Cubanocast

Scott Brown famously advertised his daughters' eligibility during his victory speech.

I think it's sweet that he wants his girls married to a respectable gentleman.

Then, the urbane, intellectual Huffington Post sandwiched a music video with Scott Brown's wife, Gail Huff, between "7 Weird Things Women do to Their Privates" and an issue crucial to the survival of the Republic, Natalie Portman's right nipple.

To prove that I can be as hip as HP, the video:

Any evolutionist knows that a pretty woman is likely to give birth to a pretty daughter (proven in my own family). I searched for the prettiest mother-daughter combination and came upon this, the poorest-written blog post since Levi Johnston gave his reason for supporting a public option. But, who cares? It's a story on the PRETTIEST mother-daughter pairs, not a dissertation on aesthetics.

Carlos Argentino, the charismatic singer for the Sonora Matancera faces the difficult task of choosing between a young senorita and her MILFish mama in the merengue, "La Hija y la Mama."

It's the podcast.

Algo Especial Por La Sonora Matancera

Research, and I found out that the Dominican Luis Kalaff sang it first. I like it better for the funky, punctuating horns and the accordion.

As you can imagine, expressing interest in both a mom and a daughter can lead to trouble.

Comeuppance:

Merengue

King of Merengue

Bailemos Merengue, Vol. 1

Bailemos Merengue Vol.2

A familiar sight

To follow up on the coffee songs from this post, I will now search my vast Cuban music collection: Round and round...voila!

Our Boricua neighbors' most famous band is the wonderful El Gran Combo. Since Puerto Rico's founding in 1493, they've been putting out world-class Caribbean music. Their Salsa is exceptionally level-headed, with neither the vulgarity that mars today's Reggaeton nor the exaggerated sentimentality of most modern Salsa.

The message in "Azuquita Pa'l Cafe" is one I endorse: God created women to lighten men's coffee. God's gift, indeed. And, such a variety! All bring something to the table (figure of speech, ladies).

It's the podcast.

Rocking that hair clip, one of the girls El Gran Combo might have come across on the beaches of Puerto Rico.

30 Aniversario Bailando Con El Mundo

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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.

Colombia!: The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes

Sometimes I feel like Alexander the Great (no, not that way- in music) looking upon his empire and crying because he has nothing left to conquer: I've ravaged about six different genre kingdoms and it gets tougher to find music with which I'm not familiar. That changed on Saturday when this Disco Fuentes Cd, The Golden Age Of Discos Fuentes - The Powerhouse Of Colombian Music arrived from Amazon. I'll have to admit that I've always considered Cumbia music as having less depth than Caribbean music- like J. Strauss' Waltz' to L.V. Beethoven's symphonies, if you'll allow me such a gross comparison- a fun dance music with humorous lyrics, but somewhat repetitive and with few examples of instrumental virtuosity. This disk changed my mind. I've spent a week on it and I still slip it into my Clarion.

Of the handful of essential music on this disk, I chose Cumbia en do menor by Lito Barrientos y su Orchesta. What the heck is it? A jazz-cumbia-swing fusion, I guess. Listen to the horn blasts- as good as Beny More's. The clarinet is a wonderful touch and the percussion is different, in a good way.

Listen to Cumbia en do menor

Disco Fuentes is one of the world's great record companies. It's not only the premiere record company in Columbia featuring such great acts as La Sonora Dinamita, but has, next to Tumbao records, the greatest catalog of classic Cuban music. Their Celina y Reutilio and Guillermo Portabales cds are still two of my favorites.

By special request, here's another Rita Montaner song. Rita was the most famous female Cuban singers during the first half of the last century, popularizing some of the famous songs in Cuban music history such as Mama Inez, and El Manisero. We don't hear much of her now because her chirpy, near-classical style is one that has come and gone, unlike the still-popular sound of Celia Cruz.

The mixed-race or mulata Rita was born into and grew up in a solid middle-class household (in Guanabacoa where the woman who gave birth to Asymmetric blogger, me, is from), studied music in the proper conservatory, Conservatorio Peyrellade, where she graduated in piano, voice, and harmony. She won the school's highest honor, the Medalla de Oro at thirteen. She married a doctor who acceded to her demands as an artist despite his protestations.

Rita traveled the globe and performed with Al Jolson, Josephine Baker, and Cuban giants Moisés Simons, Eliseo Grenet, and Ernesto Lecuona.

In addition to her musical talent, Rita was a fine actress, appearing in Mexican movies and Spanish musical plays called Zarzuelas.

The song I chose can be described as a Cuban lied, as it's just Rita and a piano. It's called Alla en el Batey. A batey is a Cuban country town.

Listen to Alla en el Batey.

Rita de Cuba 1928-1941

The Peanut Vendor, Antonio Machin

A pregon is the call a vendor makes when selling his wares and form the basis of the lyrics in the songs below. The pregon in Cuban music is a vast and wonderful sub-genre that's an appropriate subject to explore on Labor Day.

Wiki on pregon

Also suitable for today is partying. Don't worry, you don't have to R.S.V.P. Cubanocast isn't very formal. You already know the address. Just click to enter.

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Called double entendre in France, doble sentido in Latin America, and hey, that's dirty in Arkansas, double meaning in today's music is the married people in twin beds of musical convention, a throwback to a time when people swaddled overt sexual speech in analogies and metaphors (art is best when pushing against a restraint, but that's another post). Today, unsubtlety is the favored approach of artists and radio stations stream their bawdiness across America as if they felt the radio towers needed an electronic enema. Rap and Reggaeton are the worst. Reggaeton is a good beat rendered unlistenable by the most relentlessly stupid lyrics since Australopithecus Rickys found an evolutionary advantage to crooning their Lucys.** Some rap isn't dumb and some rap isn't dirty, but few manage to avoid both foolishness and vulgarity.

Ranging from almost-sophisticated to modern crude, I've assembled some examples of doble sentido for your listening enjoyment:

The first one isn't about sex, but politics. Se Te Cayo el Tabaco is a phrase applied to somebody who's just been found out-the jig is up, in Cuban. It's an attack on unenlightened Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Listen to Se te Cayo el Tabaco

Se Te Cayo El Tabaco

Now that we're gotten that out of the way, let's proceed to the sexual ones: Here we have the great Miguelito Valdez with La Cachimba de San Juan. A cachimba is a pipe for smoking. San Juan's perfumed cachimba has the "mysterious" power to inspire women to "smoke" it. I love the lazy trumpet and Valdez manages to restrain himself enough to put forth a strait performance void of his sometimes exaggerated vocal flourishes.

Listen to Cachimba.

Cuban Sextetos & Conjuntos

Next we have Anselmo Sacasas wishing to chupar or "suck" on his girl's mouth. He thinks she should learn to chupar as well. That in and of itself doesn't make it doble sentido, but the way he carries on makes the listener believe he desires more than a simple kiss.

Musically, its a gem- beautiful piano and world beating jauntiness.

Listen to Chupa Chupa.

1942-1944

Casino de la Playa's Cascarita doesn't quite mean that unhealthy delicacy, chorizo.

Listen to Quiero un Sombrero.

Memories of Cuba, 1937-1944

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