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press > edmonton
sun
A cool, Cuban beat Edmonton's Bomba
decidedly Latino, despite its northern origins
By MIKE ROSS, EDMONTON SUN
For suggesting that Bomba should've made an English language
album - seeing as the band speaks English, lives in an English-speaking
country, has many English fans and even has one band member
who speaks only English - I caught heck.
The band's manager, a beloved local music personality who
shall otherwise remain nameless, stopped short of calling
my suggestion racist, but begged to differ about Bomba going
anglo. The point being: the core membership of Bomba is two-thirds
Latino. One guy is from Chile and one guy is from Brazil.
They not only study the music of Cuba, they live it. They've
been there at least three times. They've performed there.
They work with real Cuban musicians, have received praise
from same. From humble beginnings as a shlocky dance band
who wore soccer kit on stage, Bomba has become a bona fide
Cuban jazz band.
From Edmonton.
STEEPED IN CUBA
So no worries about its latest CD, Entre Sol y Luz. OK? It's
a beautifully produced work, decidedly more "jazzy"
than the band has been known for up to now - it being a soundtrack
for the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks show - but undeniably steeped
in the unique strain of music that could only have come from
Cuba.
The current expanded version of Bomba also includes four
Cuban musicians. They play their CD release party Tuesday
at the Sidetrack Cafe. Guarantee: Close your eyes and it will
sound like the real deal.
The race issue remains fascinating. How did a group of Edmonton
musicians end up being great at playing Cuban music?
Pianist Chris Andrew, the "token white guy" of
the group, was candid about his feelings in a recent interview.
Bottom line: He wouldn't have been in the group - and been
a key influence - for six years if the respect he gave his
bandmates wasn't returned.
"They never made me feel that because I'm the white
guy that I can't play this music," he says. "I've
never got the vibe that what I do doesn't fit."
Like many white North Americans who perhaps feel like they
have no roots - hey, if you don't happen to like banjo or
bagpipes, what are you going to do? - Andrew has found a passion
for a culture and music he wasn't born into. The same can
be said of white teenagers who get into rap music.
Andrew hasn't had time for Spanish lessons - he's been too
busy studying the music. Cuba is a unique topic, he says.
Its music developed in a hermetically sealed environment,
pretty much on its own since Fidel Castro took over 46 years
ago.
Everyone in Cuba is into music, Andrew says. It's an inherent
part of Cuban culture to the point that few outsiders can
imagine. Only recently has it started to spread and influence
musicians around the world. Thank the Buena Vista Social Club
for opening the door and remember that the door swings both
ways - Cuban musicians are beginning to incorporate American
music, as Andrew and the band found on their most recent trip
there, to the Havana Jazz Festival.
"We really noticed it this time," Andrew says.
"We once saw one of the top timba bands - it's like the
new salsa, like pop music - and the stuff these guys were
doing was unbelievable.
"Then we went to a concert when we were there in December
and it was like the Backstreet Boys. They were still a 14-piece
band or something. It was still amazing, but musically, it
had changed."
Some may find it sad that Cuban music will inevitably change
from the pure form it was, though there will always be keepers
of the flame - just as the music of Beethoven is revered and
performed exactly as it was when it was written.
As for Andrew's role in Bomba, he is the outside influence
- and an outsider. He says, "I don't think I can play
Cuban-style. If you compared me to a Cuban piano player, you
could tell, just like you can tell a black vocalist from a
white vocalist.
"If you have a good ear and you're dedicated to it,
I believe that you can get to a certain point, but there are
certain things ..."
Certain things? They are things like where to place the beat,
how to get the exact groove - which surely could be learned,
since when you break it down, music is mathematical, isn't
it?
Andrew shoots back, "Ah, there are two different types
of players: There are guys who approach it mathematically
and intellectually and there are guys who approach it from
their hearts."
He agrees, however, that as a player of Cuban music, he's
"pretty damn close." Maybe he's one of those rare
musicians who use brain and heart equally. Besides, Bomba
isn't, nor did they ever pretend to be, a "real"
Cuban band. It is its own thing. In a way, Bomba could only
have come from Edmonton.
DISPROVEN STEREOTYPES
But the question lingers: For lack of Cuban heart, one can't
truly play Cuban music? This argument could go on. Similar
things have been said of jazz - and disproven.
"Wynton Marsalis is famous for saying that white people
cannot play jazz," Andrew says. "But I think he's
changed. He's got white people in his band now. For years,
he didn't. Whereas his brother played with Sting. He played
anything with anyone. I think if you're open-minded you can
do anything."
You can even be a Cuban jazz band from Edmonton with no Cubans
in the band - and if you closed your eyes, you might swear
they were from the motherland. Pretty damn close. --
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