Cristina Azcuy

Cristina Azcuy is a brilliant voice from Cuba that came into focus on the Papi Oviedo CD Encuentro Entre Soneros. On her debut CD (Marianao), she is backed by Soneros All-Stars and Swedish director Janne "Yanesito" Bogdan.A must for every lover of Cuban music! An album dedicated to the legendary Compay Segundo. If you go three chilometres to the south of Havana's city center you will notice how the sun-bleached tarmac turns into red and brown soil and how the smell of the ocean vanquishes the stench from garbage and diesel. You now find yourself in Marianao. In this old suburb, not far from the legendary but now closed dancehall called Buena Vista Social Club, some of Havana's top musicians and vocalists gathered in the summer of 2002. The purpose was to make an album with an astounding singer: Cristina Azcuy. "Marianao" is a collection of music that feels warm and alive, with traditional songs being mixed with new material. Four years after Fidel Castro had toppled the Batista regime, Cristina Azcuy was born. According to the ancient culture and religion of Yoruba, her birth took place in the sign of Yemaya, the goddess of the ocean.Fortytwo years later Cristina is one of Cuba's strongest vocalists, with a voice that resounds with over five hundred years of cultural and racial blending. Her powerful energy and charisma stems from the afro-european tradition. You simply have to experience this album! Cristina Azcuy is a brilliant artist who makes the listener forget about time and space. Her playful manners are mixed with total musical control. She will rock your world. Marianao lovingly handles the musical genre that evolved on the Cuban countryside in the beginning of the last century. "Son" became the music and comfort of slaves and poor farmworkers. The roots were in Africa, France and Spain. Today the son music has been reawaken by the Buena Vista Social Club albums, which have sold in the millions, but the truth is that this gently grooving celebration of everyday life never died. It had merely been resting in the shadows. And besides: the music of son can never be rushed...