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Ska Cubano



Last Updated: 12/2/2009

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Status: Single
City: London
Country: UK
Signup Date: 6/14/2006

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 

Current mood:  adventurous

2009 - Award Nominee by  Songlines Magazine ....

2007 - Award Nominee by  BBC Radio 3, World Music Awards ..

2005 - Top of the world album  by Songlines Magazine....

        - Guest Artist at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony....

 

10:06 PM 
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Thursday, May 07, 2009 

Current mood:  adventurous
Ska Cubano will be performing at Festival Latinoamericando in Italy on the 17th August 2009.

For more on the band check videos on you tube.http://www.latinoamericando.it


4:12 PM 
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009 

Current mood:  animated
Category: Friends
Time: 7.30pm - 3am
SKA CUBANO & MESSIN' AROUND CLUBNIGHT
Ska Cubano was created in London as a cross-generational and cross-cultural Ska superband – the 12-piece line-up featuring such luminaries as Jamaican Trumpet legend Eddie “Tan Tan” Thornton (having played with everyone from Bob Marley to The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix) to hot Japanese alto and baritone Saxophonist Megumi Mesaku (Natty Bo’s former wife and key collaborator in Top Cats), Cuban-born Rey Crespo on Double Bass, Jesus Cutino on Tres and Congalero Oreste Noda, and veteran West Indian Rock and Reggae Drummer Dr Sleepy. The combined meld of influences of this cream of Musicians result in an exhilarating new fusion, a completely new direction, but a music that is recognisably, irrepressibly, Cuban, Ska-Cubano.
6:09 PM 
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Thursday, June 22, 2006 

Album Review: Ska Cubano - Ay Caramba! (Casino Sounds)

Writer: John Armstrong

Ay Caramba! Cover Ska Cubano's music brings instant grins to everyone, no doubt about it. The brains behind the operation are Peter Scott (production) and Natty Bo (instrumental niceness). That's not to ignore the 24-carat players' roster on this set, such as Cuban vocalist Beny Billy, my good friend Rey Crespo on bass, and an array of Cuban and British keyboard, brass and percussion talent: but the grin factor comes from the group's overall concept: Caribbean, Cuban and novelty tunes done over in a detail-perfect ska-style this may be, but the underlying feel is that unmistakably, uniquely British, cheeky-chappie cockney vibe, in the grand tradition of Joe Brown, Lonnie Donegan, Trevor Peacock, Chas & Dave, Madness, and general two-tone tomfoolery. In short, I love it!

Whilst the self-titled debut LP played it hard but relatively safe, with a great ska version of the Lucho Bermudez gaita/porro classic San Fernando being the highlight, the guys were loose enough even then to do Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - just as, on the this new set, they blast away with an off-the-wall version of Istanbul: and from the first few bars, you just know you're in for the full ride. Cubano's Big Bamboo sent me hunting through my collection for the original Duke Of Iron version and playing the two, back to back, at a DJ gig at Notting Hill Arts Club - that's how inspirational the boys' musical selections are.

Ska Cubano's other claim to fame is resurrecting the long-neglected 'Afro' rhythm -no, not Fela Kuti, this is the moniker given to a particular style years back by the great Miguelito Valdes. The first album revived Valdes' biggest 50s 78rpm seller Babalu, whilst this set gives us Margarita Lecuona's Tabu, also popularised by Valdes way back. Add to this the Clancy Eccles standard Natty/Sammy No Dead, and an insane bonus track, the Colombian drinking song La Boquilla, and you have an essential party/carnival record, whatever your Caribbean musical predilections.

4:37 AM 
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Thursday, June 22, 2006 
Ska Cubano
Ska Cubano
(Casino Sounds)

There are very few musical spaces where punks will happily rub scuffed shoulders with long-haired Womad goers, who will in turn buy a round for their friendly skinhead pals. But ska is just such a place - a strangely global, fringe music that cuts through skin colour and style factions with blasting brass and frantic percussion.

Listening to Ska Cubano's debut you begin to understand just why. In this wonderful Cuban-Jamaican take on the genre, you will hear reggae, salsa, Brazilian ritualistic music, Klezmer-style sax, big band brass and little bits of cumbia and son rhythms too. What is noteworthy is that far from tapping into these individual styles to concoct some kind of hybrid fusion, this effervescent four-piece choose  to invoke each genre and work it out in a riotous jam. Songs may hop around the tropics as they develop, but you get the crisp feel of legendary signatures by the likes of Beny Moré (on "Yiri Yiri Bon") or Celia Cruz (on "Bárbaro del Rítmo") as you go along.

One of the most upbeat albums to appear this year, Ska Cubano is held together by a nifty, infectious beat (think Madness at midnight in Havana), vast resources of humour, well-chosen songs from an ethnic entrepot that mixes Cuban strands as diverse as Yoruba, mambo and more recent Afro sounds. The great production is thanks to the indefatigable Natty Bo, producer and leader of London ska band Top Cats, who went out to Santiago to Cuba on a mission to rescue this great crossover legacy from the dusty archives.

Sometime this summer you'll probably have heard the lively title track of this album based on a Moré track from the late 50s, it has a rolling chorus designed to kick the bands name into your memory with a Doc Martens-style boot. After all the veteran soneros and sub-standard Buena Vista offshoots, this isn't quite a virtuoso venture, but it is a rudely likeable one.  

Historically speaking, it's a leap back to pre-revolutionary days when musicians and their preferred styles hopped freely round the Caribbean but it sounds young and feels fresh, and is yet another new wave rolling in from an island where change and evolution are daily bread.

Reviewer: Chris Moss

4:29 AM 
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