TO the uninitiated, Latin music is all feelgood dance numbers, but beneath the uplifting punches of brass and cascading rhythms, there’s often a tale of hardship and sometimes tragedy.
Perth outfit De Cuba Son masterfully explore this musical dichotomy in Melancolia and Incandescente, the two singles from their upcoming debut album Sonando.
Band leaders Arvis Mena and Jeremias Sosa are originally from Cuba and Argentina respectively, and Melancolia touches on their intermittent longing for their homelands.
• De Cuba Son. photo by Matsu
“Interestingly, on the day we recorded it, we took a break to grab lunch at a supermarket nearby, and we ran into an old Cuban friend doing his grocery shopping,” Mena says.
“I started bantering with him in our local lingo, and I noticed him getting more and more sombre, until he started crying. ‘Is it something I said?’ I asked.
“Between sobs, he told me he hadn’t heard anyone speak with a Havana accent in a very long time. He’d come here in 1980.”
Following the chance encounter, Mena went back to the studio and recorded an emotional vocal for Melancolia, with most of it used on the final track.
Sosa says there is a tradition in Cuban/Latin music of lyrics exploring darker issues like robbery, slavery or buildings catching on fire.
“People dance to them anyway and have a great time,” he says.
“It showcases a way of being/living—politics, economics and many other elements of the Latino countries might not always be great, but it doesn’t mean you can’t laugh about it or have a good time.”
The other single, Incandescente, has a jaunty swagger with beautiful vocals floating over the top.
Influenced by the son cubano genre, De Cuba Son have been a popular fixture on the WA music scene for the past decade, regularly performing at events including Fairbridge Festival, Nanga Music Festival and JazzConnect.
In recent years, Mena and Sosa have started writing original material together.
“We realised that most of the audience don’t speak Spanish, but still enjoy the grooves and the music we play, so we decided to test our original music on them,” Sosa says.
“The audiences responded very well to our music—sometimes they didn’t even know they were dancing to our songs, so we started writing more and now we have a full set of our music that we perform regularly.
“We were commissioned by the City of Fremantle to do a video series called The Mantle. This gave us a deadline so we finished our first track together, While it Rains/Mientras Llueve.”
Mena says growing up, music was a big part of life in Cuba, and he listened to a diverse range of artists including Habana Abierta, Radiohead, Irakere, Los Compadres, Bach and Queen.
“I bet Argentina in the 80s and 90s would have been a crazy musical place to be as well,” he says.
Some members of De Cuba Son are originally from Cuba, Argentina and Colombia, but have made WA home.
Recently, immigration has become a political football. So how does Sosa feel about it all?
“Most people in Australia are welcoming, supportive and understanding,” he says.
“We feel that there is always a small group of close-minded people giving a whole nation a bad name—fuelled by the internet and a lot of misinformation.
“This sentiment actually comes up in the introduction track to the album, which is a collaboration with renowned Walmatjarri elder, environmental activist, songwriter and musician Kankawa Nagarra. She makes a statement that embraces multiculturalism in Australia, saying that ‘we are blessed with variety’.”
De Cuba Son will celebrate the release of their debut singles with a launch show on Friday November 20 at Lyric’s Underground in Maylands.
The performance will feature the full eight-piece ensemble, which includes a three-piece horn section with local jazz legends Marc Osborne on sax, Marty Pervan on trumpet and Alex Parkinson on trombone.
Tix at lyricsunderground.oztix.com.au.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK