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8th Cubadisco 2004
Grand Prix
A singer by pure intuition
BY RAFAEL LAM-Special for Granma International-
TERESA García Cartula, a
singer from the Buena Vista Social Club, took First
Prize with her album Llegó Teté (Tete has
arrived), in the Traditional Popular Music category
and the Grand Prix of the 8th Cubadisco Fair 2004.
The album was the idea of
musicologist Gloria Ochoa, and arrangements were by
Germá Velasco, one of the top bandleaders of the
1990s Cuban salsa boom, with the group NG La Banda.
“This is like a summary of
my musical work over the last 40 years,” García
commented. “It is a tour that begins in 1963, with
the Las D’Aida quartet and continues on to the Afro
Cuban All Stars, the legend of the Buena Vista
Social Club.”
García is a descendant of
the great musician Alejandro García Cartula, who was
in the vanguard of Cuban music. She is a musician of
pure intuition, as are almost all the great voices
of popular music. She was born in the town of
Remedios, moved to Havana in 1958 and performed at
the Hotel Plaza. She worked in a children’s circus
and sang on two occasions with the Anacaona band,
joining the Las D’Aida quartet in 1963.
The Las D’Aida was a quartet
of women with great rhythm and gusto, which
maintained its hegemony in an era when quartets
wandered about the capital in large numbers.
Legendary voices passed through the Las D’Aida, such
as Omara Portuondo, Moraima Secada and Elena Burke,
the queen of filin.
“Aida had an enormously
valuable repertoire,” García recalls. “She was the
director of a church choir. In her home in Luyanó,
there were jam sessions. Visitors included the
bandleader Mántici, who encouraged her to work was
on the Mil Diez radio station.
“Later, she became part of
the filin movement, and in 1952, encouraged
by Elena, Omara and Haidée, formed the Las D’Aida,
and suggested that Moraima join. She directed
everything: voices, dress, presentation. She trained
them in front of a mirror and once they got on stage,
she would say, ‘Come on, girls! Lots of salsa!’ She
had the theory that singers were not manufactured,
but are channeled, because you can’t make a singer
out of a sweet potato. That’s why she was very
rigorous and demanded rigorous training.”
Teresa performed with this
quartet in almost all of Havana’s cabarets, and in
1970 traveled to the 1970 Expo in Japan, and then on
to France and the USSR. In 1973, Aida Diestro died,
and Teresa took her place, to keep the
internationally-famous quartet’s banner flying high.
They conquered Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and
Panama.
In 1979, Teresa joined the
staff of Estrellas de Areíto, together with Félix
Chapotín, Miguelito Cuní, Enrique Jorrín, Amadito
Valdés, Tata Güines, Tito Gómez, Richard Egües and a
plethora of Cuban music classics.
In 1985, Teresa’s group
triumphed at the Holiday Inn in Panama. In 1989,
they visited the Helsinki carnival together with
Amadito Valdés, under band leader Chico O’Farrill.
The boom in Cuban salsa had begun, and the D’Aida
continued playing their salsa. By 1997, they were
hitting it big in Australia.
“For me, one of the great
moments in my career was joining the Afro Cuban All
Stars in 1998, the band that recorded the Buena
Vista Social Club album, which brought about the
rebirth of traditional Cuban son in the world.
All of a sudden, us singers and musicians of the old
guard found ourselves in the vanguard, on the stages
of the best theaters in the world. The admiration in
Europe for traditional Cuban music is almost
incredible,” García commented.
García’s list of recordings
is long. In addition to the Estrellas de Areíto
selection, there is also her production, together
with Chilean Raúl Gutiérrez, Chocolate Armenteros
and the Irazú band in La fiesta del timbalero.
There’s the CD Omara la novia del feeling.
Together with Celeste Mendoza, Tito Gómez and Carida
Cuervo, she made Havana Night. With the Irazú
- Changuito, Amadito, Aguaje and Raúl Gutiérrez, she
made Vicio Latino II. With Richard Egües -
Soy la mulata. She joined with Ry Cooder and
Eliades Ochoa for the (Grammy-winning) album
Buena Vista Social Club presents Ibrahím Ferrer.
She joined with the Afro Cuban All Stars, together
with Frank Emilio, Lino Borges, Maraca and Juan
D’Marcos, to make Distinto y diferente.
Teresa García Cartula now
has her own band, and has the D’Aida project in her
bag - just in case. |
