WMI PLUS At Home Changüí - The Sound of Guantánamo
WMI PLUS At Home experiences bring music from around the world into the comfort of your home. Renowned artists share their lives, instruments, and stories from their personal environments, bringing an intimacy and uniqueness to each event. These talks are led by fellow musicians, journalists, and ethnomusicologists. Live captioning will be provided during the event.
We are thrilled to provide these events for FREE. If you are able to make a donation of any amount while registering for this event, it will help us to keep the music playing. Thank you!
Monday, April 11, 2022 – 6 PM EST
WMI PLUS At Home Experiences are free of charge, but you must register to reserve your space. You will receive an order confirmation once your registration is complete that includes the link to the event. Only registered participants will receive email instructions on how to join the event via Zoom online. Live captioning provided.
Join us for an exploration of changüí – the sound of Guantánamo, with music producer and journalist Gianluca Tramontana and Grammy Award-winning composer, pianist, educator and founder of the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance Arturo O’Farrill, followed by a Q&A with attendees.
Independent producer and music journalist Gianluca Tramontana, whose roots music expertise has been featured in numerous pieces for MOJO Magazine, Rolling Stone, NPR and BBC, has been visiting Cuba since the 1990s. On one trip in 2017 to the Guantánamo Province, the area from which much of the Cuban music we’re familiar with originates, he observed that of the precious little documentation there is of changüí, almost nothing had been recorded on location in the countryside or villages where the music continues to be performed, danced to, and enjoyed to this day. Tramontana spent several months in Cuba, traveling around Guantánamo capturing the music of changüiseros from the mountainous areas of Yateras, where changüí is said to have been born, to Guantánamo City, where it drifted in from the mountains in the early 1900s. These recordings have been released as a CD and digital box set on Petaluma records.
“It’s like finding 50 rough, discarded demos for the Buena Vista Social Club: recorded in situ, in in the rural parts of the eastern province of Cuba… arguably the first in-depth survey of the folk music that gave birth to a revolution” – MOJO (4 Stars)
“A landmark box set… a hidden treasure of Cuban music” – AfroPop Worldwide
“A vital historical document – and a party in a box” – Songlines ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ (5 Stars)
Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer and educator Arturo O’Farrill is the leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (New York Times) and son of the late, great Cuban composer Chico O’Farrill. In December 2010, Arturo traveled with the original Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra to Cuba, returning his father’s musicians to his homeland. He continues to travel to Cuba regularly as an informal Cultural Ambassador, working with Cuban musicians, dancers, and students, bringing local musicians from Cuba to the US and American musicians to Cuba.
WMI PLUS At Home experiences are supported by a grant from Con Edison and world music lovers like you. We thank you!
WMI PLUS and WMI PLUS At Home experiences are supported by a grant from Con Edison and world music lovers like you. We thank you!
