:: BAHAMA SOUL CLUB feat. Sexto Sentido, Olvido Ruiz, Brenda Boykin, Arema Arega, Arlety Valdes, Yudelkis Lafuente ::
HAVANA ’58, the decadent jet-set heaven when Cuba was a tropical playground. A pleasure dome of sensual overload and rum-fuelled abandon, where shows and showgirls were dazzling, the gambling was high-stakes, and the revellers included Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra and J.F.K., to name a few. Mojitos, Mobsters, Mambos & Muchachas. A forbidden, hedonistic world of Rum, Rumba and Roulette. The full range of Sexual freedom, offcial corruption, and Mafia control that fuelled the rampant party - until Sylvester 1958 when Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries took the foor.
On this 4th album The Bahama Soul Club presents a very personal soundtrack, a musical homage, inspired by a vibrant verve that never came back. We encounter a heady blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, fashionable hotels and looking deep into backstreet brothels, empty wallets and bemusing decolletés. The Rumba is everywhere.
With the frst albums The BSC established an elegant and percussive cocktail of Latin Jazz, Soul, Bossa and Boogaloo and now mixing the dark, sensual, alluring mystic of Tiki and Exotica into it. What we get is a new caribic long-drink named: HAVANA ’58
......... Genre: Afro-Cuban Jazz ........ Style: 60s/cinematic ......... Sound: Hi-Fidelity-Plus
As can be heard on the award-winning previous album ‘The Cuban Tapes’ the fascinating voices of hand selected Cuban singers have a strong influence and a special effect on this production. Cuba’s leading vocal quartet SEXTO SENTIDO surprise us with traditional Yoruba chants (“Eleggua”), irresistible complex harmonies in the magnum mobster opus "Meyer-Lansky” and shows us some disco love in “Tropicana Flight”. The vivacious OLVIDO RUIZ, singer in the Bahama Soul Club Live band (long awaited and for the frst time on recorded disc), presents the full bandwidth of her expressive voice ranged from Boogaloo (“Muévelo Papi”) to Lounge (“Night Breeze”) and leads up to the dark 6/8-ballade “Let God”. And again the lovely AREMA AREGA with the rolling “Rumba Fugaz”. These ladies were selected by Gilles Peterson for the well-respected Havana-Cultura-Project and reveal their traditional Cuban roots as they combine fun and intellect while smartly ignoring passing fashion. Besides of any mambo mania and tiring salsa they stand for the swinging lightness and the pulsating cosmopolitan lifestyle of the contemporary Cuban scene. Finally, as a very special guest: The American Jazz and Soul singer BRENDA BOYKIN from the mighty Club Des Belugas with the hypnotic “No Words” and the shuffling “Dizzy’s Bounce”.
The current Video “NO WORDS” starts exactly at the point where the previous video “Ay Jona” ends. Again with the breath-taking pictures of the most deliriously beautiful films ever made: “I Am Cuba”, directed in 1964 by Mikhail Kalatozov and presented in the 90s by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. The rights owners ‚The Cuban Institute of Cinematography' were deeply impressed by the quality of the new music and agreed to combine the award winning footage with the upcoming videos to feature “HAVANA ’58” with pure genuine Cuban patina. Un abrazo.
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