JUAN-CARLOS FORMELL

Juan-Carlos Formell playing bass solo
“...his guitar soars with textures and narrative palpability rarely heard these days.” - NY NEWSDAY
"Juan-Carlos Formell continues to open new doors for a pan-Latin sound: Cuban song forms working as a fulcrum to create tunes without boundaries. David Byrne and Caetano Veloso have used this approach -- yet Formell adds a technical brilliance and sense of grounding." -- VARIETY
"Music is the combustion created by the impact of a moment on a place. I came to New York as part of an exodus of young Cuban musicians who had no place in their country, because the moment had been cut off." -- Juan-Carlos Formell
BOOKING: [email protected]
B I O G R A P H Y: from REBEL to REFUGEE to GRAMMY NOMINEE
Channeling the African roots of the Caribbean experience via his dazzling guitar, Juan-Carlos Formell creates a new dimension of contemporary Cuban music: intense, lyrical, dangerously dream-like.
Born in Havana in 1964, a fourth generation musician, Juan-Carlos learned the technique of the Feeling guitar in childhood from the masters of the genre: Mendez, Froilan, Guyun. Juan-Carlos began composing in his teens, and studied bass with Andres Escalona, the first bassist of the Havana Symphony Orchestra. He went on to play acoustic bass for the jazz pianist Emiliano Salvador. But when he tried to develop a career as a composer and guitarist, he found that the restrictions of the government-controlled music industry in his homeland made it difficult for him to express his new ideas. "While still in my twenties, at a time when most musicians are full of hope, I was resigned to a future of marginalization," Juan-Carlos recalls.
He fled to the United States in 1993, to make his own music, his way. He settled in New York City, where he found many other exceptional Cuban musicians of his generation -- but soon encountered a different obstacle. "When we came to New York we found that we had to keep seceding from what we call 'oficialismo' -- the official definition of jazz, the terrible and imbecilic idea of what Latin music is 'supposed' to be -- a loud dance party. We had to make our own rules."
His years of struggle in exile were vindicated when his debut album, "songs from a little blue house" produced by the legendary engineer/producer John Fischbach was nominated for a Grammy in 2000.
His next release, "las calles del paraiso" (EMI Latin 2002), also produced by John Fischbach, was the critically-acclaimed concept album that Formell describes as "the soundtrack of an imaginary movie" about a day and night in the city of Havana."
"A Cuba consisting of heat, light and flesh as re-imagined by a terrific band that trafficks with fierce subtlety in the politics of rhythm, taking off where Buena Vista Social Club peaked" -- VILLAGE VOICE
Then, after several years of touring with his band and some major concerts -- with Buena Vista Social Club veteran Eliades Ochoa, and world music stars Cesaria Evora, Milton Nascimento and Susana Baca -- Juan-Carlos decided to take on the challenge of a solo guitar project. Inspired by a sojourn in New Orleans, Juan-Carlos returned to the Crescent City in May of 2005 to record "cemeteries & desire", which was released by Narada Records in August 2005. The album features powerful original ballads -- songs now haunted by the devastation of the city.
"He joins the company of Garcia Lorca and Nicholas Guillen, the poet-singers, the love--death--rebirth obsessed ones, whose compressed surreal lyricism works simultaneously as literature and popular song." -- Norman Weinstein, author of "A Night in Tunisia"
His next project, "son radical", was the spontaneous combustion of rock en clave that came out of Los Angeles recording sessions with two other exceptional Cuban musicians -- drummer/producer Jimmy Branly (of NG la Banda) and bassist Carlitos del Puerto (of Caravana Cubana). Inspired by Cuban negrista poet Nicolas Guillen, Cuban patriot Jose Marti, and the African roots of the Caribbean experience, son radical became a lyrical, politically-charged dimension of contemporary Cuban music.
"...the leaders of this movement are Carlos Varela in Cuba, Juan-Carlos Formell in exile in New York, and the groups Habana Abierta and Buena Fe..."CUBA: A Global Studies Handbook, Ted Henken, 2007
His current project, "Johnny's Dream Club" was recorded at John FIschbach's Piety Street Recording in New Orleans in April 2008, after a weekend at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. Inspired by the "Feeling" movement in Cuba, it features the participation of Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca, Cuban percussionist Jorge Leyva, Argentinian bassist Pedro Giraudo and violinist/trombone player Lewis Kahn. The album also has a guest appearance from the celebrated New Orleans jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White.
