Cubanocast

Happy New Years, compadres y amigas! I wish you a very healthy and prosperous 2009. I have a few songs for New Years.

Grupo con Sabor from Colombia (Columbia) provides us with three songs:

The first one lumps in the singer's mother-in-law with his other 2007 blessings: a goat, a black burro (donkey or ass), and a white llegua, a female horse- heady company. I will withhold further comment. It has a Cumbia beat.

El Ano Viejo is above.

Now for a Merengue romp. Like in English-speaking countries, men and women kiss when the clock strikes twelve.

Ano Nuevo:

Another cumbia, La Vispera del Ano Nuevo. Vispera is "eve."

Super Banda features a beautiful female chorus and a rather emotional male lead pining for his mother.

Cinco pa las Doce:

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I like it when different but equally loved by me things intersect. It's like when James Bond movies have nice watches or cars. It's the principle behind Cracker Jack.

Cracker Jack*r Toys by Larry White

So, there I was minding my own business, preparing a post on Cuban break-up songs when I encountered a Beny More tune called, "Con Silvana Mangano."

"Hmmm, where had I heard that name before? Ahh, Yes!"

It was that beautiful Italian actress from the movie Anna whom I had heard sing "El Negro Zumbon," which is the topic of this post.

Anna (Non-US Format, PAL Region 2)

What else crosses here besides Cuban music and fifties Italian movies set in Brazil? Well, my appreciation of Mediterranean beauty. It turns out that Silvana participated in a beauty pageant in which she came in second to Lucia Bose'. Also participating were Gina Lollobrigida, Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gianna Maria Canale.

Beauty pageants in immediate post-war Italy were notoriously corrupt (No reference and don't ask me for one- just go with it.). To analyze whether a pageant injustice occurred in 1947, I've included pictures and videos below so that you can decide on your own.

The song itself is unexceptional. It has Beny More's soaring voice and swinging band, but the lyrics are an afterthought and the melody unmemorable.

Grabaciones Completas 1953-1960

Here they are all together. If you want, you can stop after this video I'd appreciate it if somebody with some video post-production skills could do something with the underarm hair, too:

First, the winner of the contest, Lucia Bose.

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Celia Cruz famously said that, "Salsa is what we put in our food...Cuban music with another name. It's mambo, chachachá, rumba, son ... all the Cuban rhythms under one name,"

I'll add that "Salsa" is an umbrella term for Caribbean music that isn't readily identified with another name like "Merengue" (which is also a food, actually), especially those descended from the Cuban Son style. Salsa is more international in flavor with tremendous contributions from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Columbia, and even Central America and Japan.

The great New York music label was probably the first to use the term in reference to a particular musical genre.

Since this is more of a roots site, I present to you real "salsa songs" or songs that have "salsa" in the lyrics, but as a food, not a rhythm.

First, the great Antonio Machin, above.

Ese Soy Yo by antonio machin

Here's another version by Septeto Nacional. This group featured the writer of the song, the great Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez.

Here's them singing it live:

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Of my departed acquaintances, only a few consistently tug on my consciousness. My sister-in-law, Leticia Orozco is one of those beings. God blessed her with a gentle and loving heart and through that same heart, blessed everybody who knew her. God keep her.

As part of my general annoyingness, I choose "theme songs" for people I know. I have ones for my wife and kids and make the same jokes, on occasion, to my students. Without going into detail, there was a time when Dile que por mi no tema by Celia Cruz was an appropriate selection for Letty. Inspired by George Herbert's maxim, "Living well is the best revenge," it's about a woman's determination to continue after being dumped by her man; think of it as the Cuban version of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.

This is one for the ladies to play along with some wine and cheese (or coffee and chocolate bon bons) during a post-crisis recovery session with your girlfriends.

Golden Years

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I usually dislike these kinds of music fusions, thinking them mostly ideas from people plum out of ideas. I love both classical and Cuban music, though, and wondered what such a combination would sound like. I was surprised to find that it sounds pretty good, at least when done by such wonderful musicians.

It's interesting that Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 5 is itself a fusion of German and Hungarian music. So, what we have in this post is a Cuban-German classical mix of a German classical-Hungarian folk mix.

Klazz Brothers' Hungarian Rhapsody above.

Classic Meets Cuba

As a bonus, I included orchestral and piano versions as well. Cubanocast: Value-added blogging.

Listen to Orchestral version. It's by the Budapest symphony orchestra. Conducted by Istvan Bogar. On Naxos.

Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1-21

The great Idil Biret:

Brahms: Hungarian Dances; Waltzes, Op. 39

For you nerds: It's in F sharp minor.

A forthcoming post will have some of the many examples of male boasting in Caribbean music. But, women can brag too. What do women brag about? Getting guys, beauty- the normal stuff.

The song above, La Cumbanchera de Belen is my favorite. I find it interesting that the men she boasts about are not only the most guapos ("handsome," in this context); but the most valientes, or "brave." A society that chooses bravery as one of the two most important male characteristics is fundamentally different than one that places a higher value on a sense of humor, sensitivity, money, or intelligence.

La Cumbanchera de Belen

100% Azucar!: The Best of Celia Cruz con la Sonora Matancera

In La Negrita Sandunguerra, Celia takes pride in the effect her dancing has on the masculine population.

La Negrita Sandunguera

Next is the very charming La Pipiripau from Alma Tuneca, a Salvadorean band. I like it because of the "big fish, little pond" feeling one gets, mainly from her provincial tone. In her small town, far from the great metropolises of the world, she's the girl every guy wants.

Alma Tuneca "20 Super Exitos"

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