, clave — providing the heartbeat of this syncopated music. By the 1920's this instrumentation was augmented with the addition of a trumpet thus creating the standard septeto style. The Son Montuno further incorporated a 3 trumpet horn section, a piano, and a conga drum, or tumbadora, as it is called in Cuba.