" The album is a delirious whirl of ethereal tone poems and intense, almost nightmarish guitar, all meant to evoke Cuba's chaotic history." -- Alison Fensterstock, GAMBIT, New Orleans
Gifted with a rare ear for new compositions which meld a sense of tradition with a groundbreaking and powerful writing style, Juan-Carlos Formell has forged a post-modern identity for AfroCuban music. Hailed as “musical magic realism”, his five albums constitute an epic poem of Antillean mytho-history -- with songs that range from a paean to the flora and fauna of his native country, to a personal invocation to an AfroCuban deity or a defiant call to freedom that honors the runaway slave.
Juan-Carlos Formell and his ensembles have performed in New York at Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz Standard, Smoke, and S.O.B.’s; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor; in Oakland at Yoshi's; in Los Angeles at The Hollywood Bowl, Temple Bar, The Knitting Factory, and at jazz festivals throughout the United States.
Juan-Carlos has performed solo concerts in New York at Joe's Pub, The Knitting Factory, Jazz Standard, Living Room, Makor, and The Bowery Ballroom; in Chicago at HotHouse; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro; in Seattle at The Century Ballroom; in Portland at The Blue Monk;in Berkeley at Freight & Salvage; in Los Angeles at Skirball Center and McCabe's.
BOOKING: [email protected]
D I S C O G R A P H Y :
SONGS FROM A LITTLE BLUE HOUSE (1999): "The little blue house, with a rooster in the kitchen and an altar behind the door, is the essential symbol of Cuban tradition." -- Juan-Carlos Formell
THE CRITICS SAID:
"This album, an exile's portarit of Cuba that could never have been done on the island itself, marks the beginning of a musical post-Castro era." -- GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE
"Formell is clearly heir to the improvisational vocal virtuosity, infectious swing and tingling emotion that permeates the best-selling 'Buena Vista Social Club' albums. But within the innovative, intimate arrangements on 'Little Blue House', recorded with Cuban and American musicians and produced by John Fischbach, beat the bleeding heart of country music and the cut of alternative rock." -- BILLBOARD Weather Report, July 1999
"A melodic, arpeggio-drenched delight, marked by his extraordinary guitar and the quiet drama of his honey-drenched vocals, a voice that brings to mind the subtle passion of Antonio Carlos Jobim." -- j. poet, PULSE MAGAZINE Oct 1999
"While rooted in traditional Cuban genres, Little Blue House is woven with jazz guitar, rolling drums, and horns, as well as acoustic rock riffs. Sliding smoothly from euphoria to melancholy, or holding steady in between, the album's resulting soulful synthesis is totally unlike the forced fusion of today's "hot" Latin pop crossover products, and is devoid of musical and textual clichés. Formell's sweet and sour vocals and the record's acoustic intimacy bring to mind international singer/songwriters ranging from Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil to Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, and Neil Young. " -- Judy Cantor, MIAMI NEW TIMES, August 12 1999
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LAS CALLES DEL PARAISO (EMI Latin) 2002:
" In my mind there is a movie about a day and night in the city of Havana: a day that begins with carnival on the Malecon, and continues as I walk and wind through all the neighborhoods I used to know. These songs are the soundtrack of that imaginary movie. I came together with friends from Cuba who, like me, now live elsewhere, to capture the sounds, feelings and ambience of the day into night into morning again."-- Juan-Carlos Formell
THE CRITICS SAID:
"a panorama of Cuban musical genres, from comparsa to bolero, woven into a modernist masterpiece. Formell's pellucid guitar and ethereal voice evoke Havana, a cityscape haunted by memory and desire." -- Al Angeloro, GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE
"He creates his own...achingly poetic music by blending Cuban folklore with an eclectic production style....his arranagements, even on tunes driven by rumbling waves of percussion, are full of subtle touches: a lead violin darting around the melody, a pedal steel sighing like an abandoned lover under a full moon, a melancholy accordion moaning against a backdrop of weeping guitars." -- j. poet, PULSE! Sept 2002
"We have yet to hear anything as original as the son steeped in Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison laid down by Cuban-exile Juan-Carlos Formell on this past summer's 'Las Calles del Paraíso'. " - Brett Sokol, MIAMI NEW TIMES Dec 2002
"a world of soft colors and singing guitars and joyful voices where there are no boundaries or borders, where an outreached hand is met by another, where souls past and future dance and dance and dance. " --Turiyea Mareya, JAZZ REVIEW
