Salsa Blanca

I was just down in Phoenix for a funeral and decided to record some of my good friend Robert Fernandez (yes the author of the book below :), percussion for 2 purposes.

1. I am going to make a sample library with them and,

2. I wanted some patterns I could use not only to demonstrate the samples, but to have “human” feel midi grooves.

It was a long session, but we got a lot done. I focused on percussion that was unique and probably not really available anywhere else. 

I have many notes, and will probably release these as single instruments in Kontakt, SFZ, EasySampler, and, if I can figure it out, VST3. LOL.

What I have so far. All multiple samples and velocities. The patterns will be an addon, but who knows what the “founders” special will be

Please excuse the images (these will be updated when my graphics guy fixes them), and the examples (no real mixing, so you are hearing them pretty much as recorded).

Bata: Recorded with one mic on each side. Iya, Itotele, and Okonkolo, plus boca (high side). Pattern is Oggún.

Quijada: This was recorded with a close mic and an overhead. Patterns include a Cuban style and a Peruvian style.

Quijada (© Jon Griffin)

Quijada with Son Montuno

(Pans) Saltanes: These are from Brazil and I recorded the low and high “saltanes” with both close and overhead mics. Pattern is included

Saltanes from Brazil

African Bell: Robert picked up this bell during his studies in Ghana. It includes close and overhead, muted and open notes.

Abacus: Yeah, well nobody probably has this. It made him a ton of money back in the studio days in LA. Yes, it’s an abacus, and includes forward and backward hits. Plus a groove.

Dominican Clave: How many of you knew this even existed? There are multiple samples and a typical pattern.

Dominican Clave (© Jon Griffin)

Shell (Caracol): From Oriente de Cuba, this is used in Oriente (Gaga), Haiti (rara), Mexico. I have a short, long, and longer “call”. Why a call? In Haiti this is used in the Call of the Slave traditionally.

Updated 2022-12-12 fixed audio and images

In this episode, I dug up yet another old class I took in Havana, Cuba with Olavo Alen Rodriguez discussing cha-cha-chá and it’s origins.

This was likely recorded on a very bad DAT or Cassette recorder but it is what it is. Hopefully there is some use for you. I did my best on the transcription. If you have corrections or suggestions, let me know.

In this episode, I dug up an old class I took in Havana Cuba with Andres Rodriguez discussing Cuban son and it’s origins.

This was likely recorded on a very bad DAT or Cassette recorder but it is what it is. Hopefully there is some use for you.

Transcript

Alen:

Okay. Now, we can begin speaking about son. The thing is to know where it came from, very generally speaking. Now, son … I would like to explain some things that there is a lot of confusion about. When was the first … when did … son was born. And also there is a lot of mistakes that very recently Cuban historians and people who dedicate themselves to gather this information have discovered there’s a lot of mistakes on books written many years ago.

Alen:

Maybe you have heard that the first Cuban son was something like El Son de la Ma Teodora. This is very common. You can hear this everywhere, El Son de la Ma Teodora. Son de la Ma … This means mother, Mother Teodora, La Ma Teodora. It’s called … It says nobody can actually say which is the exact date for the birth of son but during a very large period of time, history … the Cuban historians said that it … There was a document published in 1893 by Laureano Fuentes where he said that this Son de la Ma Teodora was the first son. It was composed by two sisters, Micaela and Teodora Gines. These were the two sisters. They were two nuns. Teodora was the one who wrote this song or anyway one of them two … The two sisters wrote Son de la Ma Teodora. So they say this happened as far away as in the 16th century. Good.

Alen:

Nowadays, we know this is a great mistake because what is important to know is that Cuban nationality and Cuban culture only was born on the second half of the 18th century. Before that there was no Cuban culture. So this is a big mistake. And now, what we … most of the people who do research, they say that they doubt that Son de la Ma Teodora existed at all. They think that this was a mistake by Laureano Fuentes taking a tune of last century … that was last century that sounded in some ways a variation of [inaudible 00:03:05]. He made a mistake. Even they felt that Teodora Gines ever existed herself. Yet, nothing is for sure. I say because you are going to be reading a lot of books and maybe even in, I don’t know, movies and things, this Son de la Ma Teodora. Now, we say it’s not true.

