TimbaFunkClub
Cuban Music and its fusions
About me
He was born in Havana, Cuba on September 26, 1965. He came from a family with certain musical traditions, his paternal great-grandfather played the violin and among his children, one of them was a concert pianist, another an opera singer and his great-uncle was Vice Minister. of Culture, his father also played the violin amateurly and influenced him and led him to discover the musical world.
In 1973 he began at the “Manuel Saumell” conservatory where he began specializing in basic piano, a student of Professor Mercedes Crespo. A year later, that is, in 1974, he began taking music courses with the pedagogue. Leopoldina Núñez is part of the popular workshop “Teatro Estudio”, where she participates in several television programs on Cuban television, such as “Escenario Escolar” and some others, and also acts in various theaters.
In 1976, for reasons beyond his control, he was forced to abandon his fundamental career as a pianist and it was not until 1978 that he restarted his career as a music student, this time specializing in viola, at the “Amadeo Roldan”. conservatory. “, under the auspices of teacher Marivonne Drobache, where you are required to be able to do the entire elementary level in one and a half lessons, in order to pass the level, approved level, passed satisfactorily in front of a jury directed by teacher Evelio Tieles.
He studied at the intermediate level at this conservatory and won prizes in national competitions before juries headed by the famous violinist Jorge Hernández. It was also during these years when he began to break into the world of popular music, becoming interested in jazz and working. free title as a musician of the great maestro Felipe Dulsaides, where he had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the notable instrumentalist Arturo Sandoval, he also played as a soloist in two jazz festivals in 1982 and 1983, his interest in popular music was also enriched. with certain groups of the new trova, where he played with Kiki Corona, Carlos Varela, among others.
It was also during these high school years that he discovered the world of composition and orchestration. He receives harmony and orchestration lessons taught by great teachers such as Alfredo Diez, his grandson, Harold Gratmages, Miriam Lay, among many other great teachers of music and music. writing jazz songs that have served as a platform for the musical development of many international jazz stars, such as Orlando Valle (maraca), César López, Alexis Bosh, among others.
It was also during these years that I was part of the Egrem recorder team, along with great teachers of the Cuban strings department and wishing to make known, unofficially, several groups in the orbit of popular music. the group “Violines de Tropicana”, a group from which the Agrupación Charanga Habanera emerged, of which I was a part practically from its beginnings until 1997.
In 1985 he entered the Higher Institute of Art of Havana specializing in viola. Follow the courses of the first three years of Professor Viera Borisova, a violist who has won several international competitions, and then study the last two years. his training with the great teacher Jorge Hernández, a violist graduated from one of the most prestigious conservatories of the former Soviet Union, who as a soloist and instrumentalist has toured several of the most prestigious stages nationally and internationally.
In 1987 he wrote his first danzón for violin and piano for the concert recording of violinist Eugenio Valdés, and in the following two years he wrote his two danzón for viola and piano. These works are still used as Cuban works in the repertoire. middle and higher level students in Cuban conservatories.
His work as a member of the Agrupación Charanga Habanera began in 1989, an orchestra created with the objective of being part of the artistic collective of one of the most prestigious cabarets in the world, the Sporting Club of Monte Carlo.
The contract of this important cabaret has been extended for 5 years. It was there where he forged himself as an arranger, since one of the requirements of this place was to want to have a repertoire of more than 20 different songs per week, belonging to the national and international repertoire of the time. between the 1950s and 1960s, and with maestro José Picayo, he played the role of arranger during these first years, having served as a preamble for arrangements that later adorned the panorama of Cuban popular music of the 1950s. first four albums by this famous group that very soon came to conquer the demanding ears of popular music lovers around the world.
This period in this famous cabaret that the Sporting Club of Monaco, Monte Carlo, has already been the opportunity to practice as a multi-instrumentalist, where he offered his services as a violist, violinist, pianist, bassist and percussionist with his group. where they have the honor of sharing the stage with countless famous artists, including:
Stevie Wonder, Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Lisa Minelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Jerry Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Barry White, Cool and the Gang, Tina Turner, among many others.
He had the honor of sharing the stage with many of these great artists, including a percussion performance with maestro Barry White and his orchestra.
This annual contract was developed during the summer months, between the end of June and the beginning of September, and during the rest of the year we covered highly prestigious international commitments, among which the invitation of the prestigious Chilean group Intillimani stands out. . In 1991, where he performed in important places in Viñas del Mar and in important television programs, in 1993 we participated in the tour with the late singer Lola Flores, with Antena 3, one of the most important television networks in Spain. The same year I participated in the winter carnival in Helsinki, Finland, with the group of the late Professor Tito Puentes. A year later he shared the stage with the Gran Combo de Puerto Rico in Madrid (1994).
Over the years as part of this prestigious group, I have participated in festivals of the highest international level, including: San Remo, North Sea Festival, Midem Festival, Forum, Umbria Jazz, Palco and many others.
