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Home > Blogs > Things to do in Butler County > Archives > 2009 > March > 18 > Entry
Afro-Cuban All-Stars makes two stops in SW Ohio
Juan de Marcos & Afro-Cuban All Stars:
7 p.m. Sunday, March 22, Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $25-$32. (513) 621-2787.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, Hall Auditorium, Miami University, Oxford. $26 adults, $25 senior citizens, $13 students/youth. (513) 529-3200.
In spite of its political isolation from the United States and geographical isolation from the rest of the world, Cuba has long been a hot-bed of diversity in terms of the music played there.
“We play 15 or 20 different styles of Cuban music,” said Juan de Marcos, leader of the Afro-Cuban All-Stars. “I think Cuba is on of the most important centers of pop music in the world. There are over 250 different styles of music being played in a country of about 12 million.
“Some are more influenced by the African culture, some by the French people who came there after the Haitian revolution, and the Spanish influence is very popular in the mountain areas. The countryside music also has its certain style, closer to European traditional and classical music.”
When de Marcos brings his Afro-Cuban All-Stars to the Aronoff Center this weekend and the Miami University Performing Arts Series next week, it will be part of his first tour of the United States in six years. Because of the continued strained relations between the U.S. and Cuba, he was forced to seek out musicians with foreign passports from different parts of Europe.
See some band member bios a the jump….
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In putting together the band, de Marcos has aimed to find not only stellar musicians with the right passports, but also just plain good people with the right energy.
“The energy that moves around the band is very important because you physically transmit to the audience,” de Marcos explains, drawing on his doctorate in engineering to explain the special dynamics of Cuban performance. “This isn’t some mystical force; it’s all about the electromagnetic waves that the brain transmits and receives through the pineal gland. When you have really good positive energy, the audience gets it.”
The band’s repertoire includes a mix of standard tunes with new arrangements and songs de Marcos composed specifically for this band and this tour.
“We play Afro-Cuban jazz with a lot of improvisation,” he said. “It’s the kind of music that might be played in dance halls, even though we are mostly going to places where you hear concert music.
“It’s always a little awkward at first, people afraid to get up out of their seats, but people can’t sit through the really hot songs and by the time the concert is over people are dancing in the aisles.”
Afro-Cuban All Stars Line-Up for 2009 U.S. Tour
As its name implies, the Juan de Marcos & Afro-Cuban All Stars is more of a project than a band.
Like an expert chef, Juan de Marcos changes ingredients with the seasons and the dinner guests.
“This band will sound and even behave exactly like one coming straight from Havana,” de Marcos said. “Cubans never change, and if you’ve been in Miami, you’d know what I mean; dominos, mojitos, pork, chicharrónes, and all!”
The plat du jour for the 2009 tour includes the following band members culled from the cream of the Cuban diaspora around the globe:
Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera (Minnesota) - pianist and ex-musical director of Tropicana Orchestra and Cubanismo
Calixto Oviedo (Stockholm) - drummer, performed with Adalberto Alvarez, NG La Banda, Pacho Alonso, etc.
Yaure Muniz (Madrid), Igort Rivas (Curacao) and Miguel Valdes (Vancouver) - trumpeters, members of the Buena Vista Social Club, but also lead trumpet players with Paulo FG, Klimax, Tropicana Orchestra, etc.
Alberto “Molote” Martinez (Amsterdam) - trombonist, member of the original line up of Buena Vista Social Club, but also a featured member of Elio Reve’s Orchestra, Cuban Symphonic Orchestra, etc.
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