The seventh record production of this popular group arrives under the Unicorn label of Producciones Abdala with eleven dance songs from start to finish.
We talked about this proposal with Ignacio R. Cervantes, Chispa, director of the orchestra and who shared the musical production with maestro Joaquín Betancourt.
For Chispa, this is «the best production of the entire discography of the orchestra. I know that the first album was the one that opened the doors to Cuba and the world, New for you to seeand on the disk guess mewhich is like the third or the fourth, was where we included the numbers that were most popular for the Cuban public in general, but I give a lot of importance to the previous album, Cuba calls methe first with the Unicorn label, which was nominated for Cubadisco 2019, because after spending some time outside the country, that album put us back in the Cuban atmosphere in popular dance music, and this album that we just finished, I think it will confirm it.”
It is a work that was born in times of pandemic, but its creators knew how to take advantage of time and get the most out of it. This is how Arsenio R. Cervantes tells it:
«This album was treated differently because it had more table work than previous phonograms, due to the pandemic situation itself: we did not work live and we had plenty of time to do a lot of table work and go into detail with part of the group of the orchestra. That table work served so that the disc had another color. I think that the sound result of this album is due a lot to that.
«Also to the most excellent guests we have there, who accepted our call with such humility and enhanced it with their talent, such as Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, in a song that I love; there was a lot of chemistry in the studio with them, it’s a different rumba, a rumba with timba and moña that I loved. Issac Delgado was also a guest. We have Maikel Dinza in one of the themes of our friend, teacher, Joaquín Betancourt, to whom we are grateful for everything».
Chispa ensures that nothing was left to chance in The much you have, the much you worth; neither do the guest musicians:
«There is a tribute to our great, Juan Formell, which is a version that we did to and what do you thinka theme that was popularized in the film The birds shooting at the shotgun. In this case, it is sung by the same person who premiered it 40 years ago: Pedrito Calvo.
«The theme we did with Los Muñequitos is by one of the group’s singers, he brought it to me thinking of a conga and I told him: no, the theme is a rumba and who I am going to invite (hopefully they accept the invitation) is to Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, because for me it is an institution in the rumba and they have a very peculiar way of doing it.
«In the case of Issac Delgado, I worked with him many years ago, when he directed the Rojitas orchestra, before having my own group, I did some substitution with him, but he has also always been, among Cuban popular music singers, the ones I admired the most. Since it’s an international song, I did it thinking about him, and the arrangement was also thinking about him, about how his orchestra sounds. So, it’s intentional.”
El Noro and Alain Pérez also participate in one of the songs on the album. In this case, a remake from one of the most popular over a decade ago:
«When the DJs began to strain foreign genres and began to stop playing our Cuban music, I took Play timba, DJ and he liked it a lot, it’s even in a compilation of what was most popular in Havana at that time. Now we take it up again and invite Alain Pérez and Noro to sing along with our vocalists. I thought of Alain, I’ve known him since the ENA, I think he’s an extraordinary musician, and the timbre of Noro’s voice suited me perfectly on that song.
«There is also a chachachá that tells the story more or less of the creation of the orchestra, with bebop in brass, a very rich thing, and what was going to bring it to Cuba was the flute, so I thought of Orlando Valle , “Maraca”, who is one of the flutists par excellence of our country».
Regarding the novelties that this phonogram brings, he highlighted the participation of maestro Joaquín Betancourt as arranger in some of the songs, and the preponderant role that guitars play in this album. However, more than changes or differences, Chispa prefers to talk about maturity:
«Music-savvy followers will feel a much more mature orchestra and a more detailed work of percussion, of the orchestrations, and at the same time, of the choirs and the interpretation of each song: it is rather a refinement of the sonority that we’ve always had.”
The presence of the three in two of the themes responds to a constant interest of the director of Los Cómplices: «I always try that on the albums, apart from contemporary Cuban popular music made by the orchestra, there is a rescue of traditions, and that is where an important role on three».
titles like for playing with fire and the very theme that gives the album its name refer us to popular slang, to collective culture, and even to the religiosity of this island. What feeds Chispa as an author?
«There are songs that begin with a phrase that I like and I start from there, but there are others like For that Cuban, which is a song that I made for my wife as a ballad and that’s where I took it to popular music. I think that all popular musicians are nourished a little by personal experiences, by experiences of the people around us, by social chronicles, and as a result of that, I work».
