Music is unquestionable one of the most fertile, rich and prolific expressions of the culture created in Cuba through the years. It is not surprising, therefore, that the editorial catalog devoted to analyzing, studying, assessing its scope and significance is abundant and diverse.
In that extensive bibliography, there is a book that deals with the subject from a perspective hardly little approached on the island. In the pages of this work, the author explores Cuban music scene from the record, as essential support to treasure the memory of this expression of national culture.
In “Musica Cubana: la aguja en el surco” (Ediciones Cubanas ARTEX, 2015, 224 pp), Jose Reyes-Fortun provides a documented approach on the development of phonographic records in Cuba - since mid XIX century to the present day - and on soloists and bands that left the testimony of their art in those records.
The two chapters gather lectures, articles, reviews and notes. All those texts offer the reader, through a suggestive and substantially reflexive discourse, an interesting look at the almost unknown record world that, unquestionably contain valuable information.
The researcher thus approaches subjects such as Cuban record industry from 1944 to 1959, the impact of jazz in the national discography from 1898 to 1950, songs and singers in the musical discography of the island between the 1900’s and 1920’s and the presence of “La Unica“ Rita Montaner.
“El curso de la aguja en tiempo de son” is one of the anthologized texts, whose original version appeared in 2004, in Cubadisco newspaper. Here is a fragment of that review:
“The impact of Son in Cuban musical scene swiftly managed to prevail in popular acceptance, until it stood in the way of the path so far freely trodden by Danzon, Criolla, Clave and bolero, thanks to innovative and rich rhythmic designs, supported by timbres that unquestionably revolutionized the styles of playing, dancing and even singing our music.
Popular musicians assimilated and introduced in their repertoires this way of making music, and with it the wish to promote the dance. They thus attained greater popularity, underpinned by the distinct interest of American record companies. Juan Cruz, Floro Zorrilla, Miguel Zabala, Pablito Armiñan, Manuel Luna and Bienvenido Leon had so far been exponents of a refined troubadour song. All of a sudden, they became duets, trios and quartets that played Son and somehow heralded the merger that Miguel Matamoros eventually crystallized with the bolero-Son “Lagrimas Negras.”
Jose Reyes-Fortun is a musicologist and phonography expert at the National Music Museum, (Havana, 1946). He has conducted an active research and promotion of Cuban music, which has earned him, among other recognitions, the 2001, and 2005 Juan Marinello Research Prizes and the 2011 Cubadisco Honor Award.
He systematically collaborates with periodical national and foreign publications and is the author, of other books-albums, such as “Ofrenda criolla: aproximacion a una discografia de Benny More”, “El gran tesoro de la musica cubana”, “Bio-bibliografia de Odilio Urfe”, “El Conjunto Casino: los campeones del ritmo”, and “El arte de Benny More.”
“Reading and learning from these writings - says researcher Ricardo Roberto Oropesa, in his foreword to “Musica Cubana: la aguja en el surco” - is like attending and relishing a concert with pleasure and good taste. This is what Jose Reyes-Fortun invites us to do: to listen to music of all times.”
Jose Reyes-Fortun’s book will not disappoint the lovers of the best Cuban music. Because, as it is easy to see, the researcher handles, with skill and dexterity, the resources that allow him to stir the curiosity and interest of those who reach these pages.
Translated by Pedro A. Fanego
