CUBA: LOS VAN VAN CELEBRATE THIRTY YEARS OF MUSIC MAKING.

Record ID: 390263

  • Title: CUBA: LOS VAN VAN CELEBRATE THIRTY YEARS OF MUSIC MAKING.
  • Date: 18th October 2000
  • Summary: LOS VAN VAN PERFORMING
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4OXD4RYJ541ACMXVSJE5V5N3
  • Story Text: They've been called the granddaddies, the original, the source of Cuban music. For thirty years Los Van Van have kept Cubans dancing and swaying and whilst The Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon has renewed the world's love affair with the island's fiery salsa tunes, THESE guys have helped to open the Cold War door to Cuba's top-flight musical talent.
    Welcome to Havana - the heart of Cuban music.
    Take a stroll through the streets and you'll find it hard to escape those tempting sounds of "son" and salsa.
    Havana bursts with musical talent. And at night you get the chance to see one of Cuba's most popular, if not the most popular bands, Los Van Van.
    Los Van Van - or
    "those who go, go" - are hailed to have initiated the world's interest in Cuban music. They started out thirty years ago and helped to open the Cold War door to the island's top-flight musical talent.
    The band's name came by way of the Cuban government in the late 1960s when the Fidel Castro regime exhorted the country to boost sugar production.
    During the years when Los Van Van records were hard to obtain due to U.S. embargo rules, the band's American fans had to resort to pirate copies of Los Van Van's European records.
    From the get-go Los Van Van revolutionized contemporary Cuban dance music. They introduced electric guitar, trap drums and trombones to the standard Cuban band: "The secret of our music is arrangements. Our director, Juan Formel, has a different style for what you may call salsa.
    "You can notice that we sound different- not as other salsa groups. The so- called salsa in the world today, I hear movements which are not the salsa I knew 15 or 20 years ago. In Puerto Rico there is a new movement followed by Mark Anthony, La India and others. They are developing different musical arrangements. The same happens in Cuba. New musicians with a new style based on Cuban music- all is known as salsa, but each one has a different style - distinct, but everything is the same salsa", says Los Van Van vocalist Pedro Calvo.
    And Los Van Van would know about that.
    They inspired a number of genre-bending groups like NG La Banda of the 1980s and today's Bamboleo.
    The band has only recently returned home from a visit to the States where they earned a Latin Grammy Award last year.
    "We are satisfied with what we did in the USA. We played for a public, Cuban emigrants and other people. They've known our music from records. Well, upon arriving, as the people know our rhythm which they enjoy, any artists could feel proud of it. That his work has expanded-that is important", says Calvo.
    Los Van Van have recorded more than twenty albums. Their latest is "Llego ... Van Van" - a 30 year retrospective.
    ---ENDS---
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