" Formell can be coolly romantic or evocative without falling into sentimentality. If 'Buena Vista Social Club' was a needed look inward into tradition, five years later, 'Las Calles del Paraiso' is a much-needed look outward. Nostalgia can take you only so far." -- Fernando Gonzales THE WASHINGTON POST 8/18 2002
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CEMETERIES & DESIRE (Narada) 2005:
"In exile I saw my homeland as a fixed point in the distance. Arriving in New Orleans, I suddenly understood that the entire Caribbean was a house, and each of its ports a door; and then I saw that the sea was a sky, and the islands were clusters of stars that connected to make a galaxy; and that I was a fragment of a constantly-shiting mosaic, able to leap, like a space traveler, to then and now and here and there, but never to return; because every place is home." -- Juan-Carlos Formell
THE CRITICS SAID:
"A romantic with a heart like a laser beam, Juan-Carlos Formell deftly mines his Cuban musical heritage to create a set of non-trivial love songs inspired by New Orleans' 'cemeteries and desire'. Like what Brazil's Caetano Veloso did for the samba, Formell brings the rumba and bolero forms up to contemporary speed without tarnishing their essence." -- R Gehr, VILLAGE VOICE
“A series of melodic short stories that capture something timeless while still commenting on the future of Caribbean music, Cemeteries & Desire” establishes Formell as one of New York’s most innovative Latin musicians.” -- Ed Morales, NY NEWSDAY
"six-string poetry of rare sophistication." -- TIME OUT NY
"On his latest release, 'Cemeteries And Desire', Formell takes on the myth and romance of New Orleans with just a lone guitar and his impressionistic lyrics. The result is a moody, reflective take on the Big Easy. Filled with an exile’s longing (Formell escaped Cuba in 1993) and a romantic’s heartbreak, Cemeteries And Desire reconnects New Orleans to her Caribbean roots, all without banging a single drum." -- Tom Pryor, GLOBAL RHYTM MAGAZINE
“an exceptional guitarist/singer whose work lies in the balance between the vulnerability of Joao Gilberto, the urbane tenderness of Caetano Veloso and the ethereal pop of Nick Drake.” – Tim Duroche, WILLAMETTE WEEKLY
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SON RADICAL (Narada/EMI) 2006: "The son is the root of everything: working from that base, we have the credentials to break the rules and the clichés of the Latin music establishment. We broke away from Cuba because we couldn't accept the restrictions and censorship -- we're a new generation of musicians who have come out of Cuba with something to say, with a mission to expand the definition of what Cuban music is and can be." -- Juan-Carlos Formell
THE CRITICS SAID:
Rock meets clave in the suave and intelligent music of these Cuban expatriates who've been playing together since their Havana youths. African roots, a Caribbean lilt, and a jazzy sense of harmonic adventure blend together in the latest salvo of guitarist Formell's ongoing "revolution against kitsch." If you prefer your Cuban music nostalgia-free, look no further. --VILLAGE VOICE

"Suave, affirmative, chopsy and constitutionally incapable of egotism or excess, Formell is one of Cuba’s most important (involuntary) exports."-- Adam McGovern, editor of "Music Hound World -- the Essential Album Guide"
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"TROVADOR DEL NUEVO MILENNIO" -- El Diario la Prensa

Espera lo inesperado del rebelde músico cubano Juan-Carlos Formell, cuyas canciones visionarias las han exaltado como el “realismo mágico de la música.”
Nacido en La Habana en 1964, Juan-Carlos es cuarta generación de músicos. Pero las restricciones del la industria musical controlada por el gobierno en su país le hizo difícil al cantautor/guitarrista/bajista expresar sus nuevas ideas. “Con a penas 20 años, cuando la mayoría de músicos están llenos de esperanza, yo estaba resignado a un futuro de marginalización,” recuerda Juan-Carlos.”
En 1993 se fue a los EEUU a hacer su propia música, de su propia manera. Fue a New York donde estableció un conjunto, y en 1998 fue firmado al sello discográfico Wicklow Records. Sus años de lucha en exilio fueron vindicados cuando su primera producción discográfica, SONGS FROM A LITTLE BLUE HOUSE, fue nominada al Grammy® en el 2000.
"Mi blanca nube vulve a su lecho/ las casita azul es el mas tierno recuerdo / nacio mi cancion entre tristezas y anhelos/ abuela maria descansa en el cielo" -- Juan-Carlos Formell
Su próxima grabación, LAS CALLES DEL PARAISO (EMI Latin 2002), es la banda sonora de "una pelicula imaginaria" sobre un dia y una noche y la Habana, y es dedicado al gran inovador de la musica cubana, Pello el Afrokan.
