{"id":198970,"date":"2019-05-19T08:30:45","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T12:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=198970"},"modified":"2019-05-19T15:26:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T19:26:43","slug":"sintesis-afro-cuban-music-sounds-on-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/sintesis-afro-cuban-music-sounds-on-its-own\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00edntesis: “Afro-Cuban music sounds on its own”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nineteen days after Fidel Castro\u2019s death there still existed, throughout the country, a kind of unofficial curfew. Shows, concerts and cultural events of a certain magnitude were reprogrammed or their profile considerably reduced. But on December 14, 2016, after all the ropes were tightened, a concert would take place in Havana\u2019s Cathedral Square. A beautiful concert for the 40 years of S\u00edntesis, one of the most emblematic Cuban bands of all times, together with their guests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years later, that concert, released as the DVD S\u00edntesis 4 decades (Unicornio, 2019), directed by Joseph Ros, is evocative \u2015especially music wise, according to the director\u2015 of a show that was lucky to have the performances of Silvio Rodr\u00edguez, Amaury P\u00e9rez, Ern\u00e1n L\u00f3pez-Nussa, Niurka Gonz\u00e1lez and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Vitier, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is precisely the release of the band’s new production and its nomination to the Cubadisco Awards which motivated this dialogue with Carlos Alfonso and Ele Vald\u00e9s, founders of S\u00edntesis. A pretext, as if it one was necessary, to also speak of 40 years of music.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did the idea come up of \u200b\u200bcelebrating this anniversary with a concert in Cathedral Square?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ele Vald\u00e9s (EV): S\u00edntesis started there on December 14, 1976, I think it was to celebrate the day of culture workers, and we had always yearned to celebrate each anniversary there, but for one or another reason they gave us other places like the Karl Marx, because our concerts also included dances.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carlos [Alfonso] contacted Eusebio [Leal] through common friends so they would give us the space; they even spoke with the Cardinal, because the Square belongs to the church, and they agreed, because Eusebio knows about S\u00edntesis\u2019 trajectory.<\/span><\/p>\n

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S\u00edntesis with Silvio Rodr\u00edguez. Photo: Javier Jes\u00fas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How difficult was it to bring together in that concert so many artists of that caliber, who always have commitments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

EV: It wasn\u2019t difficult, first because it was December, and almost all of us Cuban artists spend December with the family, in the country, rarely outside; and the other thing is that they are really friends. Carlos called them and they all said “count me in,” starting with Silvio, who is always the busiest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carlos Alfonso (CA): We are also joined by a whole work career and friendship with that group of artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has been the most difficult for S\u00edntesis in these 40 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CA: For me it has been overcoming misunderstandings, which have been many, because first we started doing rock and roll, and it was not well looked upon….<\/span><\/p>\n

We had to assume a line of work with difficulties; not only here, but also in Mexico, where we were announced as part of the New Song Movement so as not to announce ourselves as a rock group, because theatres didn\u2019t put on rock, it was almost always in open-air spaces…. Then we chose an even worse path, that of Afro-Cuban music, that no matter how much the institutions and the State have done to give a push to everything that\u2019s folklore, there are always people who look at it as obscurantism, witchcraft. Now less, but Eme [Alfonso] tells me things about school, how they told her that she sang for the devil, things like that, and then we went along carrying those two burdens: rock and roll and Afro-Cuban music. Quint\u00edn Pino Machado was the most supportive of this group, he gave us the instruments and told us: “we want them to do their job.”<\/span><\/p>\n

EV: He said: I would like my son to listen to rock, to listen to S\u00edntesis, and not only to the American and English groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Eme Alfonso, Ele Vald\u00e9s and Amaury P\u00e9rez. Photo: Javier Jes\u00fas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that’s how you took off….<\/strong><\/p>\n

CA: S\u00edntesis was formed with a number of people who were hooked on music, it was practically an alienation because we spent the entire day rehearsing and creating. We had several composers: Amaury P\u00e9rez, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Vitier, Mike Porcel, and me, so when we needed a text it would appear, we would exchange. S\u00edntesis had one of the best vocal groups, it had the voices of Tema IV, it had good instrumentalists and good composers, I don\u2019t think we could take off badly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first thing that happened with S\u00edntesis was that each person lost their identity, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Vitier was the keyboardist, Mike Porcel was a composer…and that didn\u2019t last long, because those people, with their strength, were not going to be able to stand it that long, and so they started leaving the band. I think the first one was Amaury, then Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda, but he left some compositions that are so beautiful, so well done, it\u2019s an incredible thing for the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

