Rafael Lam

IN May, an array of instruments will play son across the entire country to break the Guinness record for the world’s longest son, as part of the 2011 International Cubadisco Festival.

The tour de force begins May 1 and concludes on the 14th, starting in the western city of Pinar del Río and ending in Santiago de Cuba at the eastern end of the island, to open the International Cubadisco Festival in that mecca of son. The Festival will run through May 22.

A bronze sculpture of the King of Son in eastern Cuba, Miguel Matamoros, by artist José Montero and sponsored by the Caguayo company, will be unveiled in Serrano Park.

We could say that the longest son in the world was begun in the 1920’s by Miguel Matamoros, during his golden age. On May 1, 1928, he made his first trip to New York, followed by 28 tours to countries in Latin America and Europe, through 1960. His saga continued for more than 30 years, taking son to half of the world.

The Matamoros were the highest expression of son in its early days and theirs remains the most recorded and played Cuban music around the world.

The longest son in the world is a tradition now, launched precisely in Cuba during the first International Cubadisco Festival in 1997, with five consecutive days of music, 100 groups with thousands of singers and musicians. It was celebrated in Havana’s Benny Moré Salón Rojo at La Tropical, during the Cuban salsa boom of the 1990’s, with NG La Banda directed by José Luis Cortés.

The marathon was begun by Los Van Van, then by the present day greats Adalberto y su Son, Revé, La Charanga Habanera, NG La Banda, Yumurí, and a long list of groups from throughout Cuba.

Over five days, figures from the international world of salsa filled the Tropical: journalists, researchers, writers, photographers, musicologists, artists of all kinds, Olympic athletes, reporters from innumerable news agencies and newspapers. The event turned out to be a veritable festival of world music.

All eyes were on the phenomenal music boom in Cuba. Later the Buena Vista Social Club project would emerge.

Son, which began among the people of eastern Cuba’s mountains, made its way to the world’s best music halls and was enriched by the diverse formats, instruments, rhythms and musicians it came across – an evolution which continues more than a century after its birth.

The 2011 International Cubadisco Festival will pay tribute to son, the most authentic musical expression of Cuba’s diverse identity, according to musicologist Odilio Urfé.

Among Cubadisco 2011 festivities is the International Meeting of casino dancers to be held at Havana’s Hotel Sol Melía Cuba.

Casino is Cuba’s national dance, developed in 1957 as a response to the arrival of acrobatic, rock and roll partner dancing for young people. Casino on the other hand was more elegant, less spectacular.

The dance was born in the Casino Deportivo club, west of Havana. During the 1960’s, this club, and others in the area, were taken over by their workers and they began to hold popular dances. This is when Casino fever emerged – choreographers, competing dance partners, groups or ‘wheels’ appeared.

Different choreographers in the neighborhood competed with their own groups of up to 200 members. In this era, the most popular bands were Los Van Van, Ritmo Oriental, Rumbavana, Chapottín y sus Estrellas, Estrellas Cubanas, Conjunto de Roberto Faz and Los Latinos.

In the first decade of the 21st century, Adalberto Alvarez, along with television producer Victor Torres, proposed a TV program taped live at the Tropical, with partner dancing and Casino circles. Next came the 1st International Meeting of Casino and Salsa Dancers in the city of

Matanzas and at Cuba’s beach resort par excellence, Varadero, with renewed excitement about Casino circle and partner dancing.

"Outside of the country," Adalberto Alvarez told journalist Mireya Castañeda, "a great number of salsa festivals were taking place and then I started checking and saw that they were pretexts for holding Casino competitions. I was really afraid that, as has been the case with other things, they would steal our idea.

"There was no way this could happen with Casino dancing – impossible that an event of this kind could fail to take place in Cuba… where son, guaracha, mambo, danzón, cha cha cha and rumba were invented, where real salsa with genuine flavor was born, with Cuban montuno and tumbaos."