June 11-12 2011 Buena vista The unquenchable thirst for all things Cuban June 11-12, 2011 04 COVER STORY LONG-DISTANCE LOVE AFFAIR HE Western tourists at the Casa play. Visit the Disneyfied Old Havana or the de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba The dance and music of a small Caribbean island beach resort of Varadero and you’ll find can’t believe their luck. Onstage, talented ensembles playing for a pittance in just metres from where they are have infiltrated the world, writes Jane Cornwell, lobbies of hotels they’re forbidden entry into. T sitting around tables strewn with as yet more Cuban artists arrive here to tour Even the Buena Vista crew play Varadero bottles of cola and Havana Club rum, a black- once a month or so when they’re at home. If clad guitarist in a cowboy hat is singing Chan Cuban artists want to play abroad, if they Chan, the song made famous by the Buena solution. Since our love affair with Cuba was Perth next month, then tours nationally. The want to keep cashing in on the BVSC brand, Vista Social Club. That this happens to be the jump-started by the timeless sounds of the Bar at Buena Vista, a savvy take on the who can blame them? same singer who sang on the Buena Vistas’ Buena Vista Social Club more than a decade original concept that features 93-year-old ‘‘Not that [Cuban] musicians are properly bestselling Grammy-winning 1997 album is, ago, Cuba has been coming to us. sonero Reynaldo Creagh and Brisbane-based paid, especially in America,’’ Gonzalez says. for most, fantasy made real. ‘‘Australian audiences connect immedi- Cuban dancer Eric Turro, is touring Australia ‘‘The Obama administration has relaxed the ‘‘The feelings I have for you/ I cannot ately with Cuban music,’’ says Juan de for the third time and is halfway through a previous administration’s draconian restric- deny,’’ 65-year-old Eliades Ochoa croons in Marcos Gonzalez, the bandleader, composer seven-city schedule. (The hit show Lady tions in regards to the cultural exchange but Spanish, singing the words written by his and arranger often described as Cuban Salsa, which toured Australia twice, ran for little else. More than 40 ensembles have been compadre Compay Segundo, and strumming music’s most important contemporary fig- three months at the Gold Coast Casino in gigging across America from the end of 2009 the song’s trademark four chords. Inspired ure. ‘‘They seem to understand its authen- 2009.) until now, and they only get a per diem. by its irresistible romanticism a few couples ticity despite the cultural differences. Gonzalez isn’t impressed with the BVSC America doesn’t want to be seen to support take to the dance floor; a middle-aged ‘‘It’s the same everywhere,’’ he adds. hybrids: ‘‘The real Buena Vista Social Club ‘Castro’s dictatorship’.’’ Similarly, some blonde woman in a Che Guevara T-shirt ‘‘I’ve seen people in eastern Europe and ended with the deaths of the original European promoters have been known to stands and sings along loudly. Someone certain parts of Africa, people who’ve never featured artists,’’ the genial but outspoken take advantage of Cuba’s plethora of first- strikes up a Cohiba cigar from a box probably heard the music before, feel compelled to get auteur insists. ‘‘It was great that it re- class musicians, only too aware many will bought in Havana, the sprawling capital on up and follow the rhythm in their own way.’’ introduced Cuban music to the world and accept paltry fees just for the chance to play. the other side of this 1250km-long Caribbean It was Gonzalez, a conservatory-trained brought it to the attention of a wider What, then, of promoters in Australia? island and the first stop for most Cuba tours. musician (and doctor of engineering) who audience. But it also became a middle-class ‘‘The Afro-Cuban Allstars are paid inter- The traditional Cuban son of Ochoa and had the idea for an all-star band of forgotten fashion and a lucrative business for world national rates wherever we play,’’ Gonzalez his band — think a combination of Spanish says. ‘‘But then everyone in our line-up song and guitar and African rhythms and either owns another passport or currently percussion — wafts over the colonial balcony ‘THERE’S MORE TO MY COUNTRY THAN CIGARS AND lives outside the island.’’ and on to the streets, to where similarly RUM, VINTAGE CARS AND BIG-BOTTOMED WOMEN. MY That Cuba has managed to withstand the tight-knit outfits are performing in squares, US blockade for 52 years is, of course, tourist hotels and other music houses. In the GENERATION HAS MORE FLAVOURS THAN THAT’ remarkable. But while Western visitors Casa de La Musica, a timba band is whipping GEORGES CESPEDES marvel at the population’s resilience Western salseros into a sweat. An Afro- (‘‘Things are getting better step by step and Cuban rumba session is going on in the Casa at the end Cuba will recover,’’ Gonzalez del Caribe. The programmed beats of reg- reckons), Cubans get on with living their gaeton rule at the outdoor La Claquetta, Cuban masters and, after teaming up with music promoters, who made the sort of lives. For many that involves making art that where young Cubans in lycra and baseball London-based record company World Circuit money they’d never make from touring their exists beyond the tourist gaze. garb gyrate in pairs. and American guitarist Ry Cooder, went usual bands.’’ ‘‘There’s more to my country than cigars Cuba’s rhythms are as diverse as its looking for them. The fad for all things Cuban arguably and rum, vintage cars and big-bottomed melting pot population, most of whom trace A Toda Cuba Le Gusta (Everyone in Cuba reached its peak in July 2000, when 40,000 women,’’ says Georges Cespedes, 31, a their ancestry to African slaves or Spanish Loves It), the 1997 album by Gonzalez’s people turned out to see the original Buena former Danza Contemporanea dancer who settlers, and all of whom love to dance. 13-piece Afro-Cuban Allstars, paved the way Vista Social Club perform in London’s Hyde choreographed Mambo 3XX1, an electro hip- Professional dancers are groomed in state- for the twilight stardom of artists such as Park. ‘‘The bubble has probably burst for hop take on the music of Perez Prado, for the backed ballet schools and folkloric compan- singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Ruben Cuban music in the UK and Europe,’’ says company’s Brisbane Festival visit last year. ies. Talented musicians pour out of con- Gonzalez, both of whom released albums Andy Wood, director of UK-based Latin ‘‘My generation has more colours and servatories. Cuba may shudder under its own under the Buena Vista banner. events promoters Como No. flavours than that. We like to make people post-revolutionary weight, its buildings may Gonzalez remained a Buena Vista fixture ‘‘Cuban dance has become hugely popu- think. Otherwise what’s the point?’’ be crumbling and derelict and its people for six years, touring, directing and produc- lar,’’ Wood says. ‘‘The Ballet Nacional His friend Carlos Acosta, with whom struggling, but its artistic spirit is undimini- ing between playing with Sierra Maestra, the hadn’t been to the UK for 20 years when it Cespedes co-choreographed two contempor- shed. Grammy-winning son group he co-founded returned in 2006 and it’s now a regular ary dance pieces performed at the London With a tropical climate and fabulous in 1978 to keep this Cuban folk music alive. visitor. Danza Contemporanea de Cuba is Coliseum last July, agrees. beaches it’s no wonder, really, why tourists The Mexico-based Gonzalez is performing coming back next year. Constructed dance ‘‘There’s an artistic revolution waiting to have been descending on Cuba since Chan again with the Afro-Cuban Allstars, who projects like Havana Rakatan’’ — a crowd happen in Cuba,’’ says the Royal Ballet Chan went stratospheric. Courses in per- played WOMAdelaide in March (on a bill pleaser that tells the history of Cuban music principal, 38, who started his career with cussion, drumming and Spanish are thriving. with the Creole Choir of Cuba, who also and dance and is in Sydney this month — Ballet Nacional de Cuba, another Brisbane A worldwide boom in salsa has seen hordes toured), then entertained Brisbane with their ‘‘do very well. It’s partly down to cycles of Festival headliner last year. taking lessons from loose-limbed locals mix of styles: bolero and guajira, rumba, promotion, and the fact Cuba is one of the ‘‘There are so many different kinds of who’ve been salsa-ing since they could walk. danzon and cha-cha-cha. great cultural centres of the world.’’ dances because of the mestizo [mix] of Marketed as a place of cigars and rum, Last year’s Australian tour by Los Van Havana was America’s playground in the people and because the revolution made arts vintage cars and big-bottomed women, last Van, the sprawling 20-piece orchestra cum first half of the 20th century. Cuban music and sports open to everyone. year this lovely, beleaguered country wel- music academy known as the Rolling Stones soundtracked Hollywood films. Cuban stars ‘‘Dancers in Cuba know ballet, martial comed 2.5 million international visitors. of Cuba, saw audiences out in force. such as Beny More and Celia Cruz played the arts, capoiera, Afro-Cuban rhythms . When Many of these were Australian. Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club — featur- New York Palladium and interpreted the you put this all into a Caribbean setting it Getting to Cuba isn’t easy from Australia.