1. Soy Campesino
This 1950s dancehall classic was written by Colombian accordion ace Ramon Vargas, front man of the red-hot Los Diablos de Valledupar and inventor of música caliente. Our brooding, ska cumbia version features a massive, rumbling wall of bass and Beny sending up the typically cheesy vocals with mock gravitas.
2. Ay Caramba!
Musicians everywhere are, of course, feckless, irresponsible and perennially impecunious, but, one supposes, if they were careful with money they’d be accountants instead, and there are already too many of those. Natty wrote and sang this ska calypso tale of financial incapacity for everyone who has hidden under the bed waiting for the lawyers to go *something* themselves.
3. Tabú
Made instantly famous by an eponymous 1941 movie, the original afro–rumba was written by Havana composer Margarita Lecuona as a sister song to her other great afro, “Babalú.” A zillion versions later, including some skas, we have retro rumbero Beny Billy’s voice floating majestically until you get to the bit where the audience shouts out the chorus, an address to five great orishas: “Ifa! Ochun! Obatala pa’ Chango y Yemaya!”
4. Oye Compay Juan
Beny Billy (the name on his passport is Juan Manuel Villy) is the Compay Juan of the piece, which his songwriter wife wrote as a traditional son to celebrate good times at Ramón de las Yaguas near Santiago. Natty Bo then roughed it up with a Ska Cubano treatment: crashing tres, pumping bass line, honking baritone sax. Result: the world’s first heavy metal ska-son, ready to blow out your speaker cones and guarantee an instant disorderly behavior citation.
5. No Me Desesperes
Drunken megalomaniac fantasies, Part One: The original cumbia bands went out of business because they had zillions of musicians and were hugely expensive. Before discovering this for ourselves, however, and before all the financial plugs were pulled on what briefly became Orquesta Chispa Tren, we recorded some gigantic ska cumbias such as this; huge, melodramatic, with a massive rhythm section, plus squawking, honking, screaming brass and wild clarinets. Subtlety? Who needs it?
6. Big Bamboo
When calypso ruled the sweating, heaving dancehalls of the Caribbean in the 1940s and ‘50s, “Big Bamboo” was the hottest tune with the rudest lyrics, performed by every calypsonian worth his double-entendre. Our favorite takes are by Lord Creator, The Duke of Iron, Wilmouth Houdini, Mighty Sparrow and ska's Roland Alfonso. Natty’s arrangement really swings, with Megumi Mesaku’s pumping baritone sax ska-ing up the bass line.
7. Tungarara
Wallow in nostalgia for a more innocent age with this children’s rainforest song about frogs and toads a’courting. The original was written by Colombian songwriter Isaac Villanueva. Notes for musicology bores: lots of clapping, two tres guitars – one ska and one melody, no brass, great flute playing by René Dominguez (tenor sax on many Ska Cubano tracks), call and response backing vocals by the kids from Bayamo, and a kind of rolling Afro-Latin rhythm with the flute hinting at Andean pipes.
8. Cachita
A catchy “rumbita” penned by prolific Puerto Rican songwriter Rafael Hernandez, who worked for a while in Cuba and also wrote “El Cumbanchero.” The lyrics of “Cachita” champion the rumba in its struggle against the rising popularity of Cuban son montuno (“rumba is better than son”) in the 1920s and ‘30s. Outstanding versions of this pan-Latin classic include hits by mambo kings such as Xavier Cugat. Our retro treatment, laid-back by Ska Cubano standards, goes back to the roots of rumba, with a “woo-woo”-ing botijuela (a clay jug that is blown into to make deep tones) plus some great marimbula (a large box with metal tines that are plucked to play bass lines) plucking by Diogenes Manfarrol.
9. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
As centenarian Ska Cubano fans will remember, before Kemal Ataturk banned a great comedy hat, the fez, Al-Bar the Bubul Emir featured in Captain Billy’s Whizzbang (the Mad Magazine of the 1920’s). The Young Turks insisted that the city was Istanbul (Not Constantinople). In 1953, two disrespectful Tin Pan Alley hacks converted the idea into a comic song with an annoyingly catchy tune. Fifty years later, our own analogue fetishist with a collection of comic headgear, Natty Bo, transmuted it into a great ska, recorded live on 2” analogue tape and mixed entirely by hand.
10. Marianao
Although still an independent township with a round, jolly, black lady mayor, Marianao is now a verdant, sprawling, decaying suburb on the southern fringes of greater Havana. In its heyday in the 1950s, though, it was a fun place for jaunts from the city, famed for its food, bars and, naturally, girls. It was a favorite of charismatic superstar Beny Moré, who bigged the town up in this town famous ode. Our Beny (Billy) gives it a blast of pure Cuban joie de vivre and we’re sure the great sonero would have approved.
11. Chispa Tren
Cuba’s first ska cumbia band, essentially Ska Cubano plus additional musicians, originally planned to rock the joints playing as “Orquesta Chispa Tren.” “Chispa Tren” means “train spark”, Cuban slang for the fiery unlabelled distillate sold to unwise consumers as white rum for 30 or 40 cents a bottle and drunk neat – mixers being way too expensive. The “chispa tren” being what happens when it, and of course ska cumbia, violently assault your nervous system. Anything but violent, however, this jolly 1920s choo choo train cartoon theme was put together by Natty aided by a great Santiaguero composer and arranger, Paco Ulloa and friends.
12. Jezebel
Wayne Shanklin wrote this ode to the ultimate whip-wielding whore-witch. She turned an Israeli king on to idolatry and gave Frankie Laine his first worldwide hit in 1951, followed by covers by rockabilly bad boy Gene Vincent and British rocker Marty Wilde. Nat’s pounding, insistent ska rock production with blaring horns could be a Phil Spector arrangement for Ike Turner (well, if Phil and Ike knew about ska and Cuban musicians). Bring on the evil temptress! More evil temptresses! S&M for ever!
13. Bobine
Also spelled “Bobyne,” the name of the original composer of this traditional Haitian merengue is lost in the mists of time. Here it gets a magical Afro-Cuban percussion–and–vocals treatment with ancient batá drums, congas and various agricultural implements played with hypnotic precision, turning it into a sort of Oriental bembé, a ceremony in the Afro-Cuban syncretic religion of santería.
14. Cumbia En Do Menor
Drunken megalomaniac fantasies, Part Two: Fuelled by a liter (or two) of Santiago rum and feeling like masters of the universe, Peter Scott and Natty Bo agreed that one failing with the otherwise wonderful 1940s Colombian cumbia bands was that they were just a bit girly. Our solution: a band of gigantic music power with a rhythm section that sounded like tropical thunder and a wall of high-testosterone brass. The resulting massive line-up was essentially Ska Cubano plus bombardino (a small tuba, for additional bounce), bombo (African bass drum), second trumpet and clarinets.
Additional Info
Ska Cubano Invents a Music that Should Have Been:
Head of A&R at Putumayo to Start New World Music Label: Cumbancha ...
Lyrics (in English translation)
Ska Cubano’s producer, Peter Scott, writes about the songs on ¡Ay ...
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