Alen:

Now, the real truth is that son begins in the countryside and very specifically in the mountains. This is one thing in theory. Another one is that they have a … It was born in many places of the country at the same time. But everybody agrees that this happened on the second half of the 18th century.

Alen:

And, now, we’re going to hear an example of son Sierra Maestra. Sierra Maestra is our biggest, highest mountains. And deep inside each woods, the mountains, these are recordings I’ve taken. It’s a party. It’s named nengon, nengon, nengon. Nengon is one of the names for son. You’ll hear there’s a … Changui is another name for a style of son and so on. So you can hear … That’s why son is a big group of different dances. Let’s hear this. Note how the transition from this African came to this. It’s very interesting. (music). It sounds African. [inaudible 00:04:48] the first son. [inaudible 00:04:56].

Speaker 2:

In this episode, I dug up an old class I took in Havana Cuba with Andres Rodriguez discussing Cuban son and it’s origins.

This was likely recorded on a very bad DAT or Cassette recorder but it is what it is. Hopefully there is some use for you.

Transcript

Alen:

Okay. Now, we can begin speaking about Cuban Masters Series – Cuban Tres
. The thing is to know where it came from, very generally speaking. Now, son … I would like to explain some things that there is a lot of confusion about. When was the first … when did … son was born. And also there is a lot of mistakes that very recently Cuban historians and people who dedicate themselves to gather this information have discovered there’s a lot of mistakes on books written many years ago.

Alen:

Maybe you have heard that the first Cuban Son was something like El Son de la Ma Teodora. This is very common. You can hear this everywhere, El Son de la Ma Teodora. Son de la Ma … This means mother, Mother Teodora, La Ma Teodora. It’s called … It says nobody can actually say which is the exact date for the birth of son but during a very large period of time, history … the Cuban historians said that it … There was a document published in 1893 by Laureano Fuentes where he said that this Son de la Ma Teodora was the first son. It was composed by two sisters, Micaela and Teodora Gines. These were the two sisters. They were two nuns. Teodora was the one who wrote this song or anyway one of them two … The two sisters wrote Son de la Ma Teodora. So they say this happened as far away as in the 16th century. Good.

Alen:

Nowadays, we know this is a great mistake because what is important to know is that Cuban nationality and Cuban culture only was born on the second half of the 18th century. Before that there was no Cuban culture. So this is a big mistake. And now, what we … most of the people who do research, they say that they doubt that Son de la Ma Teodora existed at all. They think that this was a mistake by Laureano Fuentes taking a tune of last century … that was last century that sounded in some ways a variation of [inaudible 00:03:05]. He made a mistake. Even they felt that Teodora Gines ever existed herself. Yet, nothing is for sure. I say because you are going to be reading a lot of books and maybe even in, I don’t know, movies and things, this Son de la Ma Teodora. Now, we say it’s not true.

Alen:

Now, the real truth is that son begins in the countryside and very specifically in the mountains. This is one thing in theory. Another one is that they have a … It was born in many places of the country at the same time. But everybody agrees that this happened on the second half of the 18th century.

Alen:

And, now, we’re going to hear an example of son Sierra Maestra. Sierra Maestra is our biggest, highest mountains. And deep inside each woods, the mountains, these are recordings I’ve taken. It’s a party. It’s named nengon, nengon, nengon. Nengon is one of the names for son. You’ll hear there’s a … Changui is another name for a style of son and so on. So you can hear … That’s why son is a big group of different dances. Let’s hear this. Note how the transition from this African came to this. It’s very interesting. (music). It sounds African. [inaudible 00:04:48] the first son. [inaudible 00:04:56].

Speaker 2:

[inaudible 00:05:14]?

Alen:

No. It’s a tres [inaudible 00:05:17].

Speaker 2:

[inaudible 00:05:26].

Alen:

No. There is [inaudible 00:05:22].

Speaker 2:

[inaudible 00:05:27].

Alen:

Maybe [inaudible 00:05:33]. Note he says that when you hear the recording well you can hear [inaudible 00:05:36] also. Here it sounds very [inaudible 00:05:41]. Okay. We got to get a better recording [inaudible 00:05:49]. Okay. Okay.

