Juan de Marcos González and Afro-Cuban All Stars Performed at Overture Center October 23rd: Spreading the Cuban Vibe to the World
(Above): Juan de Marcos González and Afro-Cuban All Stars perform. (Below): Juan de Marcos González appears with his wife.
by Jonathan Gramling
The rhythms of Afro-Cuban jazz and other Cuban music has its roots in the African slave and European experiences, a blending of cultural styles to create a unique form of music.
“Cuba is a brown country,” said Juan de Marcos González, the founder of the Afro-Cuban All Stars who performed at the Overture Center. “That means we have the influence of the European culture because we were colonized by the Spanish people. It wasn’t just Spanish people. It was also people from England, France and a lot of Africans. So we have a syncretic culture. It’s very syncretic. And so the influence of Africa in our music is huge. And the influence of Europe is huge as well. In terms of the rhythm section of the Cuban bands in terms of the music patterns of the music that we perform, we are very African. In terms of the harmony, the treatment of the harmony, the chords and the rest of the things, we are very European. So it’s a mix like jazz. It’s a mix of the European culture in terms of the harmony, the sequence of chords. But in terms of the rhythm, it is African. What happened is the African people who were in your country, most of them were from the Sahelian Layer. They brought the spirit of the Sahelian Layer that was influenced by the Arab culture. So this is the reason why you have this band that you can hear in jazz and other forms. The accent of the music is on the downbeat. In the Cuban music, the accent is on the second part of the fourth beat of bar. This is the difference. But basically, it’s brown music.”
Marcos González was in a position to absorb the cultural richness as a young man growing up in Carena, Cuba.
“I was born in Carena in a very musical neighborhood, near many of the greatest musicians of the 20th Century,” Marcos González said. “I grew up in a small town called Pueblo Nuevo. About 100 yards from my house was the house of one of the greatest conga players, one of the guys who introduced Cuban music to jazz in America. His name was Chano Pozo. In my neighborhood, we used to also live near Compay Segundo, Antonio Arcaño, Domingo Corbacho and many musicians.”
Marcos González didn’t have to go far for the musical influence.
“My father was a musician as well,” Marcos González said. “He used to play with several bands including Arsenio Rodriguez’s first band in Havana. So I grew up in a music environment. I started playing music since I was a kid.”
Marcos González came of age in the 1960s and so he turned to the more popular music of the time.
“Initially I was a rock & roll musician,” Marcos González said. “I wanted to play the music of Santana and The Grateful Dead and all of these bands. At some point, I realized that the only way to make it was turn to the music of my country. And I started playing traditional Cuban music.”
The beats of Cuban jazz and other forms of music had a real stronghold in the U.S. during the 1940s and 1950s.
“Basically in New York what they played was Cuban music,” Marcos González said. “They called it mambo, the music that they play at the Palladium in New York City. But it wasn’t mambo really. It was the kind of music that we call son where the accent is precisely on the fourth beat of the bar. But the Cuban music was very famous before the Cuban Revolution. We dominated the markets before the Cuban Revolution. After the Cuban Revolution, it was very difficult for us to perform our music worldwide because we love the power of the American big companies and it is very difficult to be really noticed in the world.”
During the Clinton and Obama presidencies, the blockade of everything Cuban in the U.S. eased up and so the cultural exchange began anew.
“We are getting back,” Marcos González said. “The first time that we got back was in the late 1970s when a great band called Irakere, who once performed in Madison. They played the Newport Jazz Fest. And then the second time was with the Buena Vista Social Club when we came to Carnegie Hall back in 1998. Right now, it is a little bit difficult with the government that we have right now. It’s going to be better in the future. I suppose that we are going to have our space here in America again.”
Marcos González and others “rediscovered” their Cuban musical roots and founded a band playing traditional Cuban music in 1976.
“It was the first band composed of young people playing traditional Cuban music at the university,” Marcos González said. “And I’ve been playing music since those times. Sierra Maestra was very famous. In 1994, we recorded an album for World Circuit. The album was very successful and it led to the foundation of the Buena Vista Social Club after an album that we recorded called Dumdumbanza.”
1995 was a foundational year for the U.S. to rediscover Cuban music.
“I came to an understanding with Nick Gold, the owner of World Circuit to record two albums in Havana,” Marcos González said. “The first one used the strong music of the 1950s in my country. It was the big band period of Machito, Riverside and Benny More. The second album was more of an acoustic album featuring the music of the eastern side of the island. So we got into a studio in 1996 where we recorded first the big bands album and then we recorded the second album. These sessions are called the Buena Vista Social Club sessions. I used to be the band leader of the Afro-Cuban All Stars, which is the band that we created to produce the three albums. We didn’t have enough money to do something with a lot of promotion. So we created a band and we called it the Afro-Cuban All Stars, which is the band that is going to be performing at the Overture Center. And the second album that we recorded was now called the Buena Vista Social Club.”
The group recorded the albums for the sake of the music, nit tgo gain riches and fame.
“Both times, I was the band leader for the Buena Vista Social Club in 2000,” Marcos González said. “Initially, we never thought that we would get famous because it was an album based on the people of the old generation. We thought that we would have some good critics by you the journalists and would get some recognition for the work that we had done. But we never thought that the album would be so successful.”
Due to the interest, the group split into two bands in 2000.
“I created a band with Ibrahim Ferrer who was my lead singer with the Afro-Cuban All Stars” Marcos González said. “And we called that band the Buena Vista Social Club, which is the band that played in Europe and the Overture Center in the past. I kept my Afro-Cuban All Stars because I wanted to play traditional Cuban music and jazz as well. So I’ve been working with the Afro-Cuban All Stars since those times. And everything is going good so far. I used to be the younger member but now I am the oldest one. And this is the life.”
Marcos González has ties to the Madison area.
“Back in 2015, I was the artist-in-residence at the UW-Madison,” Marcos González recalled. “I was there for a semester teaching Afro-Cuban music. I recorded about 4-5 songs with some of my students. I was there for the full semester. The thing right now is I am working in a musical that is coming up. You are going to have it at the Overture next year. As far as I know, they are going to be in Milwaukee this year. In Madison, they will be there next year. I’m the music consultant of the musical and a character because I was the one who brought the band leader and the creator of it.”
When they performed at Overture, the Afro-Cuban All Starts brought their very best.
“We’re going to present music from the very traditional styles, for example bolero and danzón,” Marcos González said. “Those were the very traditional styles at the beginning of the 20th century in my country up until the contemporary Cuban music of this century, which is more of a jazzy and stronger style. We’re going to make sure the people can appreciate the diversity of the music of my country and the people can enjoy the music. Initially for the first half of the concert is going to be softer. And then the second half is going to be a little bit more aggressive, more danceable. We are going to show the people the musicianship of the band members. They are absolutely outstanding. They will see that Cuban music is not only pachanga and enjoying the life . It is also music with a deep spirit with an influence of the greater things that we have done in life here on earth.”
There was a reason the clubs were swinging in Havana in the late 1950s when Cuba and America had normal relations. It was the music of bolero and danzón that drew them there. And it is the music of Juan de Marcos González and the Afro-Cuban All Stars that keep things hopping in America. Feel the rhythm and you will know why.
