• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 03 / 28 / 2011

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28th March 2011. THE Grammy-nominated Creole Choir from Cuba will perform at The Events Centre in Caloundra this Wednesday night.

THE Grammy-nominated Creole Choir from Cuba will perform at The Events Centre in Caloundra this Wednesday night.

With irresistible melodies driven by richly textured harmonies, shifting Caribbean rhythms with a very original root bass sound, this is impassioned singing by a unique group celebrating roots, resistance and the irresistible rhythms of life.

“For us music is like food, it feeds the spirit and is a major inspiration for everyday life,” a group spokesperson said.

The Creole Choir’s Cuban name Desandann means literally ‘descendents’ and with songs like Papa Danbala, Tandé or Liman Casimir, they tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions in the sugar and coffee plantations until the 1959 Revolution.

Desandann emerged out of the choir in 1994, a difficult time for Cubans when the economy fell into a black hole after the end of support from the Soviet Union. While times were hard, the singers were encouraged by re-claiming the traditions of their families.

From laments to protest songs like Tandé permeated by the homesickness of exile and the eternal dream of returning ‘home’, to ritual prayers and celebratory freedom dances each song tells a powerful Haitian story kept alive in Cuba.

Multiple award winners, this vibrant group, consisting of five men and five women, are a cornucopia of remarkable voices energetically moving and dancing as they sing songs handed down from former generations and of some of the foremost groups of the contemporary Haitian scene.

The Creole Choir of Cuba will perform at The Events Centre in Caloundra this Wednesday from 7.30pm. Tickets are still available. Visit www.theeventscentre.com.au or phone 5491 4240 for more information.

Source: www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/03/28/creole-choir-cuba-spectac...