Powerful, passionate, merry and driving music from Cuba, Europe and beyond by a stunningly good septet.
Cuban sonero and composer Ignacio Piñeiro founded Sexteto Nacional in 1927, as Columbia Records’ answer to RCA Victor’s popular Sexteto Habanero. Both groups added the trumpet, and so defined the classic septet sound. Today, third-generation descendants of Septeto Nacional continue to define Cuba’s consummate son tradition. Augmenting the septet’s sound and embellishing its classic repertoire are vocalists Pío Leyva, Caridad Cuervo and Bertha Portuondo, congüero Tata Güines, pianist Guillermo González Camejo “Rubalcaba” and tres master Pancho Amat.
Their close renditions of two well-known Piñeiro compositions (No Juegues Con Los Santos, featuring Cuervo, and Coco Mai Mai, featuring Portuondo) sustain an intuitive interplay between the band’s three singers, the musicians and their guest counterparts. Lead singer Eugenio Rodríguez “Raspa” can turn a song inside out (e.g., Llora Como Llore, Quimera, Tu Mi Afinidad), while Leyva’s wicked, raspy 82-year-old baritone (as heard on the recent Afro Cuban All Stars) intertwines with Rubalcaba’s stylish piano in a compelling fashion.
