El Grito loves to bring you undiscovered artists from the streets of Havana but from time to time we visit the refined venues of Europe to catch the undisputed heavyweights. Eliades Ochoa has a singular place in Cuban musical history – I am an expert in this having devoured a reverential biography I’d picked up at a truckstop a few days earlier.
Its ironic to fly from Havana to Bristol to see Eliades Ochoa, but I did, vowing to catch him next time at his musical birthplace, the Casa de la Trova, in Santiago, where he still shows up. Going from the Malecon to the Harbourside, its hard not to reflect on the intertwining of two ports, two vile thirds of the triangular trade (goods to Africa, enslaved people to the Caribbean, and sugar/tobacco back to Britain), but also of the enrichment of Bristolian music by waves of afro-diasporan culture. I pinged Kamila a few shows of the harbour and the vacant Colston plinth, trudged up the hill to the small but beautifully formed St Georges Hall, and pointed my camera at a man who : –
- paid his dues in pre-revolutionary Santiago de Cuba, reputedly shining the shoes of Benny More, the Cuban Sinatra and also its James Brown, and its Ray Charles (its a small country)
- he has led the Patria Quartet, a band formed in 1939, since 1982, revolutionising its repertoire to include more Afro-Cuban son, guaracha, changüí, and even country-style guajira, giving it a rawer percussion and dancier edge – a fusion of tradition and innovation — respecting the roots while expanding the branches.
- echoed the West African – Cuban exchange of ideas which we have riffed on in other articles, having been sought out by Manu Dibango to collaborate on his 1996 CubAfrica reworking of Cuban standards like El Manisero and Quiza, Quiza, Quiza, he was pivotal to 2010’s AfroCubism album, which as an exchange of ideas between Cuban and Malian musicians. Eliades brough montuno guitar stylings, tres riffs, and deep rural vocal phrasing to songs like “Al Vaivén de mi Carreta” and “Karamo” with African melodies woven around his groove and phrasing.
- is credited with coaxing the legendary Compay Segundo out of musical retirement. Having moved in overlapping circles in the 1970s, Compay was cigar making in Havana in the mid 80’s, before a meeting with Eliades where he provided a cassette including Chan Chan, which Eliades arranged and performed
- was the young nucleus in the formation of a band of octogenarian cuban musicians. who have been adequately covered by other Afrocuban music bloggers. But while I may strive to avoid the obvious, I cannot resist sharing this performance of their finest moment, the song that first brought Cuban music to my ears
El Grito 