Havana Cultura – The Search Continues

We've been here before, sort of. Three years ago BBC DJ Gilles Peterson enlisted the help of his musician mate Vince Vella and the hip Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and set about unearthing the best of the Havana underground scene: their rap-heavy double album Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound offered up the biggest collection of contemporary Cuban musicians since the ubiquitous Buena Vista Social Club. Peterson cherry-picked tracks from Havana’s hotbed barrios – not all of them as new as purported but vital nonetheless.

The Havana Club-sponsored project was justifiably acclaimed, if only for its discovery of 20-something Danay Suárez Fernandez – a jazz singer some declared to be the new Jill Scott. Suarez returns on Havana Cultura Mk II, her honey voice marking out highlights such as ‘Espera mi Gente’ (a version of the soul classic ‘People Hold On’ with hip-hop duo Ogguere) on CD1 and a Vella-produced effort on the pick‘n’mix CD2.

The Search Continues feels deeper and more confident than its predecessor, which was recorded with scant knowledge of Cuban culture on Peterson’s part. He’s been back and forth ever since, however, and it shows. While a host of guest musicians, vocalists and rappers meet, create and clash on a mix that touches on everything from jazz, soul and rumba (check out ‘La Tormenta’ featuring Obsesion’s El Tipo Este) to polyphonic harmonies from the Creole Choir of Cuba and re-versioned hip-hop classics (there’s an inspired Cuban cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Check the Rhyme’). It’s all done with flair, polish and a sense of promise fulfilled. Some of this is down to Peterson’s co-producers Vella, the remix wiz Simbad and the digital pioneer Mala. Cuba and its enormous, barely tapped creativity is responsible for the rest.