De Nacht: Wereld

Omara Portuondo (1930) an icon in Cuban music, has an impressive career. In 1945 she was part of the Las d’Aida Female Cuarteto and in 1959 her debut solo album Magia Negra was released. She sang with Orquesta Aragón, Chucho Valdés and Maria Bethânia. In 1998 she was part of the renowned Buena Vista Social Club project, which brought her international fame and with which she toured the whole world. Her album Gracias (2009) even earned her a Latin Grammy award for Best Contemporary Tropical album.
CD. Singles – Omara Portuondo.
LABEL: Malanga (2007), code: MM 803. VIDEO

Compay Segundo (1907) shone on the album Buena by Buena Vista Social Club. His solo album Calle Salud was recorded in early 1999 in studios in Havana, Paris and Malaga. On this album he sings old compositions by Francisco Repilado, Carlos Gardél, Enrique Jorrin and Miguel Matamoros. The dance styles on Calle Salud are son (an old Cuban dance in which salsa originated), bolero, cha cha cha and merengue. The music therefore does not differ much from that of Buena Vista Social Club. The collaboration of Charles Aznavour is striking, who sings a translation of Mourir D’Aimer with Compay Segundo.
CD. Calle Salud – Compay Segundo.
LABEL: Gasa (1999), code: 3984-275832. VIDEO

Carel Kraayenhof, With his bandoneon he roams the world and likes to mingle with people. Carel listened to stories from the past and present. African refugees trying to reach Lampedusa. Tula, the Spartacus of Curaçao who, with a thousand slaves, let a cry for freedom be heard. Young musicians in Jujuy (Northern Argentina) without a bandoneon, who play cardboard boxes out of necessity. A tribute to the Jewish writer Ida Vos who wrote the book 32 Tranen, 32 poems for the children of her school class who did not return after the war. These stories inspired Carel Kraayenhof to write new compositions and that is how he came up with the idea for a new theatre show, in which the Argentine Tango and the Cuban Son/Danzón play a role.
CD. Liberación – Carel Kraayenhof.
LABEL: Stemra (2014), code: BD2014104. VIDEO

Gloria Estefan, the title of the album 90 Millas refers to the distance between Cuba and the southernmost point of Florida, where many Cuban refugees live. Gloria composed the music together with her husband and brothers. It is a tribute to her native Cuba. The album features no less than twenty-five guest musicians who have meant a lot to traditional and Cuban or modern Latin music and contains original material and a selection of different Cuban rhythms mixed with Latin American contemporary pop.
CD. 90 Millas – Gloria Estefan.
LABEL: Burgundy (2007), code: 88697-143662. VIDEO

Rubén González was a Cuban pianist. In 1943 he released his first recording, which quickly made him famous in Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Since the sixties he played for 25 years in Havana in the band of Enrique Jorrin. In 1996 Rubén González came with a new solo album Introducing…Rubén González. In 1997 he played on an album Buena Vista Social Club. The director Wim Wenders made a biographical film under the same name about Rubén González and his colleagues, which made him famous in the rest of the world. He performed for the last time in Mexico and Cuba in 2002. He died in December 2003.
CD. The Cuban heroes collection – Rubén González.
LABEL: Union Square Music (2008), code: 0698458115881. VIDEO

Guillermo Portabales was born in 1911 in Cuba. He was a singer, songwriter and popularized the guajira style. At the beginning of his musical career he played various styles, such as cancion, tango and bolero, but he soon noticed that guajira was the most popular with his audience. In 1940 Guillermo Portabales performed regularly in Cuba and the United States of America. In the 1960s he discreetly expressed poetic thoughts in his music about the revolution that was taking place in his home country Cuba. Guillermo Portabales eventually died at the age of 59 in a car accident.
CD. Promesas de un campesino – Guillermo Portabales.
LABEL: Tum (2000), code: TCD 804. VIDEO

Producer Cobie Ivens

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