Alen:

So, now, we have [inaudible 00:06:13] son. Now, son expanded to the whole territory in a very fast way. Not only through Cuba, it reached also Isla [inaudible 00:06:32]. It’s a small island we have. It’s part of Cuba. And also Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico also it reached. In this area the son have the musical form of a round dance. And it took from the Africans the solo and the refrain, the chorus.

Speaker 2:

[crosstalk 00:06:56]-

Alen:

And it mixed up … What?

Speaker 2:

That’s often referred to as call and response.

Alen:

Call and response. Yes, also. Okay. Call and response. But the call and response it can be made by two soloists.

Speaker 2:

So-

Alen:

So you have to have a solo and a group.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible 00:07:15].

Alen:

That’s the Africans.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Alen:

And also it got mixed up … what, with this alternation of solo and call. And it took the percussion instruments from the Africans and it took the guitars [inaudible 00:07:37], different types of string instruments, [inaudible 00:07:39] guitar and also tres, which is a Cuban version of the Spanish guitar. I’ll explain later what’s the difference. And we have, now, son. With all these mixings we have a new example of son. It’s very interesting this one. Now, we can hear the whole mixing. (music).

Speaker 2:

Seems exactly the same rhythm.

Alen:

But, now, we have the son [inaudible 00:08:09]. I think the examples are good. [inaudible 00:08:45]. Okay. [inaudible 00:09:57]. Now, of course, we have two choices because unluckily we need more time because I’m trying to do today son and danzon at least, because we have five groups, as fast as we can. Now, what is [inaudible 00:10:17]? The rest of it, what is now the more modern examples. After this, you can begin speaking about Benny More. You can hear Ben More. I have some examples. But we don’t have time. We don’t have time. But I think it’s already an introduction to son, I think. So what I suggest is to skip to danzon now, to do the same, to do the same just to … Now, danzon-

Speaker 3:

I have a question now.

Alen:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

Can you just explain how this kind of tumba developed, what you can hear on this recording in son?

Alen:

That would take … I know. I know. That’s what I do on piano lessons. Because if we do that you see tumba is quite different on each instrument. So I think tumba … It’s a question that is better solved on the instrument classes.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Also-

Alen:

Because it’s not the same tumba on guitars and in piano and so on.

Speaker 4:

[inaudible 00:11:18].

Alen:

But we can do that in some moment. But really it will take … It would take a lot of time. I don’t think-

Speaker 2:

Also [inaudible 00:11:25] concepts, which is starting tomorrow, which is also [inaudible 00:11:29]. They explain a lot of that. [inaudible 00:11:31].

Alen:

The purpose of this is to make a general overview, you see. That’s what we’re trying to do, to gather things up and then we go through specifically.

Speaker 2:

You mentioned the different names for different subcategories of son, the nengon and the changui-

Alen:

Yes. Nengon, changui, for example.

Speaker 2:

Were those correspond to different-

Alen:

Sucu-sucu also, that’s another one.

Speaker 2:

… geographical areas?

Alen:

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 2:

And then-

Alen:

Sucu-sucu, for example, is Latinos. Nengon is on the eastern side of the country in Sierra Maestra, for example. Changui also on the eastern provinces.

Speaker 2:

Do they use different instruments in different areas?

Alen:

Also, they have different instruments depending on what are the instruments of the immigrations. Sometimes it’s a little bit more Spanish. Sometimes it’s a little bit more French. Because we have tumba francesa from Haiti. Even British from [inaudible 00:12:33] we have the people living here. It’s very [inaudible 00:12:37]. But, yes, there is [inaudible 00:12:39]. Now, the second [inaudible 00:12:43] …

This interview with Orquesta Charangoa's Fay Roberts took place in July 2011.

This interview with Orquesta Charangoa’s Fay Roberts took place in July 2011

You can download the album here: Lo Que Quiero es Charangoa or on iTunes Orquesta Charangoa

PodcastInterview with Fay Roberts of CharangoaTranscript

Jon: I have with me Fay Roberts, she’s the founder and director of Orquesta Charangoa in Los Angeles. She has a new record out so we’re going to talk about that. But, I was talking earlier with her and we realized it’s been so long since we, A: had seen each other, but B: since we’ve met and recorded in Cuba. What was it, January of ’97 when we first met in Cuba?

