I'll be playing music this Wednesday June 2nd. at 'Havana Central', if you are in town come by. 8:00pm-11:00pm 17th st bet. Broadway and 5th Ave. http://www.havanacentral.com/home.php
1952 SMC-Pro-Art LP592 With original cover artwork by David Stone Martin
1955 Tico vinyl 10' inch LP-137
This was originally supposed to be Silvestre Mendez' LP, but at the time Tico felt Mongo Santamaria's name was better known. Silvestre Mendez wrote five and sings most of the songs on this LP.
"Chango" Mongo Santamaria And His Afro-Cubans featuring Silvestre Mendez 1955 Tico vinyl 7' inch 45rpm EP
"Our Man In Havana" - 1959
Original vinyl LP on the Fantasy label. (Beautiful shiny high gloss cover & red vinyl)
"Mongo In Havana" - 1960 Original vinyl LP on the Fantasy label. (Beautiful shiny high gloss cover & red vinyl)
Great photo of Mongo on a Havana hotel balcony. This original 1960 cover photo is impossible to find anywhere on the internet. Both '59 & '60 recording's reissued on one CD several years ago.
Close up of Mongo Santamaria's hand while playing. 1960's Born in 'Jesus Maria', La Habana April 7th 1917 Died in Miami, Florida Feb. 1st, 2003
Many people are familiar with 'Elena Burke', 'Omara Portuondo''Gina León'and the great 'Doris De La Torre', but not familiar with 'Gladys León', all great vocalists along with others in the musical "filin" (feeling) movement of the late 1950's into the 1960's. "Many of the "filin" songs were interpreted as boleros with excellent orchestral arrangements including vanguard concepts and harmonization."
On this rare Egrem LP, 'Gladys León'sings beautiful lush "filin" boleroswith a full orchestra with absolutely "superb" orchestrations. There is a great interpretation of the Beny Moré classic, "Y Hoy Como Ayer" and several uptempo songs that were popularized by Pacho Alonso. As the great 'Doris De La Torre' was able to sing in several languages including Russian, French, Italian and even Yidish... 'Gladys León' sings "Boccuccia Di Rosa" here in Italian. The condition of this vinyl LP was not great, I used 'Goldwave V.5' to remove a lot of the surface sound (pops, clicks etc.). A great recording, very hard to find.
May. 7th, 2010 Los Angeles, California. *** Ibayé bayé tonu *** R.I.P. "Agua Limpia Todo" - 1959 Composer: Francisco Aguabella Francisco con Mongo Santamaria Canta: Carlos Embale
"Agua Limpia Todo" - 1962 Francisco Aguabella y Su Orq. "Agua Limpia Todo" - 2002 Francisco Aguabella y Su Grupo Vocals: Fabio Miranda, Eric Ortiz, Francisco Aguabella
"Mi Congo Te Llama" - 1978 Francisco: vocal + bata: Osain + tumbadoras & solo with Eddie Palmieri (abbreviated version)
Francisco y Su Grupo "Oriki Ara Oko" (((Conseguirlo))) Francisco y Su Grupo "Oriza" (((Conseguirlo)))
Every month Cuban LP's and recordings are added to the blog. Which include particular "styles" and "forms" of (playing & singing) "Cuban" music that unfortunately have become, or are on their way to becoming lost art forms. As well as related materiel which may not be "directly" from Cuba.
Mostly LP's that are either long out of print and-or obscure and music from "my own personal collection".
Occasionally some Brasilian things will be added that are hard to find, even on the other great Brasilian blogs, many that are listed in my Blog links. And maybe some things that have nothing to do with Cuban or Brasilian music.
It takes time to do all this, scanning the covers, resizing and uploading, often changing & correcting the info in each MP3 so it shows up right after you download, then see the info in a media player.
Have fun! "The water always tastes freshest at its source" For those of you not familiar with navigating through music blogs, you can either look through the monthly "Blog Archive" (listed on the left of this page) or, you can click on the words "older posts" at the bottom right of each page. ***You can always get to the most recent post by clicking on The Eyeglasses in the photo at the top of this page.
Mark Sanders: Musician / percussionist.
Living, working and teaching in Manhattan, N.Y.C., U.S.A.
Born and raised in Manhattan, N.Y.C.
Lived in New Orleans from 1972 to 1986.
Had the first Cuban music radio program in New Orleans on WWOZ from 1980-1986.
Been back in N.Y.C. 26 years and planing on getting the hell out very soon.