I just talk-without much ado, or deification, with one of the charms of Cuban and international music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This Cuban, natural, frank and cordial, gave us more than an hour of his precious time.
His name: Juan Climaco, but he is not known like that, it is simpler still: Juan, Formell to be exact. The interview took place at his home, a residence very close to Fifth Avenue in western Havana.
Once I crossed the threshold of the house his wife received me, and he didn’t keep me waiting; he appeared smiling, friendly, impeccably dressed and next to me sat the Cuban musician, the leader of the Rolling Stones of Cuba or Cuban Music Train, the father of the orchestra Los Van Van.
Grateful and amazed is Juan Formell, National Music Award, by the constant calls and congratulatory messages received from around the world on the news that the Latin Academy of Arts and Recording Sciences will confer him the Excellence Award for his outstanding creative artistic significance to the world of recording.
You see, he told me-that now highlighted by the popular Latin Recording Academy was criticized a lot, a lot at first. But there was a very revolutionary time in Cuba from the creation of Los Van Van, I was the first but others came behind me. It is true that we anticipated much at all points of views by what today is called fusion, Formell pointed out.
The composer of more than 250 songs confirmed that in November he will be at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas where the delivery ceremony of the 14th annual Latin Grammy will take place to receive the coveted Gramophone there, but he still does not know if he will have the company of the rest of the orchestra.
Last year when the phonogram “La Maquinaria” was nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards he told me he enjoyed the beautiful displays that distinguish Las Vegas, and the reactions of the public, all stimulated the imagination of the Maestro to write an opera with popular music that Yenny, the singer of Los Van Van will sing.
In our dialogue there was a lot of information, anecdotes, memories, smiles, clarification of concepts and of course the rightful critic, including the dissemination of certain terms by which Juan Formell clearly states that he does not agree with the popular dance music, refers, of course, to the expression in recent years Cuba has replaced the term timba, another of the creations of this man, happy living on his land.
From the reactions of the public in the United States to the international sound of the Cuban group, his views on the process of opening the island to the musicians of the diaspora, their strong interest to dance and the reasons why he did not emigrated, and other details of this original master born in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, in downtown Havana, you will learn tomorrow in the interview that the popular musician granted exclusively to OnCuba.
Before being honored with a Grammy Award for Musical Excellence Juan Formell with Los Van Van will perform from October 23 through the 27 in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, home to one of the most important events in the international music industry where they will receive the award for Artist of the World Music Expo, WOMEX 2013.
In the long t and rewarding career of Juan Formell Cortina also you can find one of the three Special World Awards awarded by the jury of the World Entertainment Organization, WEO, many Girasoles Opina de la Popularidad and other distinctions that are not important for him as the unlimited affection of his people and dancers from the entire universe.
