Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for September 26, 2022

As far as I know, my older brother and I caught our mother’s Beatle bug and our father’s Beach Boy bug.

Been a long time since I heard that group’s name anywhere. Don’t know much about them. Don’t believe they did much Bach, Handel, Mozart, or Beethoven, which is where my tastes ran.

Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.1 It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is much loved in Puerto Rico as well.

The Buena Vista Social Club was an ensemble made in Cuba in 1996 also a popular documentary released in 1999.

My taste in music leans more toward Beck’s Bolero.

Learn Baldo, you will be happy you did.

Buena Vista Social Club is one of my Pandora channels, it’s origins are Cuban music mainly 50s and 60s, really good stuff

Tunes on a turntable. More fussy, but your attention is more focused.

They did a really nice cover of “She Will be Loved,” featuring Maroon 5’s lead singer. Better than the original, I thought.

A wonderful documentary about them was shown in the late 90’s. Info about Cuban culture was still mostly banned or ignored in the U.S. to avoid offending certain political groups, especially in Florida. They even went after Gloria Estefan for trying to bring award winning Cuban musicians to the U.S.

The entire genre of Afro-Cuban jazz is fascinating. I enjoy listening to Mauro Bauzo and Paquito Rivera.

There’s also Tito Puente, who wrote a song covered by Santana. Yes, he wrote Oye Como Va.

Celia Cruz is also worth a listen.

The bolero is sexy…….

The generations will always be divided by their music.

I wonder if “Papi” ever plays Ernesto Lecuona’s music or has the Leucona Cuban Boys albums. My dad loved Lecuona’s music. When I learned to play the piano, he asked me to learn many of his piano pieces. ‘I figured Lecuona must have had huge hands as some of the chords in his compositions I couldn’t play because my fingers couldn’t stretch that far. Sort of like the composer Rachmanioff who had huge hands as well.

Fantastic band. Great album, too. Props on the recognizable cover art. (Says the Cubano who is married to the Latin Jazz musician.)