Fay: That was our first trip… we went on this study trip… and I remember we really connected because you were like: “I don’t have time to goof around, I’m here to study music!” and I really admired that.

Jon: And I’m the one who ends up marrying down there… anyways…

Fay: [Laughs]

Jon: So, then, the interesting twist was, we both went back in December of ’97 and recorded some tracks for me with another singer in Los Angeles (which have actually not been released yet, they’re just sitting in my archives). But, that project involved Richard Egües who, unfortunately, passed on, but, why don’t you tell everybody what your connection with Richard was because he was such a big icon in the Charanga and Cha-Cha movement.

Fay: He was, he was the flutist of the Orquesta Aragon during that period when they were the most famous and popular all around the world. And, he was the flute teacher when I went to the class and on the first trip (we went on a study trip in January ’97). So, luckily I had had some experience playing Cuban music and I had a lot of experience of learning and playing by ear and that’s basically how he taught.

He’d play for us in the class and then, kind of, turn around and say: “OK, play exactly what I played or something really close to what I just played”. And my experience of having learned a hundred of Irish fiddle tunes by ear really came in handy. And, he absolutely took me under his wing and gave me a bunch of music on the first trip and said: “Go home and start a group, keep my music alive”.

And, when I went back, on a second trip, I lived at his house, was there for 3 weeks and took lessons 5 days a week.

Jon: Yeah, and I remember, I’m not sure that it was planned that you’d record a couple of tunes on that, because, I know, Richard was doing arrangements for me and him and his brother Blas were playing, but, it ended up that, I’m pretty sure, you played on at least 2 of the songs that we did.

Fay: I did, and I have that recording still.

Jon: I probably have it still as well …

Fay: I have a copy of that.

Jon: Yeah. Did you ever go back after that time, or see him after?

Fay: I did not… Actually, once I got the band (Orquesta Charangoa) up and running and we started working, I was really working all the time and I never really had a window. And, it just wasn’t the right time to go back for me.

Jon: Right, and unfortunately, he never got back here, to the States, so…

Fay: Well, he did, one time before he passed away. I believe it was in the… (we can research this out), it was the year Tito Puente died. So, it was either 2003 or ’04 (editors note; it was 2006, September 1). A group from Seattle worked it out for him to come.

He came with his daughter Gladys, they went to New York and visited their relatives there, then they flew to Seattle and then they flew down to San Francisco. We tried so hard to put together something so he could come down to LA, but we had a very short notice, the thing had already been set up.

So, I went up to San Francisco and attended all of the things that he did there.

Jon: OK, so you did get to see him. I saw him a few times just in my travels in Havana, but I never really saw him a whole bunch because he was always doing other things than I was doing…

Fay: He was very busy… When he was in San Francisco I arranged to take him to lens crafter to get him a new pair of glasses. That was really fun, there were people who recognized him (at the Lens Crafter’s) and went next door to a CD store and bought something that had El Bodeguero on it….

Jon: That’s funny…

Fay: … then brought it back to Lens Crafter’s and had him sign it.

There’s a little bit of L.A. in the background there, that’s a siren.

Yeah, and, he was actually, at that point, he was legally blind. It was… he just had, like, cataracts. And the thing is, since he wasn’t really driving so much, it wasn’t much of an issue (and, I assure you, at that point he was not driving at night).

Jon: Right, that would be scary.

Fay: Yeah, when I saw him walking around at night and how he was functioning, because I teach blind people, I went, “Oh my Gosh, now he’s legally blind too”. But he had people around helping him and that didn’t hold him back, musically, one bit.

Influences for Orquesta Charangoa

Jon: Right, well, let me lead you to your next, or, my next question is, you’ve got your new album out, does it have any of… I mean, obviously it would have his influences, but are there any of his arrangements, of his tunes in or are they all originals?

Fay: The tunes are… you know, I thought I was including a tune that he wrote because he had given it to me and up until I went to pay the publishing, I realized that it was written by someone else.

Jon: Oh, OK.

Fay: And that tune is um… so actually, on the first CD I have 6 compositions of his, that he had given me, on the first CD. On the second CD, unfortunately, I do not have any compositions that he wrote.

