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There are seven of them, they are all only about thirty years old and they have already set their sights very high. With a suburban Havana look (tracksuits, dreadlocks and baseball caps on back to front), the members of Asere (pronounced aséré, meaning “my friend” in the local slang) take a malicious pleasure in jostling the music of the Cuban granddads in order to give it a new youth.
However, this attitude is by no means iconoclastic: more like a healthy respect for the past allowing them to lean on it in order to create new things. Whilst using the tonalities of “Son”, determined in the 30s, with guitar, tres (small guitar with three double strings), double-bass, brass and percussion, their compositions and their covers of little known pieces reveal great originality, stemming from exuberance and modernity. Quite obviously these youngsters are not playing for the tourists.
Photograph : John Hollis.
The seven habaneros met up following a job offer in the Canaries. The project did not follow through but a group was born, and they were to have more luck later on. In 1996, John Hollis, manager of Toto la Momposina, the Colombian diva, was in Havana. He received an invitation from the group to come and see them rehearse. Just another invitation: the manager, as always in great demand, is a bit reticent, but accepts the invitation. And that is when it happened. John was quite taken by their philosophy: to recover the contact with the earth of their ancestors without being old-fashioned and with no beatific nostalgia. The result was explosive and astonishingly creative. Back in Europe he persuaded Label Bleu – Indigo, with a very bad quality cassette. The energy was there. The first album was rapidly recorded with Toto’s usual team. Also quite taken, the Colombian singer suggested the name: Asere, which means “my friend” in Havana slang, as a way of underlining the conviviality and the spirit of fun, which emanates from the group’s music.
For their first album, Cuban Soul, the young Cubans were inspired by the unpolished Son of a certain Arsenio Rodriguez, who was a great success in the 40s. A tribute to tradition, this album transcends time and is resolutely anchored in the present. Power and inspiration are there, radically up-to-date.
The second album is certainly not a repetition of the first. Asere know how to innovate whilst still respecting the past and claiming their heritage. Take Yo soy el son (also the name of the album) and Tengo ganas, both composed by Adan Pedroso, the leader-founder of Asere. Adan is inspired by La Nueva Trova, which he grew up in (popular musical movement in Cuba in the 60s and 70s, of which Pablo Milanes and Silvio Rodriguez are the most famous representatives) and enriches the sonority with Jazz harmonies and the rhythms of Salsa.
Go to :
Estrella de la Charanga ; Magaly Bernal.
Contacts
Agent
Country: Royaume-Uni
Name: John Hollis / Astar
Tel: 44 1225 319 944
Fax: 44 1225 319 229
E-mail: admin@astarmusic.co.uk
Website: www.astarmusic.co.uk
Adress: 95, Penn Hill Road
BA1 3RT Bath
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