Beautiful, Unique Sound
Manolo Reyes | New York, NY | 07/29/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The music of Los Fakires is playful, lyrical and gorgeously executed by a quintet from Santa Clara that's been together for more than 40 years. They bring Cuban classics to life in a style that's different enough from Buena Vista Social Club to warrant buying this CD. The vocals of Cascarita and Rafael Valdes and José Bringues' alto sax flow seamlessly with the accompanying guitar, bongos, guiro and cowbell. I love this CD!!"
Beautiful and Unique
Jorge Salazar | Los Angeles, CA | 07/26/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"From the New York Times 12/11/01:Los Fakires are from Santa Clara, a town in central Cuba. In songs by pioneering Cuban composers like Ignacio Piñeiro and Ernesto Lecuona, they gave the old sones and guarachas their own breezy lilt, a poised regional accent that's different from the Havana- based revival of the Buena Vista Social Club.All of Los Fakires's instruments - alto saxophone, guitar, bongos, guiro and cowbell - were acoustic and portable, as if the band could pick up and play tableside at a cafe. The songs were pure transparent counterpoint. José Remie often used his guitar simply to pluck bass lines, not chords. The group's lead singer, Cascarita (the nickname of Martín Chavez), has a sweet, poised tenor, with the kind of delivery that made its way into West African rumba.As Cascarita portrayed the amiable suitor, celebrated tropical indolence or defined the essentials of the son ("guitar, tobacco and rum"), José Bringues played teasing little saxophone lines, sometimes tossing in an odd quote - like "Jingle Bells" - or switching to dissonant whole- tone scales. Rafael Valdés, on maracas, sang close harmony with Cascarita and took over a few lead vocals, with a broader, more extroverted tenor that could turn mock-operatic.From [web address]:
These unique musical time travellers are straight out of the 1940's and the early 1950's, their style reflecting a repertoire culled mostly from the preceding three decades. This is a Cuban "retro" music performed as if it was written yesterday- and yesterday was 1952."