Jon: What’s the name of the 2nd CD so that they know where to buy it and all that?

Fay: OK, the 2nd CD is called “Fay Roberts Y Su Orquesta Charangoa” and the title of the CD is “Lo Que Quiero es Charangoa”. And that’s named after, actually not the title track, because the title track I wanted to name it (“Que Viva La Charanga”) is already a CD by another artist.

So, there are 3 originals on this CD that were written for me, for this CD, 2 were written by Johnny Crespo (which is “Que Viva La Charanga” and “Son Montueando”). It’s actually written by Johnny Crespo and Matt Amper. You may have heard of Johnny, he’s very active in LA.

Jon: Yeah, I’ve heard of him.

Fay: Johnny’s like a veteran guy. He’s in LA Salsa Society, Costazul… and Matt Amper is, kind of, a young and up and coming pianist. Who could take Johnny’s ideas and turn it into a chart, you know, to hand me.

Jon: Right.

Fay: The other tune, “Lo Que Quiero es Charangoa” is written by our pianist, and also, another singer of ours Fermin Sinfontes who is Cuban.

Jon: Ok, who else played on it? Do you have your regular crew or… you’ve had some guests, I know that.

Fay: I’ve had some guests. My regular crew is, the rhythm section, which is myself, Alfred Ortiz (Congas and Vocals) and Fermin (Piano and Vocals). I’ve got John Pintoff on Bass, George Ortiz who sometimes plays with me (he used to play with me all the time), he ended up being my Timbalero for the project and Tony Alba plays Guiro for us, and my violins are my regular guys: Pablo Mendez Sr. and Pablo Mendez Jr. I was lucky enough to get Adonis Puentes to come on board…

… who’s a wonderful Cuban singer who is just moving to L.A. He’s been in British Columbia for the past couple of years. Johnny Crespo, I included him as a guest artist because he’s not regularly performing with me.

James Zavaleta, I just met him through this project, very outstanding, talented singer in L.A. who sings in English and Spanish and actually works with a Persian band. And, Gonzalo Chomat who’s my regular singer but I called him a guest artist because he has a deal with Timba.com so we always announce him as a Timba.com artist.

Jon: Right. Well, was there any theme on this album different than your first one or was it just, you know, “We just want more Charanga”?

Fay: Oh yeah. There’s a theme. You know, the first CD, the choice of songs was really different. It was like, “What do I have from Richard?” and then I got some other contributions from an arranger Harry Scorzo who did all the Bongo Logic stuff. So, that was, kind of, the way the selection happened on the first CD.

On the 2nd CD, it was like here’s these songs that my friends have written for us, for the band and then I did want to pick out something really, really outside of the box, which is “Just Dance”, a cover of the Lady Gaga hit.

And Harry Scorzo helped me out on that arrangement. All the rest of the arrangements I did myself and I wanted to pick songs that reflect what the dancers want to hear in Los Angeles.

Jon: Right.

Charanga Dura

Fay: People like something that’s a little bit hard core, a little bit faster, like, “What is considered dance music in Los Angeles?” And then, put our very best take on that.

Jon: Right, because I notice when I listen to the tracks, the flute is definitely… you can hear Richard’s influence obviously on that, but I did notice that the rhythm section is a little bit more dura (hard) than you would find in New York Charanga scene scene. I mean, it’s got a more of an edge to it, I think.

Fay: Yes, yes and it’s to promote the band in that light. It’s very hard having a Charanga in Los Angeles. I’ve had club owners tell me that I’m going to play Cha Cha Cha and it’s going to be really boring and slow all night. And, I think if they listen to this CD, they won’t think it’s boring, slow Cha-cha-cha whole night.

Jon: No, there’s definitely… I wouldn’t say that at all because I’ve played in those bands and I get bored, much less the people listening. But, I mean, I listened to the tracks, I bought the record which is available at CDBaby and where else was it, was it anywhere else?

Fay: Yes, right now it’s on my website charangoa.com, it’s on CDBaby, it’s on Descarga and it’s here, in Los Angeles at Amoeba Records. In about a week (should be a week) it’ll be on iTunes and Amazon.

Jon: OK.

