Pasiόn De Buena Vista
(Exlusive rights for Greece)
SHOW INFORMATION
From 2009 on, a new, spectacular Music- and Dance performance is on its way!!!
A Music & Dance Experience:
- Live from Cuba-
- 8 incredible dancers from „Tropicana“
- 3 unique singers from the heart of Cuba, „Companeros de Buena Vista
- 10 headcount live-band „ La Idea „
- 3 backround singers from „ La Idea „
- numerous unique costumes
Hot rythms, delicate dances, exotic beauties and melodies to dream of will take you on a tour through exciting cuban nights.
„PASIÓN DE BUENA VISTA“ will lead you to the streets of the caribean island, to make you take part of unspoiled, cuban joy of life.
Unique and original cuban personalities, top of the pops cuban singers and extraordinary dancers as well as a unique stage-performance, stage-backdrop and breath-taking projections will infect you with the humour and temper of Cuba....
THE SHOW
Musical Background and Complexity of Cuban Music:
If there is one thing to display cuban mentality the best, then it is music and dance.
Today, world-wide well-known styles of music, like Rumba, Mambo, Cha Cha Cha and Salsa originate from 4 basic elements, put together by the times.
Originally, despite percussions and claves, there are no other instruments. The integration of melodic instruments developed the today known, commercialised version of the Rumba and other fashionable dances like the Mambo.
The interaction of singers and the choire marks the „Son“, originator of todays Salsa.
The „Danzon“ has been rejected by the upper class in Cuba for a long time, but is today the most popular dance on the island. The Cha Cha Cha developed out of it.
Singers, travelling through the country, used to sing sad and beautiful ballads. During the revolutionary years, the lyrics were changed thematically and used for propaganda. Later, the musicians returned to their original contents.
Today, the „cuban“ style of music people realize when travelling Cuba, therefore is a synthesis of african percussion with spanish Coplas and its instrumentalisation.
The Son is definately the most popular one, invented by the sugarcane-harvesters in Santiago during the 1920´s.
Originally, this performance was made for 3 people, accompanied by the spanish and latin-american, 3-doublestringed guitar. Claves and Maracas built the rythm.
After and after, with the massive and fast spread of the Son throughout the country, more instruments joined the show: the wooden Bass, Bongos, Marimbulas and in the 1940´s and 50´s Trumpets, coming from traditional American Big-Band.
This builds a complex, polyrythmic combination of tones, which sounds like the perfect chaos to european ears in the first place. But the defined and unique sounds drag the audience and puts it under a fascinated spell.
„Pasión de Buena Vista“ will let you enjoy this almost culinary, but selected combination of cuban joy of life.
ARTIST INFORMATION
Maida Castaneda
was born 1941 in Guisa, a small town in the Sierra Meastra as daughter of the director and leader of the orchester in Guisa. On the side of her father, she discovered her passion for music and soon met the all over famous Bennie Morae, Cuba´s most famous composer. Morae, author of Ernest Hmingways favorite song, was excited by the incredible talent of the young girl and supported her professional education in singing in Bayamo.
In 1989, at the festival „Original de Manzanillo“, she performed for the first time on the side of Ibrahim Ferrer, which led to a loyal friendship that lasted until the death of Ferrer. Over the years, she collected 23 prizes at the festival „Musica National de Bayamo“, always competiting with famous Omara Portuondo. Every time, it was never clear till the end who of the two singers was going to take the prize home. Another musical friendship for years, is to Eliades Ochoa.
For her european audience, Maida Castaneda wants to bring close cuban culture and way of life, at the same time dreaming of seeing the domains of Mozart and Bach, her favorite composers, with her very own eyes .
Tomas Sanchez
born 1948 as the fourth child of a singer and a Tres-Guitar-player has music in his blood, no wonder when joyful sounds and rythms of cuban music already accompanied him when he was a baby. Tomas soon knew, „Music is my life!“.
he started to play Congas, studied the trumpet, performed in several bands e.g. the „Sierra Maestra“ of Juan de Marcos Gonzáles and discovered singing to be his passion.