"Los muertos andan como vivos / los vivos andan como muertos/ los santos piden bendicion/ en las calles del paraiso" -- Juan-Carlos Formell
"En las canciones de Juan-Carlos Formell se revela la condicion del exiliado. Acleramos: del exiliado de una ciudad llamaba la Habana. Alejado fisicamente de las coordenadas geograficas de una ciudad que ya no existe, Formell ha construido una ciudad mejor: la que se imagina con el corazon y la fe. "Las calles del paraiso da cuenta de ese milagro. El album sigue la teematica general y la atmosfera poetica de su esplindido debut "Songs from a little blue house". La diferencia radica en que esta canciones han servido a un retablo de personajes que parecen saltar con la vitalidad de los cuentos de hadas. Formell viaja entre el presente y el pasado, y logra conectar la music de una Cuba contemporanea on la elegancia artesanal de las canciones de antano." -- Eliseo Cardona, CD NOW
Después de varios años de girar con su grupo, y ademas varios conciertos grandes – con veterano del Buena Vista Social Club Eliades Ochoa, y estrellas de world music Cesaria Evora, Milton Nascimento y Susana Baca – Juan-Carlos se decidió a grabar un disco a solo con guitarra. Una estancia en New Orleans inspiro a Juan-Carlos a grabar "Cemeteries & Desire" en mayo del 2005.El album fue lanzada por Narada Records en agosto del mismo ano. El disco contiene baladas originales – canciones hechizadas por la devastación de la ciudad.
Su proyecto actual, SON RADICAL, es la explosión espontánea de rock en clave que surgió de sesiones de grabación en Los Angeles con dos otros músicos cubanos excepcionales – baterista/productor Jimmy Branly (de NG la Banda) y bajista Carlitos del Puerto (de Caravana Cubana).
"El son es la raíz de todo," dice Juan-Carlos. "Trabajando desde esa base, tenemos las credenciales para romper las reglas de la música cubana y los cliché creador la industria de music latina. Rompimos con Cuba porque no aceptábamos las restricciones y la censura – somos una nueva generación de músicos quienes salimos de Cuba con algo que decir, con una misión para expandir la definición de los que puede llagar a ser la música cubana.”
Evocando los escritos del poeta cubano negrista Nicolás Guillen, el patriota José Marti y las raíces africanas de la experiencia caribeña, SON RADICAL crea una nueva dimensión de la música cubana contemporánea cargada con energía política tanto como lírica.
" Una de las virtudes más admirables de Juan-Carlos, según la crítica especializada, es que siempre se ha mantenido fiel a sus ideales y su visión musical, sin nunca dejarse moldear o manipular por las corrientes comerciales de la industria discográfica, que reiteradamente suelen avasallar la creatividad de la música en pos de generar la mayor ganancia posible.
No es noticia que una de las reacciones inmediatas, tras escuchar cierta música, es la inherente necesidad de clasificarla en tal o cual género. Es precisamente aquí donde se puede evidenciar la rebeldía musical de Juan- Carlos: su capacidad para interpretar una amplia gama de estilos musicales le ha valido comparaciones a músicos de la talla de Caetano Veloso, Joao Gilberto e incluso Bob Dylan haciéndolo trascender más allá de las meras clasificaciones estilísticas, a la liga de los grandes cantautores latinos contemporáneos." -- Gibran Haq, EL DIARIO la prensa, 6 enero 2005
Juan-Carlos Formell y SON RADICAL se han presentado en New York en el Jazz Standard, SOB’s, The Living Room y Zinc Bar; en Miami en Hoy Como Ayer, en el Lumis Day Festival de Los Angeles y festivales de jazz a través de los EEUU.
Juan-Carlos se ha presentado extensivamente como solista y con cubalibre. En Nueva York: The Bowery Ballroon con Susana Baca, The Bottom Line con Virginia Rodrígues, The Knitting Factory con el guitarista Africano Alpha Yaya Diallo, Birdland, Jazz Standard, Lincoln Center, y en Irving Plaza con Eliades Ochoa otro nominado al Grammy. Ha realizado conciertos con Milton Nacimiento, en McCabe’s en Los Angeles, Freight & Salvage en Berkley, El Festival de Ravinia en Chicago y la gira estadounidense de Cesaria Evora del 1999.
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