English
Charanga?
The Cuba - UK Charanga Connection
Exclusively
for SalsaPower
by Sue Miller from Charanga
del Norte
So
how did an English girl from a small town become a Charanga musician?
Well, looking back, the journey’s not as illogical as it first
appears. When I was seven years old I saw Walt Disney’s Jungle
Book and was very affected by the trumpet soloing of Louis Prima. I
asked if I could have a trumpet but was not successful in my bid, unfortunately.
Other early influences were the old MGM films (so I must have heard
the film scores of Ernesto Lecuona and Xavier
Cugat) and the musicals (I was kind of pushed to sing in the
local operatic society from the age of thirteen, singing Show Boat and
Music Hall (that’s Vaudeville for those of you across the Atlantic!).
West
Side Story had a big influence on me too. My grandma taught me to play
piano after Sunday lunches when she’d had a few sherries and some
rhubarb wine (this may explain why I’m not a concert pianist!).
Seeing classical flautist James Galway on Top of the Pops I remarked
to granny that I liked the sound and so, with much lobbying on the part
of my grandma Edna, I finally got a flute when I was thirteen.
From the
outset I was drawn towards melodic, rhythmic dance music with high trumpet
solos, although I didn’t learn to improvise until I was nineteen
when I was studying (well supposed to be studying) in the south
of France. I met a French hippie guitarist there called Pascal Fourati
who had a jazz band and a free jazz collective and I played in both.
They made
me learn all the standards by ear so I learnt songs such as Misty
following their lyrics 'look at me I'm as 'elpless as a keeten up
a tree', etc. Once I realised I didn't need to read music I was
away, playing along to all my tapes, whatever the style, and I didn’t
go back to reading till I decided to go to music college in 1993 when
I enrolled on a one year postgrad course in Jazz, Popular and Contemporary
music at Leeds College of Music in the North of England.
However,
inspired as I was by Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Fats
Waller and Stephane Grappelli I found myself isolated there as I was
surrounded by Be-boppers. Also I was told to find a flute role-model
and was offered up Herbie Mann and Eric Dolphy
– but I didn’t want to sound like them! Finding out about
Richard Egües from Orquesta Aragón
after I’d left college was like 'finding the other half of the
orange' as the Spanish say – love at first hearing – here
was high rhythmic clear soloing with sabor!
When the
Casa Latina opened up at the Underground club in Leeds in the latter
half of the 1990’s, live Salsa bands played there weekly and a
touring band from Cuba played there once a month. I was a regular, and
one evening before the preliminary dance class I heard a track being
played called Mambo by Israel López "Cachao"
with hypnotic strings and the kind of high clear rhythmic flute improvisation
I was looking for. Soon after I bought a record of Orquesta
Aragón from a touring Cuban singer and as soon as I
heard the sound of Richard Egües and La
Aragón I knew this was to be my idiom. I
set up Charanga del Norte in 1998 in order to play
this music.
Also at
a Salsa dance class from Colombian Tanya Cusan Espinosa
I heard a pachanga called Violin Pachanguero which really caught
my imagination. She gave me the recording and I transcribed and arranged
it for Charanga del Norte. This was our first number
and became a "hit", appearing on the UK Salsa compilation
Everybody Salsa (Avid records) soon after
we recorded it and only months after the band was formed.
At the
Casa Latina that year I met members of Sonora la Calle
from Santiago de Cuba led by Leonel Duany and they
told me about the Charanga Festival at Palma Soriano
in November and so in 1998 I went to Cuba for the first time
just to soak up the atmosphere and hear this music in context.
On the
way to Havana, my plane was caught in the tail end of Hurricane Mitch,
which was pretty scary (but not half as
frightening as the internal flight to Santiago the next day!),
and after an emergency landing I was grounded in Havana for a
day, unable to make the connection to Santiago de Cuba. In the deserted
airport, my violinist partner Nick and I were approached by a Cuban
violinist (only in Cuba!) named Jorge Quevedo who offered
to take us round Havana in his Lada for the day. So at 4 in the morning
we all played the Cuban standard Pare Cochero at José
Martí airport in the rain before being taken on a tour of Havana.
