Los Heroes
Call it the originalBuena Vista Social Club. Back in 1979 a crew of Cuba's best musicians got together in Egrem Studios in Havana and recorded epic sessions that were later issued on Egrem's Areito label. Brought together by African musical impresario Raoul Diomandé, and under the direction of trombonist Juan Pablo Torres, these 30 "stars" poured their hearts into a series of long, energetic tracks (running 7 to 15 minutes apiece) that burn up the aluminum on the two CDs they are now housed on. Many names leap out of the roster:Paquito D'Rivera,Rubén González, Israel Perez, Pio Leyva, andArturo Sandovaljust for a start. They are small parts in a group that spanned three generations from across the island, and they fused the violin-basedtipicaswith thetresand horns of the jazzier conjuntos to create a sound that shook the city and spread out to the world. Torres's inventive arrangements and his willingness to allow for a lot of improvisation within that framework mark this as an exciting adventure.--Louis Gibson