In the 1980´s he made history with the famous „Compay Segundo“. On a journey to one of the 50 concerts they held together, the world-famous „Chan Chan“ was created. With this hit, Compay Segundo travelled to the USA in 1989 and were signed by a major label.
Tomas Sanchez is the only person to be allowed to use this international hit free of charge, based on his very old friendship to Compay Segundo.
Pachin Inocencio
was the happiest baby on earth soon after his birth in December 1933, so says his family, when he could join the rehearsals of his parents, just lying in the cradle nearby. Infected by a musical-fever in this early age, 6-year-old Pachin started to play percussion but switched soon to join his mother´s passion for singing. At the age of ten, he already helped numerous Cubans to conquer the hearts of their beloved. For a couple of Pesos, the keen young fellow sang the most beautiful lovesongs under the balcony of a young woman.
During his studies of music he was not only able to develop his talent in singing, but also learned all instruments of cuban music and plays them all until this day.
Even before becoming a big shot in music himself, he met all the big numbers of the cuban scene at an early age. Being 13, he became friends with, at this time, 19-year-old Ibrahim Ferrer, from then on performing together for many years.
Omara Portuondo is also one of Pachin´s colleagues and friends, when they perform together at the Carneval in Santiago de Cuba the crowd goes wild.
Antonio Castro
founder and bandleader of the group „La Idea“, was born in 1967. His grandmother, an enthusiastic Tres-Guitar-player and his grandfather, a virtuoso on the percussions, took him to the land of music at an early age. At the age of three, he danced at performances of his grandparents, being nine years old he played the bass-guitar and started his studies in music at the age of 15, where a life-lasting love to piano and trumpet has it´s origin.
At „La Idea“, the great-in-demand professor in music plays the trumpet too, nowadays he uses the piano over all for his compositions.
Besides numerous performances with cuban stars like Ruben Gonzales and Ibrahim Ferrer, Antonio also accompanied the performances of latin-beauty Gloria Estefan while on tour in Cuba.
The Band „La Idea“
was founded in 1995. What started as a casual union of professional musicians has turned into a headcount eleven officially sworn in companionship, six of the original members are still in the group and performing today.
Their intoxicating performances in Hotels, Bars and the Carneval are subject of conversation for the following days.
In the first place, they committed to traditional cuban music, nowadays the repertoire has expanded a lot into an thrilling mixture of the traditiional Son and the so called Salsa American.
The formation has been reinforced by the three singers Glaidel, Anel und Daniel, performing as backgroundsingers as well as in solo performances to give „La Idea“ a striking voice.
Francisco Blanco Prada
called by the name “Villa”, was born in Niquero in 1971. When he was three years old, he moved his feet for the first time to the beat of cuban music. Since then, he says, he hasn´t spent a day without dancing.
He performed in several dancing ensembles, mostly latin-american and cuban dances, until he became a choreographer in 1985. Today, he is the master choreographer at thebtheatre in Niquero and is the leader of „el Grupo Tropicana Niquero de Beile Cubano“.
The show will bring us to new musical and dancing dimensions, the mixture of traditional, cuban dance and other styles like ballet and breakdance offers numerous possibilities – a mixture of latin-american heat, passion with extraordinary grace, bodycontrol and aesthetics of other dancing styles.
To take advantage of these possibilities is the named goal of Caridad Sosa-Varona and Jamilet Gonzàles-Campusano.
After performing for the “Tropicana” in Havana for more than three years and elating visitors from Cuba and abroad with their movements, they came here to conquer Europe with “Pasion de Buena Vista”.
“We are the happiest people”, they say, “we can do all day what we love the most: dancing! And that´s not all, we inspire the audience and bring our cuban culture to far away Europe. There´s nothing else to ask for, it´s the most beautiful thing for us!”