Azúcar Negra, a widely popular Cuban timba band, will bring their vibrant beats to the first ever Vancouver Cuban Music Festival.| Photo courtesy of Island of Music.
The inaugural Vancouver Cuban Music Festival (Oct. 16–19) will bring to our city some of that country’s most influential music stars, and will allow the local audiences to be immersed into, as well as educated and seduced by Cuban culture.
The festival, which will take place on Granville Island, is organized by the Island of Music, the recently formed not-for-profit cultural society whose mandate is to promote and preserve Cuban culture in Vancouver. Julio Montero, the society’s artistic director and local dance instructor, moved to Vancouver from Cuba 14 years ago.
Montero says that his life in Canada embraces a persistent duality of enjoying this country very much, yet simultaneously missing Cuba. This is why he is passionate about sharing Cuban cultural values with Canadians through the various forms of Latin dance he teaches here.
Montero specializes in Rueda de Casino (Cuban style salsa), whose very form fosters a feeling of community because it features dancing within a circle.
“My approach to teaching dance is to make it a cultural experience. I like to bring the Cuban collectivist approach and values to dance, and Rueda de Casino is an amazing cultural tool that promotes community building and societal cohesion,” says Montero.
He feels that the Cuban collectivist sensibility is highly appealing within the more individualistic Canadian cultural landscape. Montero says that Canadians also seem to particularly value Cuban warmth and a generally joyful disposition, which persists despite the challenging economic reality of life in that country.
Music as Cuban life-blood
Montero attributes that uniquely Cuban joie de vivre to the country’s profoundly musical culture, with its rich musical heritage permeating every facet of daily life.
“The music embodies our attitude towards life: some songs may be discussing problems, but [we accept that] this is how life is. We don’t have a perfectionist attitude towards life,” he says.
Music is what, according to Montero, sustained Cubans through the economic collapse and near-starvation during what is called the special period in the early 1990s, when the loss of the dismantled Soviet Union as the major export market devastated the country.
Montero says that some of the most inspired Cuban music since the Cuban Revolution was conceived in that era, including the internationally popular timba – a vibrant and rhythmically complex Cuban musical genre (with a dance style attached to it) that mixes Afro-Cuban musical influences with those of other popular forms such as salsa, funk and soul.
Azúcar Negra (Brown Sugar) is a renowned timba band that will be playing at the Vancouver Cuban Music Festival.
“Our signature musical stamp is an infectious chorus, vibrant mambo melodies that bring out the brass instruments, poly-rhythmic beats and lyrics that always convey what is relevant to our daily life,” says Leonel Limonta, the band’s founder and leader.
For example, the lyrics of the band’s popular 90s song Almas Disfrazadas (Disguised Souls) promote diligent condom use, and echo Cuba’s highly conscientious efforts to curb the spread of Hiv/Aids in that era.
Limonta, who is known as “El Poeta de la Timba” (Timba Poet), was a member of the popular salsa and timba band Bamboleo before forming Azúcar Negra, and also wrote hits for Cuban greats such as Charanga Habanera and Issac Delgado.
Inter-generational inspiration
“I have carried music inside me all throughout my upbringing because we would always sing and dance spontaneously in my family. It wasn’t necessary to have a birthday in order to celebrate and to put together a good party,” says Limonta.
In addition to Azúcar Negra, the inter-generational musician line-up includes younger stars such as Tania Pantoja and Gardi, as well as the legend and festival opening act Pedrito Calvo, former lead singer of the most iconic Cuban band of all time, Los Van Van.
The Cuban music and dance scene is known for effortlessly mixing generations, and Montero is passionate about the potential of the Vancouver Cuban Music Festival to educate and encourage young talent through its Kids Talent Show.
“We live in an electronic age, and I think it is very important to expose our children to meaningful and traditional manifestations of music [which don’t allow] the computer to do the job for them,” he says.
Between evening concerts, dance workshops, the Kids Talent Show and a film screening of They Are We, a documentary depicting a small Afro-Cuban ethnic group’s search for ancestral roots in Africa, the festival promises to convert many into devotees of Cuban culture.
“Cuban music is definitely one of the greatest manifestations of popular music that humankind has ever created. It resonates deeply in our senses and does not ever go out of fashion,” says Montero.
For tickets and information on the Vancouver Cuban Music Festival, visit www.islandofmusic.com, and for information on Julio Montero’s dance classes go to www.vancubansalsa.ca
