Cubanocast

Putumayo was nice enough to offer me the Cafe Cubano CD to review. I gladly accepted it, having always found Putumayo a wonderful source of music otherwise inaccessible to Americans. Unfortunately, this isn't one of Putumayo's best efforts (Please don't get mad and stop sending me CDs, though.).

Cafe Cubano is both pleasant and unnecessary. The music is of good quality both in regards to its singing and its playing, but Cafe Cubano simply doesn't contain any essential examples of the genre.

Its songs are mostly guitar driven, relaxed, and retro. There's very little "Afro," which has admittedly been excessive in modern Cuban music, and very many words: Think of it as singer-songwriter reflection with bongos.

German Obregon's Pincel Campesino is every guajiro song ever made distilled into three minutes. It's academic sound and obvious inauthenticity makes me doubt whether Obregon has ever left his studio.

Morenita by La Orquesta Magica de Habana is likewise a series of musical and lyrical guajiro cliches. I hate to say it, but I think the era of good Cuban guajiro music -along with the Cuban guajiro himself- died with the introduction of Cuba's communist land reform

El Chacal by Jose Conde and Lagrimas Negras by Ignacio "Mazacote" Carrillo are strait remakes, inferior in both cases to the original, even if I agree more with El Chacal's political sentiment than Siempre el Comandante's by Carlos Puebla. El Chacal is a brave choice, however, as I suspect that most purchasers of Putumayo products don't sympathize with anti-revolutionaries. It's also the only political song on the CD.

Despues de Esta Noche by Felix Baloy and Corazon by Asere are uninspired, easily forgettable boleros, if well-played and sung. Similar, but with a reggae underpinning, is the boring Fue una de Mambo by Kevin Ochoa.

Como a Cada Manana by Rene Ferrer is a wordy mess that wastes some lovely guitar and flute playing on unending, Juan Luis Guerra-style seduction poetry.

The best song in the collection is Pedro and Lena Ferrer's Ay, mi Vidita. It too is derivative, but it has a nice hook and good, understated singing by Lena.

So, if you're looking for inoffensive, MOR Cuban, you can do worse than Cafe Cubano. Just be aware that there's better out there.

Putumayo Presents: Cafe Cubano

Cuba is a better collection.


Cuba