Septeto Santiaguero#2 | ms

The Septeto Santiaguero is one of the traditional music peaks in Santiago de Cuba nowadays. They have an overwhelming show and nobody dares to question their leadership in Cuban Orient. A lot of younger groups from Colombia to Miami perform their songs and also imitate their choreographies. One of their advantages are the three solo singers, who present a great variety of vocal resources. Their strongest point are the guarachas, always funny, a bit hot, and with “montunos” (lively rhythm variations on the original score) that make the dance something irresistible. Five albums recorded with Nubenegra show how the top...

Septeto Nacional (National Septet), or the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro, is a group credited with expanding the Son (music) musical style after Arsenio Rodríguez hits. It added the trumpet to percussion, vocals, and strings. The group started as a sextet in 1927 in Central Havana. In 1929 it played at the World Exposition in Sevilla, and in 1933, it was invited to the "Century of Progress" World Exposition in Chicago. In the same year, Lázaro Herrera took over the group when Ignacio Piñeiro left it for financial reasons - despite their success the musicians earned very little. The group...

Many musicologists consider this band as the most genuine exponent of the Cuban Son as well as one of the greatest interpreters of traditional Cuban music. At the beginning, when the band was formed in 1920 'septeto' was in truth a 'sexteto'. The group was formed by Guillermo Castillo, Felipe Nery Cabrera and Gerardo Martinez. Current leader, German Pedro Ibanez says that the only difference in their present music is that now they have microphones :) In 1927 the Habanero were the first ones to incorporate brass into their lineup, when their trumpeter, Enrique Hernandez, joined the band (making it...

Cuban sonero and composer Ignacio Piñeiro founded Sexteto Nacional in 1927, as Columbia Records’ answer to RCA Victor’s popular Sexteto Habanero. Both groups added the trumpet, and so defined the classic septet sound. Today, third-generation descendants of Septeto Nacional continue to define Cuba’s consummate son tradition. Augmenting the septet’s sound and embellishing its classic repertoire are vocalists Pío Leyva, Caridad Cuervo and Bertha Portuondo, congüero Tata Güines, pianist Guillermo González Camejo "Rubalcaba" and tres master Pancho Amat. Their close renditions of two well-known Piñeiro compositions (No Juegues Con Los Santos, featuring Cuervo, and Coco Mai Mai, featuring Portuondo) sustain an...