EV: Another of our difficulties has been the international management of our career. The group emerged in the 1980s, it was the most popular stage, and we did not have good international management. I think that when we released Ancestors we could have taken advantage of that moment, even though we had very good luck, because the work imposed itself, and the impresarios who came mostly from Europe were interested and that is how we participated in the best jazz festivals in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

CA: And we went by chance, because someone called us, someone contacted us.<\/span><\/p>\n

EV: In 1990 we went to London, for a Week of Cuban Culture; we were S\u00edntesis, Los Mu\u00f1equitos de Matanzas, (Manuel) Mendive and the Septeto Igancio Pi\u00f1eiro. How did we go? The person organizing that event, Lucy Dur\u00e1n, went to Varadero, and on the bus she took, the driver was hearing the Ancestros cassette, and she said “who are the ones who sing?” “Ah, it’s S\u00edntesis, they belong to Cubartistas,” and she said: “I want that group,” that’s how we went to London. They have been strokes of luck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why then cling to that kind of music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

EV: Carlos has his point of view, but I’m going to speak from the outside, because you know that composers have their world.<\/span><\/p>\n

After we did this symphonic rock work in Spanish, we had the first international experience in 1979, forming part of the Days of Cuban Culture in the socialist countries, and we realized that the repertoire that we had was not what attracted attention, what most attracted were things that had Cuban elements, our folklore.<\/span><\/p>\n

From that experience, and the proposal of Marta Vald\u00e9s who asked Carlos why we didn\u2019t do with S\u00edntesis the work we used to do with Tema IV, which was to rescue popular themes, Ancestors emerged, in 1987, and starting then it is the other aspect of the band, and for the composers it meant doing something new but based on something very ours, which were the African roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

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S\u00edntesis celebrated its four decades with a concert in Havana\u2019s Cathedral Square. Photo: Javier Jes\u00fas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CA: As a child, a young person, I had a tremendous rebelliousness inside me, and to whatever I was told “no” was what I was going to do, I was going to go against all rigid thinking, because that is my spirit. I studied to be an electrician, it was what I studied, and my friends appeared with a record of The Beatles and The Beach Boys and that was what I heard, you had to put the record inside another album cover, and that creates a sense of rebellion. Then that fusion of two things that were little supported, because of that irreverent spirit, in addition to what Ele said, that worked better…, but when one starts in music one doesn\u2019t think about what will work anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

EV: In addition, we had already done Variaciones de un zapateo cubano in 1979 and that was one of the things that was most liked, because of that thing with the roots; We already had a background with Tema IV with which we had worked the popular songs, the cries, and we had that inside us. And we were very curious about the Afro-Cuban aspect, because at that time we also participated in a documentary called Trinidad, by H\u00e9ctor Veit\u00eda and that was the first time we participated as a group in a religious festival. I did know about that because of my family, but we felt part of something that we didn\u2019t even know had lyrics, and we ended up dancing and with goosebumps, because even if you don\u2019t know anything, it is catchy and people who have faith radiate an energy in all the participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

CA: At that time, we did several interviews and I remember that I said I was as happy with that music as with Beethoven’s music, for me they were two points of tremendous artistic sensitivity, and with the passage of time we have discovered that practically all the music has come out of there. Even the rarest and most contemporary music. I think so, that everything is there.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many members of the band practice the Yoruba religion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CA: None.<\/span><\/p>\n

EV: My family on my mother’s side was religious and I participated as a child in some things: “bring the girl so she can ring the bell to Oshun,” that kind of neighborhood things, but my dad was an atheist.<\/span><\/p>\n

That kind of thing makes you very curious because as it is a religion based on nature, it has more points of contact with what\u2019s real. We all started studying, with the help of Natalia Bol\u00edvar, for example, looking in bookstores, and we are scholars on the subject, in addition to the fact that in Havana the singing is different from Matanzas and Santiago, because it\u2019s an oral tradition….<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the creative process of the band begins with research.<\/strong><\/p>\n