Cuban Dance Party

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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 34:15

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Ned Sublette

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Havana's king of the Tropicana — and of the recording studio.
2006 | Label: Legacy International / IODA

The best big band that you might have heard in Havana in the years preceding and, briefly, following the Revolution, was arguably Bebo's. Born in 1918, he's lived in Sweden since the mid '60s, but in Havana he was the king of the Tropicana and of the recording studio. (He played piano when Nat “King” Cole came to Havana to record.) He was one of the inventors of the mambo. And, though there are many contenders, one of the best Cuban orchestrators ever. The quality — both the playing and the recording — of this album is astounding.

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There's so much Cuban music on eMusic, both pre- and post-revolutionary, that paring it down to one Dozen seems unthinkable. So, instead, here's a first dozen. Much of it clusters around the late '50s and early '60s, a turbulent period in Cuba's history, but a brilliant period for Cuban music. In the two years after the Cuban revolution (January 1, 1959) many artists (Bebo Valdes, for example) left the island, joining a number of Cuban musicians who… more »

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There's so much Cuban music on eMusic, both pre- and post-revolutionary, that paring it down to one Dozen seems unthinkable. So, instead, here's a first dozen. Much of it clusters around the late '50s and early '60s, a turbulent period in Cuba's history, but a brilliant period for Cuban music. In the two years after the Cuban revolution (January 1, 1959) many artists (Bebo Valdes, for example) left the island, joining a number of Cuban musicians who… more »

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