(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Talking Spanish).

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

In the Guantanamo area of Cuba, there is a fashion of music that is been round for hundreds of years.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It is known as Changui.

GIANLUCA TRAMONTANA: Lengthy earlier than it turned a style, Changui was the phrase for pot.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That is Gianluca Tramontana. He is a music journalist, broadcaster and now producer of a brand new field set, “Changui: The Sound Of Guantanamo.” He spent over two years touring to Cuba, recording the normal sounds.

TRAMONTANA: It got here out of the agricultural plantation communities of japanese Cuba, principally the Guantanamo area. And on Friday, after staff would work the fields, they might begin enjoying music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Singing in Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tramontana stated the musicians needed to improvise their devices.

TRAMONTANA: You already know, in distant rural communities, you did not have limitless devices. So it was selfmade, spontaneous music. They’d perhaps seize a machete and a machete sharpener and scrape that to make a guayo sound. They could get a few dried gourds for the maracas. Or they could even seize a cow cranium, and the jaws – the tooth and the jaws rattle, and so they would possibly shake that.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Singing in Spanish).

TRAMONTANA: It is riff-based. It is totally different than most Cuban music. Usually talking, Cuban music is on the clave. It is straight time on the beat. Changui could be very totally different. It is syncopated. It swings, and it is call-and-response.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Singing in Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tramontana says as he looked for the sounds of Changui, he discovered plenty of trendy variations. However he actually needed to get to the foundation of the music.

TRAMONTANA: So ultimately, I simply needed to exit to Guantanamo Metropolis myself. And what I discovered was a dwelling, respiratory tradition. Changui shouldn’t be actually one thing you do. Changui is a life. You reside and breathe Changui. The Changui musicians, they’re born into it, and so they’re Changuiseros from the cradle to the grave.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Like this group, Las Flores del Changui.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Singing in Spanish).

TRAMONTANA: They’re an all-female group, and so they all come from the Changui life. All of them grew up in distant rural communities, and so they all grew up round three-day Changuisis (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUIDAO CON LA LENGUA”)

LAS FLORES DEL CHANGUI: (Singing in Spanish).

TRAMONTANA: Floridia, who’s the bandleader of Las Flores, learnt to play tres from her grandmother, who was a tres participant. And Floridia’s daughter is within the band, too. So she’s persevering with a four-generation custom.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tramontana’s recordings characteristic numerous Changuiseros. However above all, they seize the spirit of what makes the music from Guantanamo so particular.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “INSPIRACION DE LOS PUEBLOS”)

GRUPO FAMILIA VERA: (Singing in Spanish).

TRAMONTANA: It is communal. It is inclusive. It is largely improvised. In case you have one thing to sing and if you wish to take part, you possibly can take part and sing and take part, and everybody enjoying the music will observe.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That is Gianluca Tramontana. He produced the field set “Changui: The Sound Of Guantanamo,” out on July 30.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “INSPIRACION DE LOS PUEBLOS”)

GRUPO FAMILIA VERA: (Singing in Spanish).

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