His work in the Charanga Habanera group was vast and innovative, thus definitively changing the sound of current Cuban music, which he enriched with new tumbaos and contratumbaos lines on the pianos and keyboards created and developed by him, reinforcing completely new lines and adding to their colored metal lines never used in Cuban music, we can say that their musical arrangements and ideas are still imitated by groups, in some albums they give us their own songs, among which are, I need you, you will always be in me, etc
http://www.timba.com/artist_pages/juan-carlos-gonz-lez-history-of-charanga-habanera
Here we present the albums on which he arranged and played during his stay in the Orquesta Charanga Habanera:
From Havana to Monte Carlo-1989 https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/cuba/ 407455119
My Fever Rises 1993 https://www.discogs.com/it/David-Calzado-Y-Su- Charanga-Habanera-Me-Sube-La-Fiebre/release/4829813
Hey you Loca 1994 https://www.discogs.com/it/David-Calzado-La-Charanga-Habanera-Hey-You-Loca/release/3480214
So that Havana finds out 1996 https://www.discogs.com/David-Calzado-La- Charanga-Habanera-Pa-Que-Se-Entere-La-Habana/release/6121121
Tremendo Delirio 1997 https://www.discogs.com/it/David-Calzado-La-Charanga-Habanera-Tremendo-Delirio/release/12308384
In 1996, after dedicating a few years to general topics, he offered the graduation concert that earned him the title of graduate from the Higher Institute of Art of Havana. In the same year, the egrem published an album by a female group called “Lady Salsa” called “Con Faldas ya lo loco” where they published several songs and arrangements, an album in which the other half of the arrangements were made by the prestigious musician Jose Luis. Cortés (El tosco) offering his service as a music producer, an album from which the sound column of the prestigious Cuban Television program “Mi Salsa” was chosen in the last year of its broadcast.
“With Skirts and like crazy” https://www.deezer.com/sv/album/170865
He also participated that year as an arranger and pianist in several of the pieces on the album “Un Toque Latino” by the famous French group Kassav, an album recorded at the Egrem studios and mixed at the “Crescent Moon” studios by the Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, released by Sony Music in 1998.
In 1998 he was musical director and pianist of the group Dany Lozada y su timba Cubana, in charge of the arrangements and musical production. From that collaboration the album “Tanto le Pedi” was born, which received very good reviews from specialized magazines such as Billboard and Timba.com . as one of the best timba albums of all time, that is, the new way of calling Cuban popular music of all time
I asked you so much 1999 https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tanto-te-ped%C3%AD/ 279804459
Between 1999 and 2000 he worked as pianist, arranger and musical director in the musical group “Charanga Forever”, formed by the founding musicians of the group “Charanga Habanera” for which the prestigious maestro Juan Formell, one of the most important composers and arrangers in the history of Cuban music.
With this group he toured Europe recording the album Charanga Forever in Paris, an album that also received very good reviews and for which he was also the musical producer, recording all the pianos and certain keyboards, being part of the musical arrangements and offering his collaboration as a composer. . Songs are born from this album, which continue to serve as a model for so many musicians and creators today.
In 2000 he was elected member of UNEAC (National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), an association that brings together the elite of the Cuban intellectual class.
In 2001 he moved to Europe, making his debut in Barcelona, where he played the role of musical director of the group of Lucrecia Pérez Saes, one of the most famous Cuban singers on the international scene, to whom he contributed with her arrangements. During this period of work he had the opportunity to share the stage with numerous personalities on the international scene, among which were the deceased Celia Cruz, Oscar de León, Albita Rodríguez, Paquito de Rivera and many others, participating in television programs throughout it’s from the season. . Spain and in the most famous settings.
Concurrently during these years he played with a string quintet directed by the violist Silvio García, as second violin, together with the Cuban maestro Emilio Estrada.
At the end of 2002 he moved to Italy, residing in the city of Torino and it was in that year that he began his collaboration with the famous Cuban saxophonist Tony Martinez in the “Cuban Power Band”, an orchestra that won an award in 1997 with the album “Maferefum “.
In 2003, he was contacted again by SBM, a company owned by Prince Albert of Monaco, in Monte Carlo, with which he had already collaborated between 1989 and 1994, this time playing on various stages and activities commissioned by that company, including the Sporting Club. and the American Bar at the Hôtel de Paris, a place that has seen the best international jazz performers.
In 2006 he was part of a string quintet made up of several musicians from the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, this time as a violist, with whom he worked during a concert season, which was also very successful.
Simultaneously, he began as a pianist at the “Sapphire” bar at the Fairmont Monte Carlo, where he spent 10 years, beginning his collaboration with the group “Evolution Band” to which he belonged until 2017 and with which he participated in countless stages that included important galas for important clients such as Cartier, Riva, Formula 1 Monte Carlo, Club Monte Carlo Yot, Club Auto Car Carlo, Silver Sea, Casino San Remo and many more.
From 2012 to 2016, he worked at Harry’s Bar at the Fairmont Gran Palace Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland.
With this group he performed at the Montreux Festival in 2015 and 2016, sharing with other Santana musicians, among which the group Toto stands out, and playing several times for the great producer and musician Quincy Jones.
At the same time that he was working with the aforementioned group Evolution, he was also collaborating with the Cuban bassist Dany Noel, Daniel Martínez, bassist of the famous Cuban percussionist Horacio Hernández (El Negro), one of the best jazzists of our time, in two of his projects, one of them, his jazz band, with which he played in several important places, such as the Bulgarian festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDjlhIpyqOE and the Gilgamech, a venue in Turin, Italy, hosting the flower and cream of international jazz https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=5zo0sSe2fdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaoYANLKvK0 this time, sharing with the famous drummer Julio Barreto, who was for many years the drummer of the great Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba in different projects and with the guitarist Dario Chiazzolino , winner of the 2014 Grammy Award with an album recorded with the Yellow Jackets “Lost in the Jungle.”
In 2014 I recorded the pianos and keyboards for the album “Tinta Unida” by Dany Noel https://itunes.apple.com/it/album/tinta-unida/885005784.
