Los Heroes

Album Review

In 1979, Raoul Diomande approached the Cuban record label Areito with the idea that Cuban musicians could play son, cha cha, and mambo as well or better than anyone else. Juan Pablo Torres, trombonist, arranger, and producer for the state label, began recruiting musicians. The musicians who played in these loose jam sessions spanned three generations from over ten different bands, including representatives from most of the greatest bands of Cuban 20th century music. Playing in extended jams based on the most skeletal of arrangements, the musicians fill the songs with an energy pulled from every region of Cuba. Instrumental voices rise and are echoed. Phrases are suggested and responded to, evolve and fade, replaced by other voices suggesting other themes. Occasionally an individual voice rises into a powerful expression of personality, only to incorporate a passage of a familiar Cuban melody, and pass the conversation on. Over these two discs, the Estrellas go through many styles of Cuban music, and many brilliant performances are turned in. The feeling of joy at these sessions is palpable, as is the feeling that many of these musicians had been waiting for the opportunity to play this incredible music with other incredible musicians for too long. Relegated to obscurity and underground circles for many years, this collection has been lovingly packaged with extensive liner notes and photographs and annotated with the Spanish lyrics as well as English translations.