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Two Latin music CDs for you this week -- one by a Cuban band with a quarter of a century behind them, and the other by a promising quartet of young Latinas being groomed for the pop market. Latin groups show
promise in new CDs
Sierra Maestra (Riverboat/World Music Network)"For All Time"
Soluna (DreamWorks)Reviews by Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comSierra Maestra is a pioneering band that revives the traditional "son" to the delight of Cuban and world-music aficionados, while Soluna, despite the by-the-numbers production on their debut album and a marketing campaign to emphasize their photogenic looks, really do have the pipes to take "Spanglish" pop to a wider audience.
Sierra Maestra's album also takes advantage of the renewed interest in Cuban music due to the "Buena Vista Social Club" phenomenon, by enlisting two of its superlative singers as guests. The wizened Ibrahim Ferrer is featured on "Sabian Gómez," and his still-supple voice literally floats on the bridge of the equally buoyant "Unto a un Cañaveral" (also featuring a wonderful lead vocal by Luis Barzaga).
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Omara Portuondo is paired with Barzaga on the humorous "Camina Como Chencha" and trades romantic verses with José Antonio "Maceo" Rodriguez on the lovely "Convergercia."New York-based guitarist Marc Ribot, who played with Tom Waits, Caetano Veloso and Elvis Costello before leading his own Cuban-based band Los Cubanos Postizos, is also a welcome guest, delivering a particularly sensitive acoustic solo on the heartrending "Llora Como Yo Lloré."
Barzaga, Rodriguez, co-lead vocalist Alberto Virgilio Valdés, percussionist Alejandro Suárez and musical director Eduardo Himely are the band's veterans, with "youngsters" Emilio Ramos, Eduardo "Ñiquito" Rico and Oslén Ceballo Brian making their recording debut as the newest members of Sierra Maesta.
Brian takes over the trumpet duties of Jesus Alemañy, who left to form his own band, Cubanismo (a well-received act here in September 2000), and Brian's exciting, stratospheric playing is all over this album. His piercing sound is a great counterpart to the band's vocal and rhythmic foundation, especially on the party song "Macuterendey."
"A 'rumbero' I shall be/Until the day I die" boasts the English-translated lyric of the album's title song, and so long as Sierra Maestra's free-spirited and virile sound stays intact, the group'll be good for another 25 years.
THE FUTURE of Soluna, on the other hand, is still up in the air. The quartet's debut, "For All Time," suffers from a scattershot approach, with the four Latinas trying to find their voice in the pedantic world of pop.
In keeping with current trends, no less than six production teams take a crack at creating a breakout song for the girls. Steve Morales, who's worked with Latin heartthrobs Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Jon Secada, gets the bulk of the credit (or blame, depending on your take on "pap" music), including having the girls doing a version of the 1980 Air Supply hit "All Out of Love" that equals the sheen of the treacly original.
For me, his only saving grace is producing the Spanish-language versions of "Bring It to Me" and "For All Time" (titled "Por la Eternidad"). At least whatever time-worn clichés are being sung, they sound more convincing in Spanish.
Two collaborations that do click are the Eurodisco production by Thunderpuss 2000 (known for work with Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Houston) on "Monday Mi Amor" and, surprisingly, a lovely lullaby sung with the support of neo-Latin funkateers Ozomatli, called "Luna Mia." Soluna is better served with material and musicians of this caliber. In the meantime, the jury's still out on these girls.
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