• Submitted by: admin
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 11 / 20 / 2009

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The new political winds have cleared the path for Septeto Nacional.

Like a comet with an erratic orbit, Cuba's hothouse music scene occasionally flares into view, dazzling American audiences for a spell before suddenly falling back into darkness.

These patterns are not tied to any predictable cycle but rather to the four-year presidential election calendar. Under Republican administrations, musicians living on the communist-controlled island tend to be locked out of the American market, while the door has slowly opened under recent Democratic presidents.

So with the election of Barack Obama last November, arts presenters and cultural activists quickly started applying for visas; some of the first fruits of their labors arrive in the Bay Area on Monday, when Cuba's venerable ensemble Septeto Nacional opens a four-night run at Yoshi's-San Francisco.

"Once the Obama administration came in, actually as soon as he was elected, people started lining up and working on their visas," says San Francisco attorney Bill Martinez, one of the founders of US-Cuba Cultural Exchange, an organization leading the fight to change U.S. policies limiting the access of Cuban artists. "One of the first groups we filed for was Septeto Nacional, and three weeks later we started working on Vocal Sampling."

The great Cuban vocalist Omara Portuondo signaled the imminent Obama thaw when she received a visa for performances in Los Angeles and San Francisco last month, before making a triumphant Nov. 5 appearance in Las Vegas as advertisement the first artist from Cuba to serve as a presenter at the Latin Grammys. Later in the evening, her valedictory CD, "Gracias" (World Village), earned her the award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album.

The symbolism was not lost on anyone who was present. Under George W. Bush's administration, musicians associated with the Buena Vista Social Club, which revived Portuondo's international career, had been prevented from attending the Grammys in 2004, when the State Department rejected their visa applications the day before the event.

The new political winds have cleared the path for Septeto Nacional, a band with a rich history pre-dating the reign of Fidel Castro. Founded by legendary Afro-Cuban songwriter Ignacio Piñeiro in 1927, the group played an essential role in transforming son from a rural style created by troubadours in Santiago into urbane Hanava dance music.

Along with Sexteto Habanero, their main rivals in Havana, Piñeiro's band introduced clarion vocal harmonies and sophisticated orchestration while retaining the insistent syncopation known as clave. Septeto Nacional's son sound eventually gave birth to
salsa.

George Gershwin was so impressed by Septeto Nacional on a trip to Cuba in 1932 that he quoted Piñeiro's hit "Échale salsita" in his piece "Cuban Overture." And when the band made its last U.S. appearance in 1933 at the World Exposition in Chicago,
Septeto Nacional became a sensation.

Over the years, the group featured a succession of powerhouse vocalists, starting with legendary sonero Abelardo Barroso. In the 1940s, Miguelito Valdés won a new generation of fans for the group, which has always drawn on the hundreds of classic

sones written by Piñeiro, who died in 1968. In recent years the band has recorded and toured prolifically under the leadership of Eugenio "Raspa" Rodríguez, who joined in 1982 at the urging of the band's then-director, Carlos Embale.

Now the band's longest serving member, Raspa eventually took over leadership and recruited a fresh batch of musicians. The repertoire remains much the same as 80 years ago, but the contemporary arrangements reflect the sensibilities of the musicians whose grandparents grew up dancing to the band's hits.

"I am very proud to sing those songs," says Raspa, 69, while taking a break from an informal jam session at the house of Puerto Rican salsa star Andy Montañez. "We respect the originals, but we added the style of this new generation. They keep on telling the same stories, but it's like being a chronicler of this time. I always wanted to sing with my own sound, but I try to maintain that tradition of Carlos Embale, and all the big stars who passed through."

For Cuban music fans, the opportunity to hear Septeto Nacional in the U.S. for the first time in 76 years feels a lot like the appearance of Halley's Comet. Whether the band is the harbinger of more great Cuban music to come is a question that will be resolved not in the heavens but in the halls of the State Department and the White House.

Septeto Nacional

When: 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday

Where: Yoshi"s-San Francisco, 1330 Fillmore St.

Tickets: $26; 415-655-5600, www.yoshis.com

Source: www.mercurynews.com

Septeto Nacional a music enchantment is there for you