Sue Miller gets spellbound by the magic and contemporary grooves of Cuba's, Madera Limpia. La Corona is an imaginative mix of rap, reggae and changui that reflects the Cuba of today. With hard hitting lyrics and an original approach to the musical traditions of the Carribean, their songs are destined to become future classics.......
Madera Limpia (meaning 'pure wood') is more than a hybrid rap fusion album as it is an imaginative mix of rap, reggae, changui (a traditional style from Guantananamo) and countless other Cuban and international styles. Using real instruments against clearly articulated vocals the sound is both acoustic and electric, mixing as it does hip hop sounds and rap with the changui rhythms of the tres and the hot sound of 'Oriente' trumpet (played exquisitely by Gil Guillermo Henderson Ledesma). You can hear the sounds of the guitar strings, the snare and cymbal and even a tuba on the delicious track 'La Lenta'. Despite the fact that the group is vocal-led even a non-Spanish speaker would enjoy the majority of these tracks as the arrangements are so varied and musically interesting.
The first track 'En La Esquina', (at the street corner), starts playfully with the song as heard on a small radio before the hip hop sound kicks in. The magpie nature of the music is never contrived and ideas are well worked out whilst never over-staying their welcome. The traditional changui sounds are sometimes distorted for effect or joined by a heavier electric bass, (traditional changui bass is played on the 'marimbula', a box with metal keys that are struck like a large 'sit down' thumb piano), but the tres with electric bass really works in the context of both rap and reggae in vocalist Gerald Thomas Collymore's agile arrangements.
The Cuba of Buena Vista Social Club, often cited when discussing Cuban music, never really existed but the musicians on that World Circuit project were part of a generation of musicians from the 1940s and 50s who have greatly added to the cultural musical heritage of the island. Centuries of musical innovation in Cuba continues today in the work of Madera Limpia as you can hear references to this rich cultural heritage in a modern context. They draw on American styles of rap and hip hop and Jamaican reggae and dancehall, suffusing their music with the spirit of changui and son, styles that originated in the east (Oriente) of Cuba. For example on track two, 'Loco' (madman or idiot), you can hear the coro vocals sing 'Bla Bla Bla Ble Ble Ble' in a call and response section between congas and timbales, referencing Chano Pozo's composition 'Blen Blen Blen'. The singers are able to both rap and sing melodically and in fact are also following a tradition of two voice harmony prevalent in Cuban traditional music, that of voz primera and la voz de segundo.
On track three 'Perro Que Ladra' ( dogs that bark don't bite), the violin plays charanga riffs alongside the tres patterns (charanga is a form of Cuban dance music led by flute and violins) and a charanga groove emerges towards the end of this track. On track nine 'Tirando Con La Cara' (never ending greed), about men who leave the countryside to live a life of prostitution in Havana, the tres and violin riffs evoke the purity of the countryside they have left, contrasting with the hard soul-selling grind of the capital city, represented by the rap and the reggaeton. The lyrics reflect the reality of living in Cuba today, with its economic difficulties and the rise of sex tourism and the title of the album 'La Corona' (Crown or Halo) reflects the overriding theme of the album, that of the necessity to rise above these problems through humanity and dignity.
I never thought I would enjoy traditional Cuban changui mixed with rap and reggae but on this album Madera Limpia have wrought magic with their imaginative grooves, proving that hybrid fusions can work on all levels - their words are the modern equivalent of that perennial favourite 'Guantanamera' as Yacel and Gerald 'cantan sus versos del alma' (sing from the heart).
Sue Miller 8th September 2008.
La Coronais released on the Outhere label on 29th September.
Outhere Records Website