When I told our impromptu host I'd come to Cuba because of Richard
Egües, he turned his Lada around and actually took me
to Mr. Egües' house, and I suddenly found myself face to face with
my idol! There
he sat, underneath a large gold-framed picture of himself in the 1950's,
looking almost the same as he did in the photo except for the whiter
hair. He asked me to play for him so
I started playing the Danzón Isora Club
and he leapt up and accompanied me on piano, with the two violinists
joining in. It was a dream come true and a day I’ll never forget!
The
legendary flute player from La Aragón, Richard
Egües
March
2006: he put on a suit especially to say goodbye to me!
Back in
the UK I applied for funding from the Arts Council
of England and managed to get back to Havana to study with Richard
in April 2000 and 2001. I returned to Cuba in 2006 to undertake more
research into Charanga and had the honour of playing with the great
Charanga bands Estrellas Cubanas and Orquesta
Sublime.
Melquiades
Fundora and Sue Miller (flutes)
with Orquesta Sublime Havana March 2006
Playing
with Melquiades Fundora was a real treat – at age 81 he belted
out high flute solos over 3 sets, sang, danced and even held me up at
times (I had sprained my ankle in Cuba and had spent most of my time
there on crutches!).
Setting
up a Charanga band in the UK has not been easy as I’ve had to
train musicians to play Cuban Charanga (there are no Charangueros in
the UK!) and gigging round England with a style of music nobody had
heard of before is a challenge! Many people think of the flute and violin
as classical instruments and don’t realise they play a major part
in popular Cuban music. The general English public have only heard a
bit of Salsa at dance clubs or festivals or are only familiar with Tito
Puente or Machito. Since the 1999
Buena Vista success more people have heard Cuban son here
and it is something of a mission of mine to get Charanga known here
in the UK!
A highlight
from the band’s nine-year history included playing the Bridgewater
Hall in Manchester supporting Eliades Ochoa, and a
low point included doing a gig where the bands' suits disintegrated
on stage! I had wanted to emulate Orquesta Aragón's
white suits on the cover of their first album Primeras Grabaciones.
Unfortunately being short on money, we couldn’t afford a tailor
and despite a friend’s best efforts to make suits for the band,
things did literally come apart at the seams. In the dressing room my
violin section were practicing their riffs and steps and as they jumped
forward their trousers came down! I later explained to the audience
that if this were to happen again on stage, to please accept our apologies
and that our suits were a work in progress! Luckily the violinists'
trousers stayed up, but unfortunately mine unravelled gradually throughout
the show! The audience enjoyed this comedy Charanga though, and I did
get several offers from gentlemen in the audience to help me get my
trousers fixed!
In addition
to Charanga del Norte I run a 30-piece Cuban Music Big Band playing
Salsa and Cuban music and am studying part-time for a Ph.D. in Cuban
Charanga performance at the University of Leeds. I plan to be back in
Cuba for more research into Charanga in 2007 and also hope one day to
make it to the USA, Mexico and Colombia as so many Charanga fans from
there have contacted me via e-mail. It does get pretty lonely being
the only Charanga fanatic in the UK and I'd love to make more contacts
with Charanga musicians and fans worldwide. Last year in fact Charanga
del Norte joined forces with Paris-based Charanga
Keto and had a truly international Charanga del
Norte summer Tour - que viva la Charanga!
David Muñoz piano, Sue Miller flute and Kelly Keto bass.
Charanga del Norte live at Trowbridge Festival 2005
More information: www.charangadelnorte.com
2006 dates for the band will be on the website from the end of July
and an archive of tours undertaken by the band is also on the Gigs page
of their website.
All editorials and letters to the editor on SalsaPower.com
are personal opinions of those people who write them and do not necessarily
reflect the position of SalsaPower.com, Inc.
