Havana Mambo

Havana Mambo isn’t the only real salsa/Afro-Cuban band that’s located in Italy, but unlike other salsa clothes one will dsicover in Milan, Rome, Palermo, Venice, or Florence, Havana Mambo isn’t dominated by Italians — the band’s founders are originally from Cuba. Havana Mambo, actually, was created in Havana, Cuba, in 1994 by ten Cuban music artists who was simply members of the brand new Pérez Prado Orchestra — a so-called “ghost orchestra” which was modeled following the bands from the seminal Pérez Prado, who was simply being among the most important Cuban artists from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s and passed away in 1989 at age 73. Although Cuba may be the birthplace of the numerous rhythms that comprise what’s now referred to as salsa music — child, cha cha, mambo, guaguancó, and danzon, among other activities — Havana Mambo recognized that there is also an target audience for salsa in European countries and embarked on a thorough Western tour in 1996. They discovered audiences to become specifically receptive in north Italy and spent almost a year at a golf club in Turin known as Sabor Latino, that is among the best salsa clubs for the reason that area of the nation and it has drawn main salseros like Willie Colón, Adalberto Alvarez, and La India (amongst others). In 1997, Havana Mambo was asked to execute at Umbria Jazz — that is Italy’s most well-known jazz event but also contains some Latin music — and it had been also in 1997 that this bandmembers made a decision to stay in Italy completely and resolved in Milan. Even though name Havana Mambo means that they’re mambo-oriented, the music artists don’t play mambo specifically and so are quite with the capacity of embracing a number of Afro-Cuban designs. They are influenced from the traditional ’40s and ’50s function of Cuban favorites like Beny Moré, Machito, Xavier Cugat, and, needless to say, Pérez Prado (who’s referred to as the Ruler of Mambo and do more than one to popularize that design back the ’40s and ’50s), however they will also be hip to the brand new York City-style salsa that Fania Information made popular within the ’70s. And although Afro-Cuban music may be the band’s main concentrate, Havana Mambo sometimes detours into Dominican merengue (which also offers an target audience in Italy along with other Europe) and appreciates important merengue superstars like Wilfrido Vargas and Johnny Ventura. Havana Mambo provides documented some albums for the Italian Tauri label, including Ula Ula and 2002’s Havana Mambo Hasta un Amanecer; the group also offers a self-titled discharge on Utmost Music. In 2003, Putumayo Globe Music included among their songs in the compilation Salsa All over the world, which was designed to demonstrate that not absolutely all salsa or salsa-influenced rings are located in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Miami, or NEW YORK.