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CD Review, Compay Segundo
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The Times (UK), CD Review, Compay Segundo >>
COMPAY SEGUNDO - 'El Compadre Again'
4 stars
Compay Segundo, who died in 2003 at the age of 95, was a phenomenon. Born before such giants of 20th century music as Robert Johnson and Billie Holiday, he came from the same pioneering generation as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Yet he was still performing into the new millennium, decades after his contemporaries had passed into the realm of distant legend.
'El Compadre Again' reminds us of what we lost with the passing of one of the last links with the golden age of Cuban music. Backed by his acoustic quartet, these 15 tracks were recorded when Segundo was in his seventies. The songs breathe with a vigour and charm that have nothing to do with crude commercialisim, for paradoxically, in removing the opportunity for Cuban musicians to make their fortune on an international stage, communism preserved the purity of the island's musican traditions. In these conditions, Segundo was able to continue playing his music untainted by fad or fashion until his rediscovery by the outside world with the Buena Vista Social Club. It makes these wonderful recordings irresistible.
NIGEL WILLIAMSON 10/01/05 >> go there
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