Search - Orquesta Aragón :: Cuban Originals

The violin is an instrument few people would associate with Cuban music. Yet, beginning in the 1940s, Orquesta Aragon made massed fiddles synonymous with a dance-music style called charanga, which added a dose of urban sophistication to the more pastoral, flute-led danzon genre. Orquesta Aragon rode a gliding, polished sound based on the interplay between the string section and the effervescent flute of Richard Egües, more recently heard backing Senegalese singer Cheik Lô on his breakaway disc, Bambay Gueej. Though charanga would seem to be at odds with tougher, more rhythmically charged Cuban dance music, the Orquesta put the mambo-derived cha-cha on the map with Egües's composition "El Boduguero," which Nat "King" Cole later took to the top of the American charts. Famous members of this world-class ensemble include Rafael Lay, who arranged the songs with Egües, and Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Pio Leyva. The band remains together, but this disc traces the glory days of the late 1940s to the early 1950s. --Bob Tarte.