Fay: But there’s a little delay, you go through CDBaby to get that and it takes… there’s a little bit of delay before it goes on those sites.

Jon: Right, but, I want people to know it is available now if they want it. Otherwise, if they have their Amazon account they can wait and get it (or their iTunes, whatever).

Fay: Right, right now, you can buy every track digitally, or, you can order the whole CD and hold it in your hand.

Lady Gaga

Jon: I’m curious, because I’ve listened to it, I’ve played it actually for my wife, the Lady Gaga tune and she was shocked about how it turned out. Why did you pick that? Was that, kind of, a fun think or making a statement?

Fay: I wanted to pick an American pop tune that could translate into a Cha-cha-cha. When I heard that tune I was, “You know what, the tempo’s great”. I liked the energy of the song. I’m not a huge Lady Gaga fan, but, I thought the song would translate well into Cha-cha-cha and I wanted to have something on the CD in English. And a lot of people say that, like, “Oh, the song…” and then it takes a big left turn and it really changes… We had a lot of fun with that.

Jon: I can imagine, it is, kind of, a left turn, but it’s cool because it’s, like you say, you call it a bonus track. But even though it’s on the CD, but, I think it could, you know, everybody thinks of Rock and Cha-cha-cha, they think Carlos Santana or, you know, those old, 60’s bands that played that. But, this is so different, I really think people would get a kick out of listening to it and if they don’t buy the whole CD, at least buy some tracks off of it.

Fay: Yes, I was hoping that that tune would be the one that crosses over or made it to radio. But, the things that I picked and the things that DJs who now have it and are playing it on radio stations, they’ve picked different tunes.

Jon: What did they pick then?

Fay: They are picking, well, everyone’s picking “Preparen Candela”.

Jon: Right, that’s the number 3 tune on the record, right?

Fay: Number 3, and number 5 “Vengo Diferente” and number 7 “No Tiene Rival” I’m getting a lot of hits and downloads for those two tunes.

Jon: Right, well that’s really cool.

Fay: Yes, and some people are like, first thing they say is, “Oh, Oye Como Va. Oh, I’m so excited you have that on there” and other people are like, “Why did you put that on there?” with the, kind of, distaste in their voice.

Jon: Well, you can’t please everybody, but if you’re making somebody mad and somebody happy, you’re probably doing OK.

Fay: Yeah [Laughs], thank you.

Jon: I mean, that’s just the way it is. No matter what you do, somebody’s going to hate it and somebody’s going to love it.

Fay: Well, I put it on the CD because I wanted to give a nice long feature for Pablo Mendez Senior. He’s an amazing Charanga violinist. But also, every time I play that song I sell CDs and if I sell a lot of CDs I can make the next recording…

The Los Angeles Concert Scene

Jon: Well, that’s the bottom line… Are you doing any concerts outside LA, I know you’re pretty much a regular fixture down at, what’s the place called….

Fay: Oh, El Floridita.

Jon: El Floridita, the Cuban restaurant, but are you planning anything outside L.A.?

Fay: Right now, I have not had a real, legitimate offer to go outside of L.A., I’ve had offers, but when it all comes down to it, they weren’t legitimate.

Jon: Right, how about even in L.A.; I know you play at El Floridita and every once in a while you’ll play some festivals and stuff, anything interesting coming up?

Fay: Oh, this Saturday we’re playing at the Leavitt Pavillion at MacArthur Park which is quite an esteemed gig, a very nice job. And then we’ll be at the Oxnard Salsa Festival and we’ll be at LACMA at August 6th and we’ll be at the 100th year anniversary of the city of San Fernando on the August 28th. So, usually, in the summer, we’re playing festivals every weekend.

Jon: OK.

Fay: And a lot of them are really small, you know, Pan American festival in Lakewood and all these little ones you’ve never heard of, but this year, I was making the CD and I did not get to do the marketing I would normally do.So, next year, we’re going to be doing every venue.

Jon: Right.

Fay: Once this CD gets out there in the world it’s going to open a lot of doors. And, some of my regular places I play every year just didn’t hear from me this year, so…

Jon: Right, so, out of sight – out of mind?

