Afro-Cuban All Stars preview: All Stars help revive classic Cuban sounds
Published: Friday, March 18, 2011, 8:00 AM
By Marty Lipp/For The Star-Ledger

Though his childhood Havana home often looked like a Cuban musicians' hall of fame, young Juan de Marcos González often spent Saturday nights huddled around the radio with friends, clandestinely listening to WQAM-AM in Key West, Fla., playing Steely Dan, Queen and the Grateful Dead.

The future leader of the Afro-Cuban All Stars, the Buena Vista Social Club and Sierra Maestra yearned to be a "tropical Jimi Hendrix," he says.

González, 57, first studied classical music, but his father was a singer with the legendary bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez, so he was steeped in classic Cuban popular music. As a teen, he recalled in a recent e-mail interview, he and friends copied arrangements of rock hits and played them as groups with English names such as the What or the Giddy Souls.

His father, despite being a musician himself, thought González needed a more stable career path, so the young guitarist began what was to become a Ph.D. in hydraulic engineering. Once in university, González said, "a group of friends and me -- all ex-rockers -- decided to create an intellectual band with the purpose of reintroducing the acoustic music of the original Havana Septeto lineups to the people of our generation."

The group wrote "The Salmon Manifesto," saying they were going to swim against the current of the mainstream. They played Cuban tunes from the 1920s, he said, adding: "To be more impressive, we started dressing like the British punks."

The band, Sierra Maestra, toured internationally and allowed him to meet producer Nick Gold with the London-based World Circuit label. The two began talking about the possibility of creating what they called a "big band" project, which would play 1950s Cuban music, and an album highlighting the son montuno music of eastern Cuba. González rounded up some of the veteran musicians he knew through his father, and soon the bands became known as the Afro-Cuban All Stars and the Buena Vista Social Club.

Though the original vision of including several African musicians fell through due to visa problems, the twin projects were surprisingly successful -- helped by the 1999 documentary, "Buena Vista Social Club," and the charm of wizened veterans such as 92-year-old Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and the frail but brilliant pianist Rubén González.

"I was very proud to have in my lineup these old guys I knew since I was a kid," said González. "Despite their high quality, some of them never were touched by fortune before, and the fact that I was able to contribute in a certain sense to get them back to the stage and be really successful is one of my prides."

The Afro-Cuban All Stars, which has shows scheduled in New Brunswick on Thursday and Atlantic City on March 26, is more of a concept than a specific roster of musicians, González said. It has had seven different lineups.

Not surprisingly, given González's eclectic tastes, the band has widened its repertoire, adding other traditional Cuban styles as well as modern elements. It also has become a family affair, with his two daughters added to the lineup.

"One of the important side effects of the success of the traditional Cuban music during the '90s was that the young generation of musicians learned that we do have a history and that they cannot forget the essence of our culture if they want to be really successful," González said.

Afro-Cuban All Stars

Where and when: State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, Thursday at 8 p.m.; the Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th St., New York, March 26 at 8 p.m.

How much: $20 to $40 for New Brunswick; call (732) 246-7469 or visit statetheatrenj.org. $45 to $65 for New York; call (212) 277-7179 or visit ticketmaster.com.