Tande-la

Observant musical tourists in Cuba have long noted the colourful undercurrent of Haitian folklore in the cabarets and dance troupes, especially in Cuba's east. This was where Haitians first arrived in Cuba as the lowest of the low, cutting cane in the sugar workers’ towns known as bateyes. Subsequent generations gradually moved west, into the cities and the cultural mainstream. The sugar and cattle centre of Camagüey has half a dozen Haitian troupes, and the choir known as Desandann seems poised to be the first of them to make it internationally, under the more radio-friendly name of Creole Choir of Cuba. The first track on the CD demonstrates why: a sensational cocktail of Zulu-like voice-thrumming from a male bass section, a tight harmony female response chant and, fronting it all, the high-octane wailing tenor of one of the terrific soloists who are the clinching attribute of the choir. Track two ushers in a no-holds-barred rendition of a folk tale about a lonesome cattle drover roaming zombie-like through the moonlit landscape. It's belted out by a diminutive chorine dubbed by Real World as ‘the Creole Edith Piaf.’

Things continue in the same vein through a dozen tracks. The largely traditional repertoire, with its dramatic and distinctive melodies, is rendered in a mixture of Creole and Spanish, and one can easily see how BBC producers and live audiences have been captivated by the choir's even more dynamic live act, of which this CD is a good sample.