Cubanocast

Celia Cruz in an authentic setting singing a song to an Orisha, or a god in the pantheon of the Cuba-Catholic religious synthesis Santeria wherein African Yoruba gods are associated with Catholic saints. It's from the movie Weekend in Havana. I don't know anything about WIH except that some people don't like the dude in the wheelchair.

The particular god that Celia mentions at the end is Elegua. You can read more about him here.

I happen to have some songs with "Elegua" in the title. Let's start with two by Celia Cruz, as it happens, both excellent.

"Elegua Quiere Tambo" is today's podcast.

Cuban Queen by Hugh Strafford

"Saludo a Elegua" is in a pop-rumba style.

Homenaje a los Santos

Merceditas Valdez sings in a more traditional rumba style. She has a wonderful voice, but she seems dedicated to singing in a "pure" style, and many of her recordings, therefore, lack the Spanish element that adds a degree of listenability to Cuban music.

Canciones Cubanas de Cuna

We have two versions of "El Hijo de Elegua" by the greatest female Guajira singer, Celina Gonzalez. I think you'll agree that both songs are indispensable.

Cantos de Cuba by Celina de Sampedro

A Santa Barbara

I put this up for my parents. You can watch too, if you like. I'll put up one of his songs for additional relevance to the blog's theme. Hmmm, which one? "Carnival in Rio." My mother taught me that "R con R, ferrocarril" rhyme.

Babalu

I'll try to do this every other day. Today's random song is by the great Guillermo Portabales, singer of Guajiro, or Cuban Country, music.

Aqui Esta Portabales

As if you needed any more. The song is Weekend of a Private Secretary in which a young American lady, like many before her and since, recognizes Cuban mens' charm advantage.

The song is an interesting cultural artifact, not only from when the United States and Cuba were close economic and cultural allies, but when people felt free to notice cultural distinctions, something which, if done in the wrong direction today, would lead to professional and social ruination.*

I like the music very much. Her voice is beautiful and the melody iambic(?). I find the uneven attention to rhyming interesting. The first half doesn't reach for rhymes while the second half does.

Mrs. Swing

Think of this post as an addendum to this soon-to-be-updated post.

*As evidence, change around or replace a few words in the opening sentence.

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" is a popular classical piece from the music Edvard Grieg wrote for Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt.

The classical version was a waft in the mists of my musical memory when I heard Anselmo Sacasas' "In the Hall of the Mambo King," "Hmm, that sounds familiar." You may listen above.

1942-1944

On Sirius 40s, my new favorite station, I heard this fine swing version by Will Bradley and Ray McKinley:

Swingin' Down The Lane

Then, the most classical of Jazz greats, Duke Ellington:

Three Suites

Here's a rock version by the Who. It's OK given the limitations of a four-member band. Somewhat predictable. Kind of unpleasant, but it rocks.

The Who Sell Out

I generally hate pop pretensions like the one implicit in the album above, by the way.

There are Heavy Metal songs with the same title, but I didn't like them.

Cuba and the United States have always had a testy relationship. Next to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the low point in Cuban-American relations was the Great Music Rebellion of 1945.

It started with a Cuban intrusion into America's musical scene. As Americans fell in love with Cuban music, some Americans suspected Cuba of starting a fifth [Conga] column with the purpose of weakening America's muscular and osteal health, thereby setting the stage for an invasion.*

Anti-Cuban music reaction was strong with semi-secret groups formed to resist Cuban (and soon all South American) music, the most prominent of these being the No Sabemos Nadas (Know-nothings).

The movement found popular expression in the thinly-veiled hate speech turned popular tune, South America: Take it Away by xenophobe sympathizers Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.**

The song is promoting of American superiority ("We have Atomic bombs, and you?"), condescending ("Beautiful lands"), racial differentiating- with the suggestion of a unique South American physiology, and yearns for a mythical past.

Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters: Their Complete Recordings Together

Desi Arnaz, as proven in the I Love Lucy episode where he breaks his friendship with Fred, was never one to take an insult sitting down and replied with this blast musical fury, turning the tables on Crosby and the Andrews Sisters by mocking the Jive/Swing movement in the defiant, I'll Take the Rhumba.

Babalu by Coyne S. Sanders, Tom Gilbert

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