"Marianao" - Cristina Azcuy

• artist:Cristina Azcuy
• region:Caribbean
• release year:2003
• style(s):Cuban, Son
• country:Cuba
• formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
• record posted by:Soneros All Stars
• label:Soneros Records
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A must for every lover of Cuban music! An
album dedicated to the legendary Compay
Segundo. If you go three chilometres to the
south of Havana's city center you will notice
how the sun-bleached tarmac turns into red
and brown soil and how the smell of the
ocean vanquishes the stench from garbage
and diesel. You now find yourself in
Marianao. In this old suburb, not far from the
legendary but now closed dancehall called
Buena Vista Social Club, some of Havana's
top musicians and vocalists gathered in the
summer of 2002. The purpose was to make
an album with an astounding singer:
Cristina Azcuy. "Marianao" is a collection of
music that feels warm and alive, with
traditional songs being mixed with new
material. Four years after Fidel Castro had
toppled the Batista regime, Cristina Azcuy
was born. According to the ancient culture
and religion of Yoruba, her birth took place
in the sign of Yemaya, the goddess of the
ocean. Fortytwo years later Cristina is one of
Cuba's strongest vocalists, with a voice that
resounds with over five hundred years of
cultural and racial blending. Her powerful
energy and charisma stems from the afro-
european tradition. You simply have to
experience this album! Cristina Azcuy is a
brilliant artist who makes the listener forget
about time and space. Her playful manners
are mixed with total musical control. She will
rock your world. Marianao lovingly handles
the musical genre that evolved on the
Cuban countryside in the beginning of the
last century. "Son" became the music and
comfort of slaves and poor farmworkers. The
roots were in Africa, France and Spain.
Today the son music has been reawaken by
the Buena Vista Social Club albums, which
have sold in the millions, but the truth is that
this gently grooving celebration of everyday
life never died. It had merely been resting in
the shadows. And besides: the music of son
can never be rushed...