The American percussionist, composer, arranger, producer and writer Bobby Sanabria highlighted in Santiago de Cuba the contributions and influence of the island’s music in NYabout the XX International Documentary Festival “Santiago Álvarez In Memoriam”.
During one of the conversations at the event, Sanabria – of Puerto Rican descent – emphasized calling “Cuban music” the group of genres such as son, guaracha or mambo known in New York and other parts of the world under the commercial label “salsa ”.
This is still a controversial issue and in 1996 motivated the Cuban filmmaker Rigoberto López to make the documentary I am from son to salsa where outstanding figures such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Oscar D’León, among others, offer their criteria on this matter.
For his part, Antonio Nadal affirmed that Latinos have enriched New York and have turned it into a quarry of rhythms with an important weight in the music that comes from Cuba.
According to Latin Press (PL) both artists recalled that “for decades, when talking about making good Cuban music, they recommended looking for Puerto Ricans, who had become the best cultivators of those rhythms.”
The documentary making the impossible possibleexhibited in these days of the festival, addresses the impact of the Latino community, mainly Puerto Rican, in the famous American city.
Bobby Sanabria shared the stage with Mario Bauzá and Mongo Santamaría, true legends who led the flowering of Latin music in the New York city.
With several nominations for the Latin and Anglo-Saxon Recording Academy Awards, respectively, Sanabria pays tribute to Cuban music on most of his albums. The material Big Band Urban Folktales was one of the best Latin jazz albums in 2008.
New edition of the Santiago Álvarez In Memoriam International Documentary Festival
Until March 8, fourteen independent film materials from the United States will be presented at the twentieth edition of the “Santiago Álvarez In Memoriam” International Documentary Festival.
The Rialto, Turquino (in the El Cobre community) and El Caney cinemas are the main venues for the event, where works from Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Lesotho, Austria, French Guyana and Puerto Rico are also screened.
