Cuba: Son, Bolero, Son-Cruzado & Bolero-Son

This particular familia hail from in and around Cuba's first capital, Santiago, in the Oriente region. Their mixed-race ancestry includes one Vicente Cutiño Marquez, a singer and poet who fought in the 19th-century wars of independence, and who allegedly lived to be 125. The family play two defining traditional musical forms whose cross-cultural origins date back to the same century: son and bolero. They play in a classic format of acoustic guitar, (two) cuatro guitars, double bass, bongos and maracas (in the hands of vocalist Carmen Rosa Alarcon Gamba).

This beautifully produced package features extensive and fascinating liner notes and forms part of Radio France's Ocora series. It features 14 tracks recorded for Radio France in July 1996. The first and last were written by a friend of the family, Compay Segundo, and certainly the music within will appeal to fans of the legendary singer-songwriter and the Buena Vista Social Club supergroup that helped bring him global fame. It's simple, melodic, charming music that swings effortlessly and sings of beauty, love, sexual politics and such aspects of traditional life as cane-cutting (in Segundo's closing ‘El Penquito de Coleto’), without ever breaking a sweat.