Next Orquesta Charangoa CD

Fay: Yes, yes. But, they’ll have a new CD in their hands next year…

Jon: Right, do you have any plans to do the 3rd or you’re just… I mean, obviously, you probably do, but, there’s no concrete plans, obviously, for that?

Fay: No concrete plans because, honestly, I wish I was done with this CD, but, I’m just doing the promotion now and putting a lot of effort into that and I appreciate very much what we’re doing here today to help people know about the CD and about the music… I actually, when I finished the first CD, I had 1 song in my mind and I thought, “I’m so mad I didn’t record that song, for sure, that’s going on the next CD”.

Jon: Right.

Fay: That song is called “Cuidado Que Se Pega”, it’s number 6, the one I thought Richard has written.

Jon: Oh, OK.

Fay: And, I always wanted to do “Danzonette” too those, kind of, stuck in my craw. And right now, I have a couple of songs that I feel the same way. I wish I had recorded this other one Richard gave me, “Hasta los ojos bailar el son”,  and the song just wasn’t at a good-enough shape at the time I did this recording to put it on there.

And I also have another song that Johnny wrote for me called “Saxophoneria” that’s a merengue. I have those two songs ready for the next CD.

Jon: Well, I’ll have to give you a…

Fay: … and it’ll just…

Jon: And I’ll give you “La Menieto” and we’ll just have to arrange it for Charanga instead of the way I did it…

Fay: Great.

Jon: Then you got it. Because I have rights to that and Richard would not mind at all.

Fay: Yes, so I’ve got these first 3 and it’ll just evolve from there when the money comes in. I actually had a plan to do this CD in 2009, but the economic situation from 2008 prohibited me from doing it at that time.

Jon: I know, I understand that. People don’t realize that even though the CD may not cost much to make for the piece of plastic or the tracks but, they don’t realize how much studio time, arranging, you have to pay band people to come in (even if they’re in your own band), most of them are still getting paid for it.

Fay: Everybody got paid.

Jon: Right, it’s not like a rock band where they all sleep in the same room and they record and, you know, they all split the money. That’s really not the way this kind of music works. So, it’s an expensive proposition.

Fay: Right… And it’s a very niche market Charanga. It’s sort of, really falling between cracks. It’s not Latin Jazz, it’s… people dance salsa to it and it’s not exactly salsa…

Jon: Right.

Cuban Salsa with violins and flutesLa ENA Havana Cuba

Fay: Although, to make it easy, I tell people it’s like Cuban Salsa with violins and flute.

Jon: [Laughs]

Fay: That helps people, kind of, categorize it.

Jon: Right, just tell them its Cuban music and they’re alright. Yeah, but, I mean, I’m in the same boat. I mean, who listens to Changüi and Son? It’s the same boat. The niche markets, we have to help each other out but, we do what we do and we gotta do it. That’s what my friend Julian (Fernandez) down there whom you met, who played bass with Moncada, he said: “The difference between most other artists and musicians is, we play whether we get paid or not, we just have to do it”.

Fay: Exactly, I always say: “If I really wanna make money, I’m going to start a Cumbia band.

Jon: Right, or a Mariachi band. Alright, I’m going to wrap this up for everybody and I want to remind everybody that the new record’s up and I’ll let you give the details and all that and then we’ll talk on the next one or if you have any good news, let me know and we’ll do another interview.

Fay: That’s great, thank you so much Jon.

The CD is called “Lo Que Quiero es Charangoa”. You can find it if you do a search for Charangoa just like that, it’ll come up. You can just go on charangoa.com, let’s see, this is the 2nd week of July, by next week it should be on Amazon and iTunes. Right now, it’s on CDBaby, descarga.com and elwatusi.com and you can buy the whole CD or you can just purchase tracks.

Jon: And I suggest you buy the whole CD but there are great tracks, and at elWatusi, which is where I bought it, you can preview everything so that’s really nice too. So you can, if you don’t want to spend a $10 on a CD and you only have a couple of bucks you can listen to what tracks you want.

Fay: Right, and you can listen to it even if you’re not going to buy it, just to get a flavor of what we’re doing. I’d appreciate that so much, everyone giving a little listen. I think you can listen to all the samples and it’s about 4 minutes.

You can download the album here: Lo Que Quiero es Charangoa or on iTunes Orquesta Charangoa ​