Failde Con Tumbao

Cuban bandleader and flautist Ethiel Failde is the great-great nephew of Miguel Failde, the Matanzas composer who in the late 1800s created danzón, the partner-dance style celebrated on this third album by the current incarnation of his eponymous ensemble. Charming, ambitious and urbane, its eight tracks span one hundred years’ worth of Cuban musical history. There’s a cover of Miguel Failde’s ignored 1883 danzón ‘Nievecita’, unknown except on Mexico’s thriving danzón scene. There’s the sung poem ‘Me Desordeno’, given life and love by evergreen singer Omara Portuondo, and the canny inclusion of cutting-edge players such as trumpeter Julito Padron of Havana jazz band Interactivo. There are clever arrangements by the celebrated likes of pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba (elegant opener ‘Concierto en Varsovia’) and US-based saxophonist Yosvany Terry (the glorious ‘It Do Me Good’), and a sharp reimagining of Camila Cabello’s hit tune ‘Havana’, which has begged to be thoroughly Cubanified.

Whichever way you look, Failde Con Tumbao swings like a winner. There’s also a social media campaign that presents the charismatic, moustachioed Ethiel Failde as a cartoon character in a cartoon world lit by the sort of colours that zinged in Cuba back in the day. Sepia-tinted tradition, then, made bright.