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Concert Preview/Feature
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North County Times, Concert Preview/Feature >>
Ska Cubano brings musical Caribbean stew to the world
JIM TRAGESER
STAFF WRITER
It's an intriguing "what if" proposition: What if Fidel Castro never closed off Cuba from the rest of the world, and the then-common exchange of musical ideas betweeb Jamaica and Cuba had continued?
Putting that theory to an experimental test has tielded two CDs (and counting) from the musical project known as Ska Cubano, which brings its percolating, dance-ready mix of Jamaican and Cuban grooves to Street Scene on Saturday.
Speaking from his London home, Ska Cubano singer and co-leader Natty Bo said what intrigued him when music-lover Peter Scott first approached him about the idea of melding Jamaican and Cuban styles, was the fact that both islands' rhythm had come to Africa.
"Everything's to and fro" musically in the Caribbean, said Bo (a stage name; his given name is Nathan Lerner). "A lot of the West African influence came from slavery times. Yoruba and Congolese and Senegalese music were spread around the West Indies. You have African rhythms with Spanish, English, Dutch and Portuguese influences. But Spanish guitar, flamenco guitar, has gone back to Africa through cora music. And Cuban music was popular in high life in Ghana and Senegal."
Still, if Cuban and Jamaican rhythms share a common root in Africa, Bo said the rhythmic structures are very different today and finding Cuban and Jamaican musicians who could play both was a challenge.
Ska Cubano
When: 6:30 p.m. saturdat
Stage: Fulano
08/03/06
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