Buckle
up tight: exhilarating stuff from the youthful Alvarez
Singer David Alvarez is currently Cuba’s hottest ticket and his
second disc for Tumi records (following Mondo Loco) reveals why. The
youthful Alvarez and his seven-piece band of music graduates have benefited
from Cuba’s increasing openness to outside music, and their dazzling
new sound is giving salsa just the jolt it needed. Their skilful musicianship
reveals influences from various strands of salsa, Colombian cumbia and
rap, yet the sound remains unambiguously Cuban. From the confident introductory
rush of a capella singing in ‘Juana la Loca’ to the sparkling
traditional tres guitar solos in ‘Cuatro Palabras’, this
is exhilarating, groundbreaking stuff.
Alvarez’s strong and versatile voice, with its distinctive vibrato,
holds many references, but most obviously those of Miami’s singer-songwriter
Willie Chirino (who covered the Alvarez song ‘Bongo’). He
adopts Chirino’s emotive tremolo voice to great effect, particularly
on ‘Muchacha’, and like Chirino he remoulds Cuba’s
thrusting, upbeat, bass-loaded timba and draws on Caribbean and Latin
American rather than New York salsa influences. Young musicians all
around Latin America are listening to each other’s music, and
the Cubans are in on the game. ‘El Beso’ exposes Alvarez’s
love for the songs of 80s revolutionary Juan Luis Guerra, and there’s
a maverick re-make of the cha-cha-cha ‘Que rico vacilon’
as ‘Amor a Primera Vista’ (Love at First Sight). A splash
of tango accordion and a trilling charanga flute are loaded onto straight
bachata featuring soukous-style guitar. Phew! These exhilarating songs
are a dancer’s dream – but they’re also worth close
listening.
-
Sue Steward
